Sept. 18, 2016
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
MADISON, Wis. - The Penn State women's soccer team closed out the opening weekend of the 2016 Big Ten regular season with a 1-0 win against the Wisconsin Badgers Sunday afternoon at the McClimon Complex. Freshman defender Laura Suero (Royersford, Pa.) tallied her first career goal as a Nittany Lion in the 72nd minute.
With the victory, Penn State improves to 5-2-2 (1-0-1), while Wisconsin falls to 3-3-4 (0-1-1). The win Sunday extends Penn State's unbeaten streak to five games (4-0-1).
The matchup of the 2015 Big Ten regular season co-champions featured a defensive battle as the two squads combined for eight shots on goal with Penn State holding a 5-3 advantage.
Both goalkeepers only had to make one save apiece during the opening frame of play as the two teams each posted three shot attempts. Wisconsin's Caitlyn Clem made her lone save of the first half on Grace Fisk (Bromley, London, England) in the 23rd minute, while Nittany Lion goalkeeper Amanda Dennis (San Diego, Calif.) tallied her lone save of the first half on Sydney McGinnis in the 31st minute.
Despite the slow start in the first half, the pace picked up in the second half as the two teams combined for 14 shot attempts with Wisconsin tallying a 10-4 shot advantage.
The Nittany Lion defense stepped up to block a pair of Badger shot attempts over the first 25 minutes of the second half.
Less than two minutes after Suero took to the field at 70:07, she put the Blue and White on the scoreboard.
The scoring play was set up on a corner kick from Nickolette Driesse (Wayne, N.J.). On the corner kick, Driesse played the ball into the six-yard box where Elizabeth Ball (Richmond, Va.) headed the ball on goal. With the ball heading on goal, Clem punched the ball into the air, but not out of danger. With the ball coming back down, Suero was in the right place at the right time as she headed the ball into the top-right corner of the goal for her first career goal at 71:46.
The final 16 minutes of regulation featured the Badgers outshooting the Nittany Lions, 8-1.
In the 81st minute, the Nittany Lions committed a foul outside the 18-yard box, setting up a free kick for the Badgers. From 26 yards out on the right side of the field, Rose Lavelle, a 2015 NSCAA First Team All-American, fired a shot that hit the crossbar.
The Badgers did not go down quietly in regulation as they recorded four shot attempts during the final three minutes of play. Dennis was there for a pair of saves, while one shot attempt was blocked and one went wide.
Dennis recorded a save on Lavelle in the 88th minute and she tallied her third, and final, save of the afternoon in the 89th minute on Emily Borgmann. With 12 seconds left in regulation, Micaela Powers, from five yards out, placed a shot left of the goal securing the 1-0 win for the Blue and White.
The Nittany Lions begin a three-game homestand Friday, Sept. 23, against Iowa at 8 p.m. Following the Iowa match, Penn State hosts Nebraska, Sunday, Sept. 25, at 1 p.m. and Illinois, Friday, Sept. 30, at 6 p.m.
NOTES: The Nittany Lions lead the all-time series against Wisconsin, 21-3-4...Penn State improves to 181-26-11 all-time in Big Ten conference games...Laura Suero is the third Nittany Lion to score their first career goal this season (Grace Fisk, Laura Freigang)...Penn State captured four of six points during the opening weekend of Big Ten play...The Nittany Lions have won the last six matches against Wisconsin, including four-straight shutouts...Wisconsin led in shot attempts, 13-7.