As the minutes ticked down in Northwestern’s NCAA Tournament first round clash with eighth-seeded Alabama on Friday night, the Wildcats (9-4-8, 4-2-5 Big Ten) held on to a precious 2-1 lead.
Junior winger Megan Norkett had put the ’Cats ahead in the 74th minute with a cracking near-post finish, and they were just over five minutes away from sealing their first tournament win since 2022.
Instead, the sun set on NU’s season in gut-wrenching fashion.
Alabama forward Maddie Padelski equalized with a bullet header in the match’s dying embers, goalkeeper Coralie Lallier played hero with three saves in the penalty shootout after two scoreless extra time periods, and the Crimson Tide (11-8-2, 4-6-0 SEC) advanced to the second round with a 2-2 (3-1 on penalties) triumph.
After failing to qualify for the sport’s biggest stage in back-to-back seasons, the ’Cats re-emerged in the limelight in Tuscaloosa, providing a good account of themselves in a match that could easily have gone their way. Yet, coach Michael Moynihan’s side will fly home to Evanston bitterly disappointed that it could not finish the job, falling at the first hurdle after a season that promised much in its embryonic moments.
The Crimson Tide started the match on the front foot, rattling off four attempts at goal in the opening seven minutes, but NU did well to get bodies in the way on three of those occasions.
After absorbing early pressure, the ’Cats flipped the script, fashioning five shots of their own in a seven-minute period and eventually making Alabama pay.
In the 28th minute, sophomore right back Ava Goodin glided inside from the right into the penalty area, where her attempted cross took a fortuitous bounce into the path of sophomore forward Kennedy Roesch. NU’s top-scorer lashed at it with her right foot just behind the penalty spot, sending it slicing away from Lallier into the right side netting and bagging her 10th of the season.
The ’Cats took a 1-0 lead into halftime, but Alabama continued to pile pressure on in search of a way back into the game. It found just that eight minutes past the hour mark.
Crimson Tide forward Larkin Thomason picked up the ball on the left side of the penalty area off a quick throw in and sat senior center back Brooke Miller down with a chop-back, opening up space for a shot. Thomason’s right-footed strike deflected off a sliding senior midfielder Caterina Regazzoni, taking the sting out of the effort and looping it over the helpless freshman goalkeeper Nyamma Nelson.
Pegged back after holding a lead for forty minutes, NU did not take long to regain its advantage.
Just over five minutes after Alabama equalized, Goodin again found herself at the center of the ’Cats’ attack, crossing for senior forward Hayley Newman, who unselfishly nicked it on into the path of Norkett on the left. From seven yards out, Norkett took one touch and thumped it in at the near post, giving Lallier no chance.
For the next 10 minutes, NU held firm at the back and appeared on the verge of advancing to the second round. But, as Padelski crashed the box and got on the end of a whipped cross from the right to head past Nelson, Alabama broke Wildcat hearts.
With the score knotted at 2-2 at the end of the 90 minutes, the game entered two 15-minute, golden-goal extra-time periods. Alabama looked the more likely to deal a dagger blow throughout extra time, out-shooting the ’Cats 9-2, but failed to convert on its superiority.
The match would be decided from 12 yards out.
Roesch got the shootout started on the right note, sending Lallier the wrong way and calmly slotting home. But, from there, things unraveled quickly.
Lallier burst down to her left to stop Regazzoni on NU’s second spot-kick, and then held firm up the middle to deny freshman forward Liz Cardwell on its next one. After Alabama converted each of its first three penalties, Norkett stepped up to the spot needing to score to keep the ’Cats alive.
Denied.
At the end of a long night full of triumphs and tribulations, NU walked away empty-handed, rueing the lead it let slip at the death.
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— Women’s Soccer: Norkett’s late strike stuns USC in 1-0 Big Ten Tournament first round win
— Women’s Soccer: Roesch nabs late equalizer in 1-1 draw with No. 20 Wisconsin
