CHICAGO, Ill. – The NIU women's soccer team (2-1-1) won their game against UIC (0-4) 2-1 on Wednesday night in Chicago in double overtime. The game winning goal was scored by Natalia Pena (Hoffman Estates, Ill./Hoffman Estates) on a header off of a corner kick in the 103^rd minute.
 
"Natalia was always in the right place at the right time attacking the ball for us all night," Head Coach John Ross said. "Her leadership really propelled the team tonight."
 
The corner kick was taken by Lauren Gierman (Prospect Heights, Ill./John Hersey) who assisted on both NIU goals against the Flames Wednesday night. Gierman now has three assists on the season, recording the lone assist on every Huskies' goal in 2017 after missing 2016 due to injury.
 
The first goal of the game was scored by Taylor Sarver (Machesney Park, Ill./Harlem) in the 12^th minute of the game. Gierman sent her a pass around the six-yard box and Sarver slid it past the UIC keeper to take an early 1-0 lead. Sarver's first goal of the season in her second game of the year as she's looking to improve on her seven-goal season last year.
 
Both teams took a high amount of shots with UIC outshooting the Huskies 20-12 in the game but both teams took eight shots on goal. NIU keeper Amy Annala (Oswego, Ill./Oswego) made seven saves on the night with two of them coming late in regulation time as the Flames were mounting a late rush.
 
"Everyone had a great work rate and commitment to each other tonight and that helped us come out on top," Ross said.
 
The Huskies will play their next match on Sunday as they travel to Green Bay, Wis to take on UW-Green Bay for their third-straight road game. After that NIU will return home next Friday to host Milwaukee at the NIU Soccer and Track & Field Complex at 5 p.m. CT.