In the 150th game of Illinois State womens soccer and the teams first time in the NCAA College Cup, the Redbirds put up a good effort but fell to the Kansas Jayhawks, 3-1 in the opening round.
The Jayhawks came out and made an immediate push to the goal, recording their first goal of the day at the 43:27 mark in the first half. Kansas Jessica Kilpatrick scored off a pass from Lauren Williams about three yards out.
Now that the Birds had the jitters out of their system they were ready to play and put up their first shot on goal about two minutes later. Senior Diana Puckett dribbled down and took a wide open shot but it was stopped by the Kansas goalkeeper.
Illinois State eventually got on the board at the 11:49 mark when freshman Amanda Laubers shot went a little too far past the goal and Puckett was able to make a move on a Jayhawk defender to get the only goal of the day for the Redbirds. For the forward from Park Ridge, Ill. it was her fourth goal of the season and pushed her into the Redbird points lead. It also moved her into a tie for the No. 2 spot in career goals at ISU (18) and tied the second position in career points (41). Lauber, a defender from Wildwood, Mo., tallied her first collegiate assist on the play.
Pucketts goal tied up the score at 1-1 and it would remain that way the rest of the half. In the first half, the Redbirds took eight shots to the Jayhawks six and each team amassed four shots on goal. The game marked just the third time this season that Illinois State had played in a game in which both teams scored, all the other contests were shutouts.
In the first 15-20 minutes, we were playing a little nervous, Illinois State head coach Pete Kowall said. And I think that goal they scored probably motivated us to get forward and put pressure on them a little bit.
The second half was a different story as Kansas dominated from start to finish, despite Illinois State having a few good opportunities to score on corner kicks.
Illinois State co-captain Chrystal Johnston had the tremendous task of marking midfielder Caroline Smith, Kansas most dangerous player who had tallied 18 goals and three assist this season. Johnston did a remarkable job marking Smith, not allowing her a shot in the entire game.
We put Chrystal (Johnston) on her (Smith) because shes probably our fastest player, shes good in the air and she plays hard. When she (Smith) went out we moved Chrystal forward to try to get some things going. But we didnt feel like they were a one woman show. We figured if we could slow her (Smith) down we could get things going on the other end.
The second half started out with Redbird goalkeeper Allison Farrington being called for a foul in the penalty box two minutes and twenty seconds in. Jayhawk Rachel Gilfillan took the penalty kick and put it in the back of the net giving KU the 2-1 edge. Kansas scored once more before the end of the game when Monica Brothers beat Farrington one on one and passed the ball off to Kilpatrick, who recorded her second goal of the game with 6:41 to go.
The Redbirds had a few more attempts at a goal but couldnt get the job done. Illinois State, which had its most successful season in terms of winning the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament and making it to the NCAA tournament, fell to 11-6-3. Kansas improved to 17-5-1. The Redbirds are now 0-3 against the Jayhawks.
I think we played great, Farrington said. We played awesome. I think the momentum shifted after I made the foul though. But I thought she was obstructing me as much as I was obstructing her so I really didnt think it was a foul. I think thats the first foul thats ever been called on me as a keeper. But Kansas played awesome and we did everything we were supposed to do but we just couldnt get it done.
Johnston added to Farringtons sentiments.
I think the momentum kind of changed after the second goal but Im so proud that we made it this far, Johnston said. I am so happy to be a part of this team. I think we did really well and its nice to reach the goal of winning the conference championship for the first time.
Overall Kowall was proud of his teams effort all season.
Im proud of our kids; they worked hard, Kowall said. But Kansas is a solid team and they beat us today. And for the juniors, sophomores and freshmen, we want them to use this as a motivating factor to get back to the Valley championship next year. Its wonderful to end your season in the national tournament rather than the league tourney. Our team showed resolve all year and we had difficulty scoring goals all year long. But today was a full effort. Our kids were dead tired at the end but we had some good shots at the end of the game and we just ran out of time.
