In the confusion of shifting roles in a new system of play, senior Brooke Bell has played just about everywhere this season for the Northwestern women’s soccer team.
During Sunday’s 2-0 loss to Wisconsin (8-2, 2-1 Big Ten), Bell added another entry to her versatile résumé. With the Wildcats trailing 1-0 in the 37th minute of play, Bell approached the line for the first penalty kick of her NU career.
And Badgers keeper Kelly Conway made an improbable save on the shot, wrestling a potentially momentum-changing goal away from NU (2-5-1, 1-2).
“I usually try to look at her hips,” Conway said of the seconds before Bell’s shot. “I saw her look to my right for her last look, so I thought she was trying to fake me out a little bit. I had a good instinct that it was to my left.”
She then dived to her side and blocked the shot. It was one of five saves on the afternoon for the sophomore, who now has four shutouts.
Conway immediately launched the ball downfield, and less than a minute later, Wisconsin’s Jenny Kundert headed in a pass from Megan Dobesh to put the Badgers up 2-0.
So instead of notching the equalizer, Bell and her teammates found themselves down by a pair, a deficit they were unable to overcome in the second half.
“We’ve all been playing soccer forever and people miss penalty kicks all the time, and keepers save penalty kicks all the time,” Cats defender Katie Kovatch said. “Right after that we should have answered and responded and gone even harder.”
Said NU keeper Erin Ekeberg: “That’s a huge momentum change. But we just have to be strong enough to go on, and not let that get us down.”
The Cats showed signs of recovering after halftime, organizing their defense better and connecting on more shots in the box. Aileen Guiney and Kristen Pearce both had chances to put NU on the board in the final 15 minutes, but Conway again came up with diving saves.
On defense, the Cats finally found their stride after often leaving the left flank open in the first half.
Bell, traditionally a forward who has seen more playing time lately in the backfield, shuttled between both positions throughout the game.
“At first we were a little bit confused,” Kovatch said of Wisconsin’s use of five midfielders. “We don’t play outside mids and they do, so it took us a little bit to figure it out. We solved it at the half, but it took us too long.”
Ekeberg, who also gave up a 25th-minute goal to Allison Wagner, attributed part of the Cats’ opening scramble to intimidation.
“We came out scared and we didn’t step through the ball, didn’t step to win it,” she said. “We conceded way too much.”
The second-half improvements provided a small bit of solace for NU, heading into a weekend on the road.
Friday’s game with Minnesota was rained out, so the Cats are still looking to win their second conference game, and nothing would please them more than to get it Friday at rival Illinois.
Minnesota will return to Lakeside Field Sunday, Oct. 22 for the make-up, giving NU time to improve.
“Every game we come out, there are these awesome glimpses of the team that we want to be and the team that we can be and the team that we are,” Kovatch said. “But then we fall into these holes and have lapses. And we fall into ourselves when we need to focus on the team more.”
