The Illinois State soccer team dropped a match to Illinois, 3-2, on Sunday, in front of the third-largest crowd in history at Adelaide Street Field. Kate Del Fava and Katherine Felton scored goals for the 'Birds, with Mikayla Unger picking up assists on both goals. Two of Illinois' three goals came as a result of penalty kicks.
The Redbirds move to 2-4 on the season, while the Illini improve to 4-1.
"I'm really proud of the effort, the mindset, the attitude and the mentality of our players to compete from start to finish," said head coach Brad Silvey. "At the end of the day, Illinois is a team that should be coming in here and giving us a thumping. Our players' ability to overcome a lot of the physicality that the game presented - we weathered it extremely well and found ourselves able to create many good opportunities and chances. There were a lot of things that came up tonight that moving ahead will make us a better team."
Illini sophomore Makena Silber put a goal away just over a minute into the game, to put Illinois up 1-0 almost immediately.
Felton evened the score in the eighth minute, finishing on a cross from Unger out-wide. This was the freshman's first career goal for ISU and she now moves to three points on the season.
The Redbirds would score once more in the first half, with Del Fava striking a ball past the keeper towards the left post. The senior continues to lead the Missouri Valley Conference with eight goals through the first six games of the season, with six of them coming in the last three matches.
Hope Breslin and Arianna Veland converted penalty kicks for the Illini in the 42nd and 89th minute, respectively, to give Illinois the 3-2 advantage.
The match was very physical from the start, with both teams combining for 27 fouls. Four yellow cards and one red card were issued throughout the duration of the match. The Redbirds were outshot 20-14 and 9-5 in shots on goal.
Haley Smith made six saves in goal for Illinois State on 20 shots faced.
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