Box Score

WACO, Texas – The Northern Illinois University women’s soccer team dominated the second half but couldn’t recover from a disappointing first half, eventually losing to Louisiana-Lafayette 2-1 on Sunday afternoon at Mary Lou Mays Field in Waco, Texas.

Playing in their second game of the Baylor Tournament, the Huskies (1-6-0) conceded two goals in the first 25 minutes to the Ragin’ Cajuns (5-2-1), with forward Annika Schmidt netting both. Despite outshooting UL-Lafayette 13-9 in the game – and by a 10-3 margin in the second half – NIU suffered its sixth consecutive defeat.

Nicole Gobbo (Bartlett, Ill./Bartlett) scored her team-leading third goal of the season in the 57th minute with an assist from Marisa Knott (Rosemount, Minn./Rosemount) as the Huskies began the second half with improved attacking purpose.

NIU continued to direct shots towards the UL-Lafayette goal throughout the second half but unfortunately couldn’t force another ball past goalkeeper Lindsey Stocks, who the Huskies forced to make 10 saves in the match.

Following a strong second half performance, Huskie head coach John Ross believes his team is in a good place going into the all-important Mid-American Conference portion of its 2015 schedule.

“We’re confident that we’ll get things right when MAC plays begins in two weeks,” Ross said. “We figured a lot of things out about ourselves this weekend. Our players understand their roles better and know they’ll have to step up for us to achieve our goals in the MAC.”

The 11 shots on goal in the game for the Huskies were the most they managed in any contest this season, with Gobbo hitting the target on all four of her shot attempts. After the game, Lauren Gierman (Prospect Heights, Ill./John Hersey) and Kate Sanfilippo (Florissant, Mo./Marquette Catholic) were name to the All-Baylor Tournament Team for their efforts this weekend in the Huskies’ matches against Baylor and UL-Lafayette.

“They both showed a lot of fight and quality this weekend and were deserving of that,” Coach Ross said of Gierman and Sanfilippo.

NIU women’s soccer will have next weekend off before beginning the MAC season when the Huskies host Toledo and Central Michigan on Sept. 25 and 27, respectively, at the NIU Soccer Complex in DeKalb.

--NIU--