NORMAL, Ill. - The Illinois State women's soccer team lost its first exhibition game of the season to UW-Milwaukee, 3-0, at Adelaide Street Field on Sunday, August 17. It was the home coaching debut for new Redbird head coach Drew Roff.
"UW-Milwaukee is a really good, established program and they were the better team today," Roff said. "It was our first time in a game situation like that and I saw some things I liked. Some of the younger players stepped in and did really well. We had a few areas exposed that we need to work on and that will help us in the future. Now we have specific things to focus on during training in order to get better and prepared for the season."
Sophomore midfielder Danielle Mutters had the game's first shot nine minutes into the action, but it was saved by Panther goalkeeper Erin Kane. Mutters had a pair of shots in the game. The Panthers opened the scoring when Erin Kreuser slipped past the Redbird defense and lofted a shot over sophomore goalkeeper Katie Grill-Donovan's head and into the left corner of the goal in the 29th minute. Neither team was able to score the remainder of the period as the offenses were slow to get any rhythm.
In the second half, both teams showed more life on the offensive end. The Panthers increased their lead when Kate Megna collected a loose ball to the left of the goal and scored on a quick blast in the 52nd minute.
The Redbirds had two great scoring chances midway through the second half. Senior midfielder Yvonne Northover collected the ball near the top of the penalty box and took a shot that deflected off Kane and was traveling towards the goal line when a UW-Milwaukee defender came from behind the play to knock it out. Freshman forward Alyssa Schulz had another good shot past Kane, but a Panther defender was there to stop it right in front of the goal line. Schulz also had two shots in the contest
The game's final tally came in the 73rd minute when Nicole Sperl took a shot from 12 yards out that hit off Grill-Donovan's arm and bounced into the net. Grill-Donovan was in goal for nearly 76 minutes and had one save. Freshman goalkeeper Courtney Blake saw her first career action and had one save in just under 15 minutes of action.
The Redbirds visit IPFW for another exhibition game on Friday, August 24, at 3 p.m. CST.
