Nov. 8, 2013
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The No. 20 Penn State women's soccer team put up a hard-fought battle against a tough Iowa team but was unable to find the back of the net as the Lions fell to the Hawkeyes, 1-0, in the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament on Friday. Both goalkeepers played a huge role in the match as Iowa's Hannah Clark picked up eight saves and PSU's Britt Eckerstrom (Germantown, Md.) collected six.
With the loss, the Nittany Lions move to 14-6-1 on the season while the Hawkeyes improve to 15-5-1. The Lions now await the NCAA selection show, which will be streamed live on Monday at 4:30 p.m. on NCAA.com.
Despite outshooting the Hawkeyes 25-14 and putting eight shots on net, the Lions were unable to get on the board, resulting their second-ever loss to Iowa. Ultimately, a corner kick by Bri Toelle at the 18:57 mark led to a scoring opportunity for Melanie Pickert, who flicked it in from inside the box.
The Hawks outshot the Blue and White 11-8 in the first half, putting seven shots on net, before Penn State took over in the second, tallying 17 shots to Iowa's three.
Senior Tani Costa (Honolulu, Hawaii) opened the second half with a header in the 49th minute but her aim was off target as the ball went wide. She came back with another attempt five minutes later, this time blasting the ball from outside of the 18 yard box, but Clark was in place, making the save to keep the Lions off the board.
Maya Hayes (West Orange, N.J.) attempted to sink a header in the 69th minute but was stopped short as an Iowa defender cleared the ball. The forward was back at it in the 80th minute, firing the ball of from just outside of the box, but it was blocked again. Sophomore Raquel Rodriguez found the rebound and took aim from the top of the 18 yard box but just missed as the ball collided with the crossbar.
Rodriguez made one final attempt for the Lions with 30 seconds remaining but was stymied by the Hawkeye defense once again as they made the stop to leave the final count at 1-0.