MILWAUKEE – In the sport of soccer, penalty kicks are a cruel decider. When two teams play 110 minutes of back-and-forth, evenly-matched play, it’s hard not to wonder if there’s a better solution for crowning a victor.
But, such is the nature of the sport, and a year after being the benefactor of a penalty kick shootout in the NCAA tournament, the Wisconsin women’s soccer team was on the losing end this year – falling to Marquette 5-4 on penalty kicks after a thrilling regulation in which the two teams remained tied at 2-2 after two overtime periods.
“Penalty kicks are a terrible animal,” said head coach Paula Wilkins. “To win by them like the first time I did last year, it feels amazing. And to lose by them, it’s always very difficult.”
After Marquette’s Lauren Thut missed her team’s first penalty kick wide left, the Badgers seemed to be in the driver’s seat as they converted their first four kicks to take a 4-3 lead.
Following a Marquette make on its fifth penalty try, Wisconsin senior Darcy Riley stepped up to the spot for a chance to clinch the victory. Having not missed in practice all week, as Wilkins pointed out, the Badgers had reason to be confident in Riley. But Marquette goalkeeper Natalie Kulla produced an impressive diving save on Riley’s shot to the right side – a shot which actually was one of the best-struck out of all the Badgers’ attempts.
“Darcy hadn’t missed in practice all week,” Wilkins said. “It was probably one of the best penalty kicks we hit in the penalty series, but the goalkeeper guessed the right way and that happens.”
With the penalties tied at 4-4, each team had to bring in an additional shooter until a winner was decided. Unfortunately for Wisconsin, that answer came quickly, as Marquette made its sixth and ultimately final shot before freshman Deja Walker missed wide left – sending the Marquette home crowd into pandemonium.
In regulation, the Badgers needed to find a source of offense to battle back from a 1-0 half-time deficit after Marquette took the lead in only the 10th minute of play. That offensive source came in the form of sophomore midfielder Monica Lam-Feist, who made two remarkable goal-scoring plays within two minutes – the 66th and 67th – to give Wisconsin a 2-1 lead.
The first of the two goals came off a beautiful long-range strike, as Lam-Feist turned and struck a dipping ball with her left foot from about 25 yards out past the outstretched hands of the Marquette goalkeeper. Then, as the team bench was just seemingly finishing their celebration, Lam-Feist struck again – this time using her ball skills to turn a Marquette defender and place her shot from just inside the right side of the 18 into the far side-netting.
That lead was short-lived, however, as Marquette produced the third goal in three minutes in the 68th to tie the game up at two. To Lam-Feist, even though the Badgers pushed hard to take the lead, the team’s excitement and consequent lack of concentration following the two goals is what ultimately cost them.
“We knew that we were down one so we had to push for it,” Lam-Feist said. “We got those two goals and we were excited, but we weren’t concentrated and they scored right again.”
After the rapid outpouring of goals, both teams had good chances to seal the victory throughout the rest of regulation and the two overtime periods. Following a fine point-blank save by Badger goalkeeper Michele Dalton off a Golden Eagle’s header three minutes into the first overtime, Wisconsin answered with a header of its own just four minutes later.
In the 97th minute, Outside midfielder Lauren Cochlin played a ball in from the right side that met the head of a running Laurie Nosbusch who pushed the ball to the right of the Marquette goalkeeper – forcing a quick reaction save.
That was one of the Badgers’ last efforts before the game headed to the fateful penalties. There, it went the Golden Eagles’ way. But for the Badgers, this signals the end of successful campaign that served as another building block for an ever-improving program. And to Wilkins, the loss is something that could serve the young Badgers in seasons to come.
“Moving forward I think this is again a learning process and they feel this emotion,” Wilkins said. “They don’t want it to happen again. So the preparation starts in the spring again to build on it.”