Oct. 17, 2008
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State women's soccer team picked up their 10th win of the 2008 campaign in a 2-0 victory over No. 23 Minnesota. The Nittany Lions are now 10-6 overall and 5-1 in the Big Ten while Minnesota stands at 14-2 overall and 4-2 in conference play. Scoring for Penn State in the victory were Danielle Toney (Northville, Mich.) and Meghan Gill (State College, Pa.).
"Today we had a great performance in goal," said head coach Erica Walsh. "We finished two great chances and got a bit of luck."
Penn State got on the board quickly as Katie Schoepfer (Waterford, Conn.) beat the Golden Gopher defense and found Toney was open within six yards of the net. As Schoepfer connected the cross Toney placed the ball into the lower right corner of the net bringing the score to 1-0.
In the 28th minute, Megan Monroig (Northumberland, Pa.) fired a powerful shot from 20 yards out as Gopher keeper Lindsey Dare made a beautiful save. The remainder of the first half was relatively quiet as Minnesota clamped down on defense preventing Penn State scoring opportunities.
The Nittanyy Lions looked to score again early in the second half as Monroig sent the ball to a wide open Nikki Watts (Hungerford, England), and Dare once again made a clutch save.
The Gophers threatened to score as midfielder Kaitlin Wagner got a free kick within 20 yards of the Nittany Lion goal. Wagner's shot was blocked, and she picked up the rebound and fired another shot which ricocheted off the right post. Molly Rouse was there for the header as All-American keeper Alyssa Naeher (Seymour, Conn.) made a diving save.
Schoepfer delivered another assist for the Nittany Lions as she out-ran the Minnesota back line to keep the ball from going past the goal line. She then found Gill who sent the ball into the upper left corner of the net for her third goal of the season.
"Even without our best performance we found a way to win, and that's a sign of a good team," said Walsh.
Although Penn State only got off 10 shots to Minnesota's 18, seven of those were on goal. The Nittany Lion defense gave up seven corner kicks while the Gophers provided one. Naeher collected six saves for the shutout while Dare picked up four.
The Nittany Lions will continue their quest for an 11th consecutive Big Ten championship on Sunday against Iowa. Kickoff is set for noon at Jeffrey Field.