The Wildcats’ rough start to the conference season spilled over into the weekend, and for the first time since 2011, the team continues to hover below .500 in Big Ten play.

No. 14 Northwestern (8-4, 1-2 Big Ten) split its two road games this weekend, beating Rutgers (5-4, 0-3 Big Ten) and falling to Indiana (5-4, 2-0 Big Ten).

While the Cats took care of Rutgers in the fashion of a 5-1 victory, the team struggled against a stout Indiana defense. Despite outshooting Indiana 20-9, NU could only score 2 goals against freshman goalie, Noëlle Rother, who recorded 12 saves in the Hoosiers’ 3-2 win.

“Indiana came out really strong, and it was a battle,” coach Tracey Fuchs said. “Those are the games you want to be in, and we just couldn’t put one home in the second half. It was just one of those games that is really frustrating because we played well enough to win, but you have to give Indiana credit because they came out and they held on for the last 15 minutes.”

The same Cats offense that scored 4 goals in 37 minutes against Rutgers was unable to score for the first 16 minutes of the game against Indiana. Freshman forward Eva van Agt scored the first goal for the Cats after striking the ball from just inside of the circle to tie the score at 1.

Two minutes after scoring, NU trailed Indiana again, when Indiana forward Maddie Latino scored the first of her 2 goals. Then just before halftime, the Cats’ leading scorer, Isabel Flens, tied the game for NU on an assist from Van Agt.

“We were happy at half because we really didn’t play so well,” Fuchs said. “Our second half was significantly better than our first. They had a few circle penetrations, and they were able to capitalize on one of them. I can’t ask for much more than nine shots in the second half.”

The Cats controlled possession coming out of halftime but did not convert opportunities for the rest of the game. Junior midfielder Dominique Masters attempted 11 shots including eight on goal, but she was not able to get the better of Rother. Additionally, NU was unable to capitalize on any of its 11 penalty corners.

“We had a lot of corners, and it’s certainly not only the job of the hitters and the shooters, but it’s also the rebounders, the tippers and everyone who plays a part in this process,” Van Agt said. “We can’t blame anyone for the corner execution. We are all responsible for it.”

Next week will be a critical Big Ten matchup for the Cats as they try to claw their way back to .500 in conference play. NU hosts No. 16 Iowa, who also lost to Indiana, on Friday.

“I think it’ll be good to have a solid week of practice on our home field,” senior back Lisa McCarthy said. “We can fix any issues we’ve been having, whether it’s getting the ball out of the back or having people posting up or just getting the ball across cage. We need to fix some defensive issues and communicating across players. Having a solid week of practice at home will definitely help us lock in on some of those problems we’ve been having.”

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