Sept. 21, 2012
EVANSTON, Ill. - The Penn State women's soccer team kicked off a three-game road trip with a 3-1 victory over the Northwestern Wildcats on Friday night. Penn State used two goals from senior Christine Nairn (Arnold, Md.) and junior Maya Hayes (West Orange, N.J.) to seal the victory. Penn State has not lost to Northwestern since 1998.
With the victory, Penn State improves to 7-2-0 overall with a 2-0-0 mark in Big Ten play. Three of the four Nittany Lion goals came in the second half. Redshirt freshman Britt Eckerstrom (Germantown, Md.) earned the start in goal and made five saves for the Nittany Lions. Penn State out shout the Wildcats by a count of 17-13.
Penn State's first goal came at the 32:10 mark, as Nairn netted her team-leading eighth goal of the season on an assist from senior Tani Costa (Honolulu, Hawaii). Nairn struck her shot from 10 yards out and found the top left corner of the net to give the Nittany Lions a 1-0 advantage at halftime.
The Nittany Lions would increase that lead to 2-0 just 35 seconds into the second half. Hayes earned the first of her five total points in the game on an assist for Nairn's second goal. Hayes fed the ball in from the right side and found Nairn six yards out. Nairn put it to the low left corner to up the Penn State lead to 2-0.
The Lions went up 3-0 on Hayes' first goal of the game. Costa earned her second assist on that goal as Hayes found an open net after the goalie dove to give the junior an easy opportunity. Despite Northwestern scoring 42 seconds later, Hayes answered back with her second of the game. Senior Maddy Evans (Glenside, Pa.) was credited with the assist on Hayes' goal as the Nittany Lions took a 4-1 lead.
From the beginning, Penn State freshman Raquel Rodriguez (San Jose, Costa Rica) took a corner kick at the 3:36 minute mark and found sophomore Whitney Church's (Ashburn, Va.) head. The defender headed it just wide of the net. Just two minutes later, Northwestern's Nicole Nu Juwell put a shot on net that Eckerstrom made a save on.
Penn State had another solid opportunity 12:35 in as Hayes and senior Tani Costa (Honolulu, Hawaii) had back-to-back shots stuffed by the Wildcats' by Anna Cassell. Penn State continued to apply pressure as Hayes' shot was block but freshman Mallory Weber (Novi, Mich.) garnered the rebound. Weber slammed the second attempt off the crossbar as the game remained tied at zero. Nevertheless, the early pressure by Penn State would lead to the four goals.
Penn State now turns to a very talented University of Illinois team this Sunday. Kick time is set for 2 p.m. and the game will be streamed live and can be followed on GameTracker.
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