Illinois State fell to Loyola, 2-0, in a tightly called game on Sunday in Chicago. The Redbirds are now 2-3-2 on the season. This is the first time that the Birds have fallen to Loyola. The series record is 6-1.
Loyola scored both of their goals in the first half. Stephanie Bruch scored at the 13:38 mark. Then Loyola scored again a little over 11 minutes later on a shot by Lanisa Tricoci.
They deserve most of the credit; Loyola definitely played better than us today, head coach Pete Kowall said. We came out flat and that set a bad precedent for the rest of the day. In the second half we showed more enthusiasm and excitement. We pushed Joyce (Kleinheinz) up and she caused some problems for them. We had a lot of shots at the end, but we just ran out of time.
Though the Birds took 18 shots, including 11 on goal, they once again failed to score. Illinois State allowed just ten shots; however, two of those were goals.
It was a tightly called game as four yellow cards and two red cards were handed out. There were a total of 45 fouls whistled in the game.
The Redbirds begin Missouri Valley Conference action Friday at 4 p.m. at Northern Iowa.
