Nov. 1, 2015
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State women's soccer team defeated Illinois, 3-1, in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament Sunday afternoon at Jeffrey Field. Two Nittany Lions recorded a goal and an assist.
"I just want to congratulate Illinois on an incredible season," head coach Erica Walsh said. "I thought that their offense gave us everything we could handle today. "I thought overall that we had a great performance on both sides of the ball and Britt Eckerstrom made some big saves, and obviously our goal scorers did what they needed to do. Scoring three goals against that team is an incredible accomplishment."
Similar to Wednesday's match, the Nittany Lion (14-3-2, 8-2-1) offense tallied three goals in the opening half.
The Nittany Lions were inches away from scoring first in the match when Raquel Rodriguez' (San Jose, Costa Rica) shot in the 14th minute from the middle of the penalty area hit the crossbar and bounced back into play.
As Penn State applied pressure in the opening moments of the match, the Illini offense didn't tally a shot attempt until the 25th minute of play. Minutes later after the Illini (10-6-3, 4-4-3) shot attempt, the Nittany Lions found the back of the net.
The Nittany Lions connected on eight-straight passes before Nickolette Driesse (Wayne, N.J.) found the back of the net in the 27th minute. The play started as Britt Eckerstrom (Germantown, Md.) collected the ball in the Nittany Lion penalty area. On the play, seven Nittany Lions touched the ball as they weaved their way up the field, before Megan Schafer (Langhorne, Pa.) found Driesse on the left side of the penalty area. Driesse then just had the keeper to beat, and she fired a left-footed shot on goal. Her shot hit the right post and bounced into the back of the net for her second goal in as many games.
Six minutes later the Nittany Lions added to their lead.
Following a corner kick, the Nittany Lions pestered goalkeeper Claire Wheatley with a pair of shots before Mallory Weber (Novi, Mich.) netted her eighth goal of the season.
Off the corner kick, Emily Ogle's (Strongsville, Ohio) shot from outside the penalty area was blocked, but the Illini were unable to clear the ball out of danger.
With the ball still loose, Frannie Crouse (Greensburg, Pa.) fired a shot on goal, but her shot was blocked by an Illini defender and was sent high up into the air. With the ball coming back down, Wheatley tipped the ball into play and Weber headed the ball home for the 2-0 lead.
With her three points Sunday, Weber has 99 career points as a Nittany Lion. At Penn State, she ranks eighth all-time in assists (27), 10th all-time in goals (36) and 10th all-time in points (99).
Eight minutes later, Maddie Elliston (Omaha, Neb.) went to clear the ball into the Illini penalty area, but her pass was blocked by an Illinois defender and the ball went to the feet of Driesse, who in turn found freshman Marissa Sheva (Sellersville, Pa.) at the top-right corner of the penalty area.
With the ball, Sheva found the feet of classmate Charlotte Williams (Rochester, N.Y.). Williams, with her back turned eight yards out from goal, passed the ball across the box to Crouse. Crouse then beat Wheatley from point-blank range to put the Nittany Lions up 3-0. Crouse's right-footed shot from eight yards out was deflected by Wheatley and went across the goal line.
In the opening period of play, the Nittany Lions peppered the Illini with 15 shots, which included six shots on goal. Illinois posted one shot attempt in the opening frame.
Down three goals at the break, the Illini placed pressure on the Nittany Lions throughout the final 45 minutes of action.
Illinois found the back of the net with 13 minutes left in regulation off of Kara Marbury's seventh goal of the 2015 season. Marbury recorded Illinois' lone goal at the 76:28 mark of the match.
Illinois tallied eight shots in the second half compared to Penn State's four, though the Illini were only able to score once securing the 3-1 victory for the Blue and White.
Eckerstrom made three saves in the contest to pick up her 53rd career win.
The Nittany Lions return to action Friday, Nov. 1, as they host the Michigan Wolverines in the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament. In the other semifinal matchup, Rutgers and Ohio State will meet. Times for Friday's matches will either be at 3:30 p.m. or 6 p.m. The semifinals and final will be held at Jeffrey Field. Sunday's final will be played at 2 p.m.