Women's Soccer

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Nov. 8, 2007

Box Score

ST PAUL, Minn. - The Illinois soccer team captured a dramatic win after a thrilling battle against Minnesota, as the Illini surged from behind in the final minutes of regulation to force double overtime before edging the Gophers, 4-3, in a penalty kick shootout in the opening round of the Big Ten Tournament. Senior midfielder Kara Gostisha scored Illinois' first goal of the game then capped off the night with the game-winning penalty kick to propel the Illini into the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament. No. 3 seed Illinois (11-5-2) will face No. 2 seed Purdue (17-2-2) on Friday at 8 p.m. at Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium.

Illinois led 1-0 at the half, but two second-half Minnesota goals put the Gophers (9-8-2) on top as the clock wound down. The Illini refused to quit, though, and with just under four minutes to play in regulation, their persistence paid off as junior defender Emily Zurrer came up with the ball after a scrum in the box and punched it into the net to send the game to overtime.

"This was a real step forward for us from a mental toughness standpoint," head coach Janet Rayfield said. "We took a lot and just kept going. Credit to Minnesota, they forced us to be mentally tough because they came at us with everything they had and said `If you're going to win this game, you're going to have to be mentally tough.' Our team did a good job of answering that challenge. If we can take that mental toughness through the rest of this tournament and into the NCAA tournament it will be something we haven't had in our bag of tricks up until now."

The seesaw affair began when Illinois took a 1-0 lead at 34:15 on Gostisha's third goal of the season. Junior forward Jessica Levitt slotted a pass from the right side to Gostisha at the top of the box. Gostisha, who switched to the midfield from the back line six games into the season, fired a shot past Gopher goalkeeper Lindsey Dare to give the Illini the advantage at halftime.

The Illini entered the locker room a little banged up from the first half. Senior goalkeeper Lindsey Carstens exited in sixth minute with a cut on her forehead, while senior forward Ella Masar left the game in the 13th minute with a strained hamstring. Carstens returned to finish the match, however Masar is listed as questionable for Friday's matchup against Purdue.

Minnesota fought back in the second half, tying the game at one in the 59th minute. Freshman forward Katie Bethke passed to junior forward Clare Grimwood on the left post and she sent the ball over Carstens outstretched hand to make it 1-1.

The Gophers took a 2-1 lead four minutes later as Grimwood found junior forward Lindsey Schwartz on the left post. Schwartz shot the ball past a diving Carstens to put Minnesota on top.

"We talked in pre-game about playing against the home team and their crowd, that the game would have momentum swings," Rayfield said. "We just had to remain confident through them. We had to know we have weapons to score goals. I thought we did a pretty good job of that. We just continued to fight and you saw this team keep pulling itself together."

Levitt was a key component in the Illini continuously pulling together as a team to fight, playing the full match with a vigor that helped create opportunities for her teammates.

"Levitt played 110 minutes and never stopped running," Rayfield said. "Her effort, her energy her defensive presence - she was getting balls and holding, them taking people on, serving balls across the box, serving corner kicks. She just played an all around great game of soccer tonight."

As the game began to wind down, Illinois began to fight even harder, narrowly missing opportunities with a shot off the crossbar and a couple of goalkeeper saves.

"When [the Gophers] got their second goal I thought we actually picked things up," Rayfield said. "We came back from that in a much stronger way, rather than reacting in panic way, and that's a step forward for us."

Still searching for the tying goal, Rayfield inserted sophomore midfielder Courtney Bell into the lineup in place of freshman defender Danielle Kot, giving the Illini only three on the back line for a more offensive presence on the field with just under 10 minutes left in the game.

"The goal was to get in behind them and get ourselves a corner kick, to get ourselves a restart where we are pretty good in the air and we can put the ball in the box," Rayfield said. "We worked a lot on corner kicks because it is something that we're dangerous at, so we looked to get that. It confirms that if we do the things we're good at and keep working at it we can make things happen."

The strategy paid off at the 86:53 mark, when Zurrer tallied her fourth goal of the season. Bell sent a corner kick into the box and after bouncing around, Zurrer took control of the loose ball and pushed it past a diving Dare to tie the game at two.

In the overtime, sophomore forward Chichi Nweke nearly ended the game in the 94th minute as she sailed a shot toward the goal that began to drop just below the crossbar, but Dare leaped into the air for the save to keep the game knotted at two.

The two teams battled through a second overtime, but to no avail, as the game headed into the penalty kick round, where the best of five would earn the right to advance to the semifinals of the tournament.

Minnesota's first kick hit the right post and Carstens deflected the second Gopher shot, while senior defender Mary Therese McDonnell and Bell each netted their shots to give Illinois a 2-0 advantage. Minnesota then nailed their next three kicks, with Illinois failing on two attempts before Zurrer evened the best-of-five at three apiece.

It came down to a shootout, with the Gophers taking the first shot once again. The battered Carstens, wearing a bandage around her forehead, dove to her left for the stop, giving Gostisha an opportunity for the game-winning PK. Gostisha punched the ball into the right side of the net as the Dare dove to her left, sealing Illinois' first come-from-behind victory of the season.

"[Gostisha] won balls all day long in the air," Rayfield said. "Earlier in the season we switched her to the midfield because she's such a good ball-winner and we needed her to do that tonight. Then to come up with the goal and have the composure to finish the game-winning PK, it was a good night for her."

The overtime win marks the ninth year in a row that the Illini have won their opening round game. It is also the team's first overtime victory of the season.

"You take experiences from the regular season and apply them to the postseason and I think we did that tonight," Rayfield said. "We were a mentally tough team tonight. We showed a mental toughness we haven't shown all season."

Illinois will face a Purdue team that defeated Northwestern, 3-1, in its first-round game. The Illini fell to the Boilermakers, 2-1, during their regular season matchup in West Lafayette, Ind. The two teams squared off in the second round of the 2006 Big Ten Tournament as well, with Illinois topping Purdue, 1-0. In addition to the 2006 meeting, the two teams have met one other time in the tournament, as the Illini defeated the Boilermakers, 2-0, en route to their 2003 Big Ten Tournament title.