Oct. 12, 2008

Box Score

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The No. 16 Illinois soccer team (9-6, 3-3 Big Ten) suffered a 1-0 loss to the Minnesota Golden Gophers (14-1, 4-1 Big Ten) on Sunday afternoon at Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium. The Illini out-shot their opponents for the second match in a row, owning an 11-5 advantage, but were unable to capitalize on any opportunities.

"We didn't make great decisions with the ball," Rayfield said. "(The Gophers) rely on attacks to make mistakes only playing with three back and we played into that. That's a hard-fighting defensive team, so their defensive effort, like Iowa's was tremendous. Sometimes it was because of their pressure and sometimes we didn't make good decisions on the ball, and both of those contributed to us not getting the kinds of chances we wanted."

The first half was a struggle on both sides for any kind of offensive threat. After 45 minutes, Illinois had a 3-1 shot advantage, while each team had just one shot on frame. Illinois had the lone corner kick of the half.

"We didn't get as many opportunities as we should have in the first half given the amount of possession we had in their defensive half," Rayfield said. "We didn't create the kind of dangerous attacks in our attacking third that we needed to. We should be more dangerous."

The only goal of the match came in the 57th minute when the Gophers took advantage of a corner kick. As the kick sailed in the box, Minnesota defender Krystle Kallman got her head on the ball and punched it in for the eventual game-winner.

Overall, the Illini had just three shots on frame, while goalkeeper Alexandra Kapicka also had three saves. Minnesota out-cornered Illinois, 4-2, with all four of the Gophers' corner kicks coming in the second half.

The Orange and Blue will look to rebound next weekend against the Indiana Hoosiers. Illinois will travel to Bloomington, Ind., on Sunday, Oct. 19 for a 1 p.m. (CT) matchup. The game will air live on the Big Ten Network.