Northwestern has made a habit of knocking off a ranked opponent to kick off the Big Ten season, no matter the circumstances. A year after topping then-No. 17 Illinois in the opening weekend, the Wildcats notched a 1-0 win over No. 19 Indiana on Friday.
The unseasonably cold weather, blustering winds and driving rains didn’t make things any easier on the Cats, but they thrived under the conditions.
“We call this Wildcat weather,” senior forward Alicia Herczeg said. “We love it. The rain, the wind, whatever, we’ve been through it all, we actually like it. We like a little bit of adversity.”
NU scored the game’s only goal in the 81st minute when freshman defender Briana Westlund sent a free kick into the right side of the goal mouth, where the ball bounced off several players and finally made its way to Herczeg. Herczeg took advantage, heading the ball home to give the Cats (4-6-1, 1-1-0 Big Ten) the lead and ultimately the win over the Hoosiers (8-3-0, 0-2-0 Big Ten).
“We’ve been working a lot on our set pieces,” said Herczeg, who leads the Wildcats with four goals. “It was a great driven ball to the far post. (Jennifer Baumann) got an excellent header on it. (Emily Langston) nudged it on, and I was in the right spot at the right time, and just finished it.”
Indiana was in control for much of the first half, but was unable to score, largely due to junior goalkeeper Carolyn Edwards.
“When your keeper makes saves like that, you should start to get a pretty good feeling that you’re going to win the game,” coach Stephanie Erickson said. “They had some incredible chances that she stole from them, but we know she’s capable of that, that’s what you expect your keeper to do. Her play gave the team a ton of confidence to go after it.”
Indiana had a couple of chances early in the second half as well. Hoosier senior defender Christie Kotynski hit the crossbar off a corner kick at 51:56. Less than 10 minutes later, sophomore midfielder Devon Beach threaded through NU’s defense, and put a shot on net point blank, but Edwards dove to her right to make the save.
After Kotynski’s shot bounced off the crossbar, everything turned around for the Cats. They spent the majority of the second half in Indiana territory, created several opportunities, and after getting just one shot in the first half, put up seven in the second, finally resulting in Herczeg’s game-winner.
And much like last year, though they knocked off a ranked foe, the Cats opened conference play 1-1. On Sunday afternoon, NU played host to No. 15 Purdue (6-2-2, 1-0-1 Big Ten). The Cats put up a good fight, but ultimately lost 2-0.
“The key to the game (was) that we didn’t win the boxes,” Erickson said. “We didn’t win it defensively and we didn’t win it on the attack.”
Purdue got its first goal on a cross that Edwards attempted to punch out of the box. Instead, she punched it to Boilermaker sophomore forward Katie Leinert who knocked it in. Purdue added another goal at 84:36 when senior defender Katie Seeger beat Edwards one-on-one.
NU had its own opportunities against Purdue. Its best chance came five minutes into the second half when sophomore forward Emily Langston put a shot to the upper right that bounced off the crossbar.
“Emmy had two great chances,” Erickson said. “She picked the right spot on the goal, and she beat the keeper and that’s what you look for. She had another one where she again picked the right spot on the goal but it went a little wide. Those were great execution. She’ll get those. “
Langston and NU won’t have a chance to do so at home again until Oct. 18, as the team will play its next three conference matchups away from the comforts of Lakeside Field.
“Our biggest win is yet to come,” junior defender Leigh Jakes said. “(The Indiana game) was a big win, and a great start to our Big Ten season, but we’re not satisfied here.”
