Oct. 3, 2008
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - On a cold night at Jeffrey Field, the No. 25 Nittany Lions defeated the Wildcats of Northwestern by a score of 1-0 staying on track with their goal of an 11th consecutive Big Ten championship. Penn State now improves to 7-5 overall and 2-0 in the Big Ten while Northwestern falls to 6-5-1 overall and 1-2 in conference play. Scoring the only goal in the contest was freshman midfielder Meghan Gill (State College, Pa.).
The first half got off to a slow start with a lot of back-and-forth play. Penn State was the first to establish control of the ball and used a corner kick to get off three shot opportunities. As Melissa Hayes (Cave Creek, Ariz.) put the ball into play Carly Niness (Berwyn, Pa.) was ready in front of the goal. Niness made contact on a header which was deflected off Wildcat keeper Carolyn Edwards. Niness was able to put up another header which once again was punched out by Edwards. Hayes picked up the rebound and fired a shot, but a save by Edwards kept the score tied at zero.
The Wildcats were able to move the ball deep into Nittany Lion territory a few times throughout the half, but the back line had some great slide tackles to break up any scoring opportunities. Through the efforts of the Nittany Lion defense, Northwestern was only able to get two shots on goal.
The Nittany Lions continued their control of the ball through the second half. In the 53rd minute, Danielle Toney (Northville, Mich.) found herself surrounded by the Wildcat defense. Gill was wide open to accept Toney's short pass and made a clean shot that found the back of the Northwestern net. This was Gill's second goal in as many games through Big Ten competition.
"Tonight was a great team effort," said head coach Erica Walsh. "There was energy all around in the field and from the sideline. Earlier, we decided that we were going to win this game and we went after it."
Penn State scattered 14 shots to the Wildcats' nine while also coming up with nine shots on goal. All-American Alyssa Naeher (Seymour, Conn.) was called upon to make two saves while Edwards picked up eight. Each team had two corner kicks and seven fouls.
The Nittany Lions will return to Jeffrey Field on Sunday at noon to face-off with Wisconsin. Sunday's match will be televised on the Big Ten Network.