Sept. 2, 2001

Stats

LAWRENCE, Kan. -- The Fighting Illini women's soccer team earned its first overtime victory of the season with a 4-3 double overtime win over the Kansas Jayhawks at SuperTarget Field.

"Overall it was a tough battle," head coach Tricia Taliaferro said. "Kansas is a good team. They are much improved from last year. I thought we showed a lot of heart and desire to battle through the overtimes and have enough composure to come out and put a goal in. I was very pleased overall with our team play, especially for the first weekend. We were able to execute the things we worked on in practice."

Kansas jumped out to an early lead, scoring its first goal at the 1:50 mark. Laura Freeman put the Illini on the board in the 33rd minute when she headed in a cross kick from Hollie Schurr. Less than four minutes later, Kansas regained the lead. Just 1:07 after that, Meghan Kolze found Sarah Rowland who knocked in her second goal of the season from 20 feet out on the left side making the score 2-2 at halftime.

Colleen Joyce started the scoring in the second half when she hit a penalty kick at 61:21 to put the Illini up 3-2. Kansas evened up the score at three with 13:40 remaining in regulation. The score remained tied until the second overtime. In the 119th minute, newcomer Christine Sinak scored the first goal of her Illini career, a header off an assist from Lindsay Johnson, to give Illinois a 4-3 victory.

After opening the season 2-0 on the road, the Illini come home to host the Orange and Blue Classic. Louisville and UCLA kickoff the Classic with a 5 p.m. contest on Fri., Sept. 7. Illinois and Syracuse meet in the nightcap at 7 :30. Syracuse and UCLA meet in the Classic finale at noon on Sun., Sept. 9.