NORMAL, Ill. – The Illinois State women's soccer team (0-1-1) fell to No. 23 Northwestern (2-0-0), 3-0, in their home opener Sunday afternoon. After a scoreless first half, Northwestern scored all three goals in the second half.
"We played about 75 minutes of quality soccer. The 15 minutes we didn't play, we really got punished," said head coach Brad Silvey." We were missing some movements higher up on the field to help unlock our opponent, which we discussed at half, but in terms of the effort and the organization, the commitment to play, it was tremendous in my eyes, especially in the first half. Credit to Northwestern though, they're a really solid program and there's a reason they are a Top 25 team."
The Redbirds were out-shot in the first half, 10-1, but came out in the second half holding the Wildcats to only eight shots and tallying six of their own. Senior Emily Dickman lead the Redbirds with two shots, while the team equally picked up the slack with six other players recording shots in the match.
The Wildcats opened scoring in the second half with their first goal in the 55th minute, taking the 1-0 lead. The Redbirds answered with four shots of their own before Northwestern tallied their second goal at the 77-minute mark. Both goals were scored by freshman Madi Kennel. Freshman McKenna Angotti tallied the final goal for the Wildcats in the 83rd minute, to give Northwestern the 3-0 lead with under 10 minutes to play.
Redbird keeper, sophomore Haley Smith, was tested multiple times throughout the match, making four of her five saves in the first half to keep ISU in the game. Illinois State did not go without offensive pressure, tallying five corner kicks to Northwestern's three. Four of ISU's five corner kicks came in the second half.
"Disappointed that we allow three goals today, but we're not going to define our team by the number of goals we allow," continued Silvey. "In terms of the team commitment and the team effort, it was there – it needs to be there for a longer, more sustainable length of time. If we want to win games, we must be a team that's going to compete for the entire contest. We're going to learn from this, we're going to apply what we learned, and we're going to do better moving forward."
The Redbirds are back in action Friday, August 25 when they travel to Saint Louis to face the Bilikens of Saint Louis University. Kick off is set for 5 p.m.
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