Oct. 29, 2015
By Jack Dougherty, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. ââ'¬" The Penn State women's soccer team defeated rival Michigan in the regular season finale on Wednesday night by a score of 3-1. The victory solidified a record of 13-3-2 (8-2-1) for the Nittany Lions in 2015.
Soggy conditions made for an interesting matchup, as rain littered the borough of State College for the entirety of the day. Luckily, the showers subsided a bit during game time, but the damp conditions were prevalent nonetheless.
The effects of the soggy turf were evident early on, as players worked to be sharp will ball handling. Initially, both teams appeared frustrated by the damp pitch. Passes from both teams were skidding a touch too far and players were adjusting how they made cuts on the field.
The first 32 minutes were tough from both sides, and neither team was able to build much consistency on the attack. It was looking like a physical, defensive battle was on our hands.
Then lightning struck.
In the 33rd minute, senior captain Raquel Rodriguez found herself with the ball and space in the middle of the attacking third. The former World Cup star touched the ball ahead and fired a rocket that curled past the keeper and found the bottom left corner of the net.
It was even Rodriguez's 22nd birthday.
"I wanted to score for sure," said Rodriguez. "Obviously you want to score every game, but this one was special."
Immediately before the goal, Nickolette Driesse made a great play from behind to take the ball from a Michigan midfielder. Ten seconds later, the ball found Rodriguez who did the rest.
Right after play resumed, a Michigan defender turned the ball over to Penn State's best goal scorer, Megan Schafer, with no help behind her. Schafer gladly accepted the gift and beat the goalie one-on-one for her Big Ten-leading 10th goal this season.
"When the goalie comes out, it's almost the ideal situation for a forward," Schafer said. "We practice that all the time, placing the ball where you see an opening."
Before anyone could catch their breath, Nickolette Driesse added to the total with an absolute snipe from 29 yards out. Driesse took a few dribbles in the middle and dipped her attempt up and over the goalie and back down into the top right corner for her second goal of 2015.
"Yeah, it was definitely the best goal I've scored at Penn State," said Driesse. "We do a lot of finishing before and after practice, and this week I was really focusing on distance shots."
The three goals were scored in a seemingly impossible span of 2:36. Michigan hadn't given up one goal in the previous 212 minutes played.
"We talked to the team about saving our best for last," said head coach Erica Walsh. "It's exciting to see a 90-minute performance. I think up to this point we had put together a couple of good 45 or 70 minutes but tonight was a good 90-minute performance and a good way to finish the regular season."
Coming into the contest, Big Ten title implications were on the line, as were the top six seeds for the Big Ten Tournament. Only three points separated second-place Penn State from sixth-place Minnesota, but the Nittany Lions did their job and clinched at least home field advantage in the quarterfinal round of the Big Ten Tournament with Thursday's win.
All that was left to resolve was the Big Ten regular season title, which would be decided a few hours after Penn State's win in the Wisconsin-Northwestern match. Penn State had never rooted for conference foe Northwestern so hard, and the Wildcats pulled off a double overtime victory to bring Penn State and Wisconsin to a tie atop the conference at 8-2-1. The combination of wins from the Nittany Lions and Northwestern handed Penn State its unprecedented 17th Big Ten title in the last 18 seasons.
Both teams will share the regular season crown, but thanks to the 4-0 shutout of the Badgers earlier this season, the Nittany Lions owned the tiebreaker and will be the No. 1 seed for the Big Ten Tournament.
Penn State will begin postseason play on Sunday at Jeffery Field against No. 8-seed Illinois.