Sept. 17, 2015
| 4 | 0 |
| Jeffrey Field | University Park, Pa. | 958 | |
| POST GAME LINKS |
| Box Score (HTML) | Box Score (PDF) |
| VIDEO: Postgame Comments |
| FINAL STATISTICS |
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The No. 4 Penn State women's soccer team recorded its third-straight shutout en route to a 4-0 victory over Wisconsin Thursday night at Jeffrey Field.
The Nittany Lions improve to 6-1-1 (1-0-0) on the season, while the Badgers fall to 3-4-2 (0-1-0).
"Everybody in the stadium looks at that scoreboard and sees four," head coach Erica Walsh said. "We need to look at that scoreboard and see zero. It was another good team performance defensively led by Britt Eckerstrom and this young back line that seems to be coming together. Obviously to put four balls in the back of the net is fantastic, but to continue to shut these good teams out is probably even more important."
With the Badgers looking to score first, Britt Eckerstrom (Germantown, Md.) made her lone save of the first half in the 11th minute off of Rose Lavelle's first shot of the match.
The Nittany Lion offense recorded seven shot attempts in the first half, but Mallory Weber's (Novi, Mich.) second shot attempt of the match in the 28th minute proved to be the game winner.
In the 28th minute, Ellie Jean (Coventry, Conn.) found Weber six yards out in the penalty area for her team-leading fifth goal of the season. From the right side of the box, Weber fired a right-footed strike past the diving Caitlyn Clem to give the Nittany Lions a 1-0 lead.
Weber's goal Thursday night is the 33rd of her Nittany Lion career. Like her first goal of the season, Jean was credited with the assist.
Eckerstrom made a pair of key saves early in the second half to protect the Nittany Lion lead.
In the 49th minute, Eckerstrom recorded her second save of the night and then posted her third save of the match a minute later. In the 50th minute, the Badgers crossed the ball into the left side of the box and McNicoll fired a point blank shot on net, but Eckerstrom was there to punch the ball away.
After playing 21 minutes in the first half of the match, Charlotte Williams (Rochester, N.Y.) made an immediate impact when she entered the back into the contest in the 56th minute. Three minutes after she checked in, Williams, on the left side of the penalty area, crossed the ball to the top of the box and found the foot of Megan Schafer (Langhorne, Pa.).
Schafer then stepped up and placed the ball into the bottom left corner for her fourth goal of the season.
Following the Schafer goal, the Badgers tallied another pair of shots on goal in the next three minutes and Eckerstrom kept the clean sheet intact with her final two saves.
The 75th minute of play featured a veteran teaming up with a rookie for Penn State's third goal of the night. On Raquel Rodriguez' (San Jose, Costa Rica) 24th career assist, Marissa Sheva (Sellersville, Pa.) tallied her first goal as a Nittany Lion.
Rodriguez, from just outside the top of the penalty area, found space between two Badger defenders and placed the ball to Sheva on the left side of the penalty area. With the ball, Sheva ran for 10 yards before putting the ball past Clem on a left-footed strike for her first career goal.
Less than six minute later, the Nittany Lion offense pounced one more time. Williams notched her second assist of the match off Frannie Crouse's (Greensburg, Pa.) fourth goal of the season in the 81st minute.
Williams, on the right line of the 18-yard box, received a pass from Sheva and with one touch crossed the ball towards the far post where Crouse headed the ball home to give the Nittany Lions the 4-0 lead.
Down the final minutes of the match the Badgers were unable to tally a goal of their own giving the Nittany Lions their fourth shutout of the season.
The Nittany Lion defense has yet to concede a goal in the last 352:52 minutes of play.
All-time at Jeffrey Field, the Nittany Lions have an overall record of 208-23-10 and a record of 110-5-4 in Big Ten play.
The Nittany Lions close out their weekend homestand Sunday at 1 p.m. as they host the Minnesota Golden Gophers on BTN Plus on BTN2Go.