SPORTS
Women’s soccer team loses second of 2004
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Also by Mac VerStandig:
- Tennis ace's season in doubt with injury (March 6, 2006)
- Curtains! Burke wins third straight, but UW's season ends (May 1, 2006)
Related Stories:
- Women's soccer loses in overtime (October 12, 2001)
- UW men's soccer team wrapping up regular season (November 5, 2002)
- Do or die for Wisconsin (October 28, 2005)
- Girls' soccer preview (October 10, 2002)
- Women's soccer goes winless through weekend (October 21, 2001)
by Mac VerStandig
Monday, September 27, 2004
EVANSTON, Ill. — The Wisconsin women’s soccer team suffered its second loss of the season Friday, falling to the Northwestern Wildcats 2-1 in overtime. The No.25 Badgers rebounded from a disappointing first half to take almost total control of the game in the second period, but only managed to put one goal on the board before allowing the momentum to shift back to the Wildcats.
Northwestern needed just over six minutes of overtime to end the match.
UW junior Amy Vermeulen used a penalty kick to score the team’s only point after being tripped by Wildcat goalie Whitney Jones with 31:36 left in regulation.
“She wanted to take that penalty,” head coach Dean Duerst said of Vermeulen’s team-lading ninth successful strike of the season. “When penalties are taken, you need to hit them hard, and she buried it. It’s an exciting goal.”
Vermeulen added, “Kara [Kabellis] made a nice ball. And I was just going in and the goalie just happened to trip me and take out my legs and I got a penalty kick.”
The sole Badger score highlighted a second half that pitted the Wildcats primarily on the defensive after an exhausting first period of play that gave the Badgers a workout protecting their own goal.
Northwestern junior Tabitha Lowey scored the game’s first point from two feet outside the net when she caught a header off a free kick from Wildcat freshman Kelly Sitkowski 33:19 into play.
Northwestern coach Jenny Haigh noted of the momentum following Lowey’s goal, “As the game went on, we got our legs under us and we probably gained more confidence and so I think as a result we felt like we were creating opportunities.”
The game’s only other goal came from Wildcat senior Carolyn Hack, 6:15 into the overtime period, when she ended the match with a 10-foot strike from in front of the net. “Julie Lipinski did a great job of keeping it inbounds and she crossed it over the box and I saw it coming down and I knew it I could either run at it or wait a little bit,” Hack said. “There were a couple of players coming at me, so I tried to focus and keep it down as opposed to shanking it over the goal.”
The shot marked the second time this season that Hack has ended an overtime match, a bizarre statistic considering that she is yet to score during regulation.
The need for overtime — Northwestern’s fourth such venture of the season — was indicative of the closeness of the game. The Wildcats narrowly nudged the Badgers statistically with 10 shots on goal to the UW’s nine, and six corner kicks to the UW’s four.
Further evening the match was a cheering section that seemed to show equal allegiance to the hometown Wildcats and the visiting Badgers. A series of ironic reunions, the game not only pitted Northwestern coach Jenny Haigh against her alma mater, but also marked the homecoming of Badgers Marisa Brown and Stacy Omundson, both graduates of Evanston High School.
Northwestern went out of its way to promote the match to local women’s high school soccer teams, with the result proving to be a cheering section that showed as much enthusiasm for local graduates on the Wisconsin team as the hometown Wildcats.
As one mother noted, “No one on the Northwestern team is from around here. We came out to root for Marisa and Stacy.”
And, though Omundson didn’t see action, Brown managed two shots, giving students of her old high school something to root for even if the game proved a losing effort.
