The Northwestern women’s soccer team bucked its sluggish-start habit Sunday, scoring two goals off corner kicks in the opening seven minutes — the first coming 41 seconds into the game — en route to a 2-2 tie with Indiana.
“It was a disappointing tie because we had such a great start,” NU head coach Jenny Haigh said. “Sometimes tying is exciting, but not when you have a big lead and let it slip away.”
After the game in Bloomington, the general sentiment on the NU sidelines was dissatisfaction.
“The team was just frustrated,” midfielder Aileen Guiney said. “We solved our slow-start issues, but did we play well all game?
“Obviously, the answer is no because we didn’t win.”
On Friday, NU (3-6-2, 1-4-1 Big Ten) was troubled by its old problems, falling behind 2-0 in the first 20 minutes against No. 22 Purdue (7-2-1, 3-1-1). The Cats went on to lose 2-1, with junior Kristen Pearce scoring NU’s lone goal.
After the slow start against Purdue, Pearce said the emphasis for Sunday’s matchup with Indiana (6-3-2, 2-1-2) was setting the tone early for an energized game.
Guiney got the Cats off to their second-fastest start in school history when she sent a corner into the back edge of the goal.
“Indiana doesn’t put anybody on their back post,” Guiney said. “It was in our scouting report to aim for that back post, and that’s really all I did. It just bent right in over (the goalie).”
Guiney notched her team-leading sixth assist on another corner less than six minutes later when sophomore Carolyn Hack netted her second goal of the season.
The Cats kept piling on the pressure throughout the first half. NU outshot the Hoosiers 4-2 before the break.
“We told ourselves when the clock hit 15 (minutes) we’d be up 1-0,” Guiney said. “Well, by then we were up 2-0, and IU was just stunned. They never really got out of that in the first half.”
The Hoosiers were able to break their funk after the intermission and outshot NU 9-1 in the second half.
After switching directions, NU had to face a strong wind. With the gusts in their faces, the Cats had trouble clearing the ball on defense, Haigh said.
As the ball stayed on NU’s side of the field, Indiana was able to score twice off rebounds in the final 25 minutes of regulation to force the match into overtime.
“It was really hard to watch our lead slip away,” Pearce said. “We had fought really hard and focused hard in the first 15 minutes.”
After surrendering four goals over the weekend, the Cats’ goals-against average rose to 1.73 — worst in the conference.
The weekend leaves NU tied for eighth place in the Big Ten and on the edge of the conference tournament’s eight-team field.
That’s exactly where NU finished in 2001, when a series of tie-breakers put the Cats into the postseason ahead of Indiana.
Fortunately for the Cats, they will finish the remainder of their Big Ten schedule at Lakeside Field.
“We’re really excited to be playing at home,” Haigh said. “There’s such a sense of familiarity and comfort, it’s easy to carry in a sense of pride to the competitions.”
NU 1
PURDUE 2
NU 2
INDIANA 2
