Oct. 15, 2000

Box Score | Audio Clips!
? Coach Tricia Taliaferro
? Laura Freeman

Champaign, Ill. - Illinois Head Coach Tricia Taliaferro couldn't have asked for much more from the weekend of soccer in Champaign. In the middle of a tight Big Ten race for second place, Illinois dominated conference foes from the state of Indiana, downing Purdue, 3-0 on Friday and then blasting Indiana, 5-0 Sunday.

With its third straight shutout and school-record eighth shutout of the season, Illinois improves to 6-3 in the Big Ten, good for a tie for second place in the Big Ten with Wisconsin and Michigan, and 10-5 overall.

"I'm really thrilled with the way we're playing," said Taliaferro. "We're getting hungry and we're starting to finish some of these opportunities that we have created throughout the whole year."

The Illini scored early and often against the Hoosiers, led by all-time scoring leader Emily Brown. The junior from New Trier High School scored the first two Illinois goals, the first coming just 6:59 into the contest. Illinois ran the fast break with extreme precision. Meghan Kolze began the break feeding Colleen Joyce on the side, Joyce then found Emily Brown in front of the net for the easy tap in.

Lisa Baldwin notched her team-leading sixth assist at the 21:27 mark of the contest on an entry pass that deflected off an Indiana player. Brown dug it out of the air and knocked it home, making it 2-0 Illinois. Brown now has 11 goals this year and 42 for her career.

Depth is becoming an extremely valuable tool for Illinois. Tiffani Walker had a strong weekend. After totaling four shots on Friday, Walker added another four on Sunday, three on goal. She scored at 68:01 beating three defenders down the field after getting a pass from freshman Abby Goodman then fired a shot past Indiana goalkeeper Shaunna Daugherty, making it 3-0.

"Tiffani has been going over some video and wanting to learn how she can get balls in the back of the net," Taliaferro said. "I'm really pleased that she was able to finish today."

Laura Freeman, who came off the bench to score just before half against Purdue Friday, added two goals on Sunday. Two minutes after Walker's goal, Freeman scored just inside the right post, then notched her third goal of the weekend by putting home a nice ball by Kristen Holman off a corner kick.

"We worked really well together today and that was key," Freeman said. "We worked it around a lot, and that led to many opportunities to score. We have a really deep bench, and I think that's what makes us the team what we are. We push each other in practice."

The Illini had even more opportunities. A header by Walker from point blank range was saved by a diving Daugherty. Another ball hit the post. Illinois out-shot Indiana 22-7. Sarah Anderson recorded her third shutout in a row in goal, lowering her goals against average to 0.41.

"The defense has really maintained consistency," said Taliaferro. "Having Rebecca (Patrick) back there has been huge for us. The ability (the defenders) have to control the game definitely helps our confidence."

Illinois completes the Big Ten schedule on Oct. 20 at Iowa. A victory guarantees Illinois no worse than a tie for second in the conference.

"We can't control what everyone else is doing," Taliaferro said. "We want to take care of business. The last three games we've done that."