As the Northwestern community recovered from Saturday’s narrow loss to Illinois on the football field, the women’s soccer team suffered a close defeat of its own Sunday – nothing new for the Wildcats.
A 1-0 loss to Indiana marked the seventh one-goal loss for Northwestern (1-11-0, 0-5-0 Big Ten) through 12 games this season.
“It’s been really tough because you feel like you’re right there and you have so many chances but somehow their chances have been going in and ours haven’t,” senior forward Emily Langston said.
Aside from games against Stanford and Penn State, the Cats have been competitive for nearly 90 minutes of every contest.
“We’re in every game,” coach Stephanie Foster said. “We are 1-11, and when I look at the schedule I think we could just as easily be 10-2. Terrible teams don’t win just one game. Terrible teams win more than one game. We’re not a terrible team so this has just been pretty unbelievable. You can almost trip over yourself and win a game better than we have.”
According to Foster, frustration has become a factor in the team’s inability to finish close games.
“I think the longer it goes without (us) winning it’s a totally different factor as to why you’re not winning a game,” Foster said. “Early on, I think it’s just having a young team not knowing how to finish a game, but now it’s confidence, it’s courage, it’s being willing to go for it and thinking that we have nothing to lose at this point. I still think we’re playing like we have something to lose.”
Despite the building frustration, the team is trying to focus on each game individually, “going into it like our season is just 0-0, fresh start,” Langston said.
Sophomore goalkeeper Sam Hatfield added, “We’re looking at it as it’s just another hurdle to get over and we just need to focus on the little things in the game and not take any breaks. It just gives us something to work on and always stay focused.”
In order to keep the game close against Michigan (8-3-2, 3-1-1) on Saturday, the Cats will have to break through against a defense that has allowed only 11 goals and has posted six shutouts in 13 games.
Foster attributes much of the Wolverines’ defensive success to their offensive potency.
“They make teams defend them for a lot of the game,” Foster said. “If they’re spending a lot of time attacking teams, they’re not spending a lot of time defending.”
NU must also contain Michigan sophomore forward Nkem Ezurike, who has posted seven goals and 42 shots in 13 games.
“She’s really strong and athletic and she can kind of do whatever she wants because she can push people off her,” Foster said.
Although the Wolverines boast a better record than the Wildcats, if recent history is any indication, Saturday’s match will be a dogfight. Four of the last five meetings between the two teams have ended in a draw, including a 1-1 tie in Evanston last season.
“We have to go at them,” Foster said. “Our team believes that we can be more dangerous.”
