Oct. 4, 2002
Final Stats
The University of Illinois women's soccer team put up a furious rally in the final minutes of Friday's contest with Wisconsin, but were unable to come up with the tying goal and fell 1-0. A season high 612 fans braved the high winds and chilly conditions at Illini Soccer Field and watched the Illini drop their first home game this year. With the loss, Illinois is now 5-6-0 overall and 1-3-0 in the Big Ten, while Wisconsin improved to 5-5-2 and 2-2-1 in the conference.
"It disappointing," said Illinois head coach Janet Rayfield about the game, "we played good soccer, but that's not necessarily going to win games. There's got to be a bit of heart if you want to win games in the Big Ten because every game is a battle. Right now we're playing some good soccer but we're not battling. When you don't battle, you lose close games like this."
Wisconsin senior Jessica Wolff broke the 0-0 tie at the 60:52 mark with her first goal of the season. Amy Vermeulen lofted a Badger corner kick into the box where Jenny Kundert was able to get a head on it. Kundert directed the ball to Wolff, who's header from 3 meters sailed just over Illinois goalkeeper Leisha Alcia's reach, ricocheted off the cross bar, and into the net.
The Fighting Illini were able to mount several scoring chances as time winded down, taking four corner kicks and six shots in the final 6:23 of the game. However, none found the back of the net. Rayfield feels the team needs that kind of mentality for a full game instead of just the final minutes to be successful.
"We should have been hammering the goal like that all night long," said Rayfield. "You can't wait for it to be 1-0 with five minutes left on the clock to finally have the desire to do that. That desire has to be there for 90 minutes and we're missing that. That sense of urgency and that desire to score goals that you saw in the last 5-10 minutes, we have to have that for 90 minutes."
The Orange and Blue out shot the Badgers 19-9 on the evening, including an 8-3 advantage in shots on goal and a 9-3 advantage in corner kicks, but Wisconsin goalkeeper Kelly Conway was great on the night, notching eight saves and posting her second shutout of the season. For the Illini, Alcia saved two shots and gave up the one goal. It was her first game back with Illinois after spending last week with the Canadian national team.
Up Next: Illinois finishes up its four game homestand on Sunday by welcoming the Minnesota Golden Gophers to town. Kick off is at 2 p.m.
