Badgers Fall to No. 9 Penn State
October 20, 2002 | Women's Soccer
The Wisconsin women's soccer team dropped a hard-fought match versus No. 9 Penn State Sunday at the McClimon Soccer Complex, 3-1. Wisconsin falls to 7-7-3 overall and 3-4-2 in the Big Ten, while Penn State's victory clinches at least a share of the Big Ten regular season title for the Nittany Lions.
Facing the ninth-ranked Nittany Lions, the Badgers rebounded from their 1-0 loss to Ohio State Friday night, playing with an energy that kept them in the game every inch of the way.
'What I like is we stuck to our system all game long, ' coach Dean Duerst said. 'Quick play, moving off the ball'what it does is it opens up a lot of options. We were getting a lot of good opportunities. Overall, players showed confidence, players connected with each other very well, we moved the ball around Penn State very effectively.'
Penn State took a one-goal lead off the foot of Stephanie Smith at 16:46. Heidi Drummond crossed the ball from the left side and Smith banked it off the cross bar and it bounced in for the 1-0 lead. Wisconsin responded at 29:24 with junior Jenny Kundert dribbling the ball up the right side. Kundert made a cross to the right side of the net and senior Jess Wolff beat a defender, received the ball and with a quick flick of the foot, tied the game at one. It was Wolff's second goal of the season and Kundert 's team-leading eighth assist.
Wolff's goal provided the Badgers with momentum and UW turned up the heat on PSU's goalkeeper. In the 10 minutes following Wolff 's goal, Wisconsin fired half of its game-total shots against Penn State. Two quick Badger shots were blocked, a point-blank Kundert shot was saved and another was blocked and a shot by Jessica Ring hit the post. The sixth Badger shot during the flurry flew high.
'It's exciting to see your team play and get the number of chances on goal [that we did],' Duerst said. 'We showed our offensive potential here. It's great to see our team be able to put together such an offensive attack. That next step for these guys ' a lot of young kids ' is to be able to put those away. I think we're right there. '
Penn State survived the barrage of Badger bullets and quickly capitalized on an opportunity to regain the lead. A corner kick set up a Penn State shot and a Badger defender blocked the shot, but Heidi Drummond scooped up the rebound and fired the ball home.
The second half featured less opportunities and more fouls for both teams as Penn State battled to keep its one-goal lead and the Badgers fought to tie the game again. In a game better described by a 2-1 score, Penn State's final goal came with eight seconds remaining. Johanna Lohman sent a pass that found Tiffany Weimer sprinting past three Badger defenders. Narrowly avoiding an offsides call, Weimer faced Conway one-on-one and scored PSU's third goal.
Penn State outshot Wisconsin by only a one-shot margin (13-12). Kundert led the Badgers with four shots, while Lauren Schmidt and Molly Meuer tallied two apiece.
'We showed a great intensity today,' Duerst said. 'It needs to be bottled and it needs to be brought out again. Our goal is to finish off 3-0 the rest of the season.'
Wisconsin hits the road next week to face Minnesota Friday at 7 p.m. and UW-Green Bay Sunday at noon. UW closes the 2002 regular season with a home game versus Illinois State Nov. 1 at 7:30 p.m.
