By the time Friday’s matchup with Penn State rolled around, the Wildcats had already reached their season goals, winning a Big Ten game and finishing the regular season at, or above, the .500 mark.
So the night before the game, after the Cats beat No. 23 Michigan to advanced to the semifinals of the Big Ten soccer tournament, coach Tim Lenahan added a new target — reaching the championship match.
But it wasn’t meant to be, as seventh-seeded NU (7-7-6) dropped a 1-0 decision to the sixth-seeded Nittany Lions (9-10-0), ending one of the most successful seasons in school history. The Cats finished the year without a losing record for the first time since 1988, when they went 14-4-1.
“I was hoping we could just grind it out,” Lenahan said. “We invested so much effort the night before and when you go tap that wealth again, there’s sometimes not that much left.”
The Nittany Lions finally broke through in the 80th minute, scoring a goal on Joe Zewe’s diving header past NU goalkeeper Justin Pines.
NU would have tied the match if not for a fine save by Penn State goalkeeper Matt Novchich in the waning seconds of the match. With the Cats pressuring and time winding down, Brad North took a pass from Kyle Moore and took a shot that Novchich barely deflected.
While NU did have a chance to tie it, the squad was outplayed by the Nittany Lions — especially in the second half. Following the break, Penn State took 15 shots to the Cats’ 2.
“We were exhausted,” North said. “The game before we had played our hearts out. We were running on emotion.”
Although the Cats had hoped to startle the soccer world by reaching the finals, Lenahan said his squad left the tournament without regrets.
“There is disappointment but not dejection,” he said. “I think the guys wanted to win and did everything in their power to win. They left the field with a sense of accomplishment.”
Friday’s game was the final college match for Jeremy Cook, who was named to the All-Tournament team along with freshman Gerardo Alvarez. But the senior captain said he feels like he’s going out a winner thanks to Thursday’s victory over the Wolverines. It marked the first Big Ten win of his four-year career.
“I can’t even explain how much that win meant to me,” he said. “It gave me such closure.”
But while his playing days are over, Cook hasn’t quite started focusing on medical school yet.
“I was definitely sad after the game but I don’t think it really hits you,” he said. “It doesn’t hit you that that’s the last time you’ll ever be playing a college game.”
Although Cook and the Cats couldn’t get a second win in the tournament, Lenahan said he’s proud of his team’s effort.
“They gave me everything they had,” he said. “They left everything they had on the field, right up until the last second.”
