CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Fighting Illini soccer closed the regular season home slate on Saturday night, honoring its senior class before taking on the Wisconsin Badgers (7-4-7, 4-2-4 B1G). Seniors Reagan Robishaw and Hope D'Addario both put shots on goal for the Orange and Blue on their senior night, but the double overtime match ended in a scoreless draw. With the tie, Illinois moves to 6-10-2 overall and 3-5-2 in Big Ten play.
"Both teams were really looking to get a result tonight," head coach Janet Rayfield said. "This was a game between two teams who have really struggled to score goals this season. We had some good looks that we didn't put away, and they had some good looks as well."
The Illini fired seven shots in the match, four coming in the first half of play. The seniors led the way in the first half, as Robishaw fired Illinois' first shot of the game. Senior Summer Schafer added another in the 22nd minute, following that up with a shot just high of the goal in the 29th minute. D'Addario finished off the first half for the Illini with a shot on goal after a Wisconsin foul.
Sophomore Patricia George also carded two shots on the night, her first came in the 51st minute, a rocket that passed just above the crossbar.
Senior goalkeeper Claire Wheatley grabbed four saves on the night, increasing her career total to 292. That number sits second all-time at Illinois. Wheatley has shutout three opponents this season and has a 3-5-2 record on the year.
Seven Illini seniors saw action on the field Saturday night, and all 11 were honored prior to the match.
"On senior night, you have to talk about not just the players who were on the field tonight, but the entire class," Rayfield said. "The selflessness of the players, especially the seniors, who maybe haven't seen significant minutes this season but who have come out and trained every day, just as hard as the players who are stepping out on the field. Those are the players who you really have to highlight tonight, they're the ones that selflessly stood on the sidelines and tried to do everything they could in practice to help this team get better. I think selflessness is a strong quality of this senior class. When your class is as big as theirs, you have to share the limelight and to share everything there is about being a senior on senior night."
The Illini will close regular season play on Wednesday at Northwestern, facing the Wildcats at 7:30 p.m. Live scoring will be available, and the match will be streamed live via nusports.com. Fans can also follow along with @IlliniSoccer on Twitter.
"We've got one more game to play and we're going to do that," Rayfield said. "We're going to go and compete. This team doesn't ever step on the field and not compete, that's just not who we are."
