COLUMBIA, Mo. – The Northern Illinois University women's soccer team hung with the Missouri Tigers through 45 minutes Thursday night at Audrey J. Walton Soccer Stadium, but two goals in the span of two minutes helped propel Missouri to a 4-0 win.
"It was a great experience for the team to play in front of over 2,000 fans here tonight," said head coach
Michael O'Neill following the game. "It was a really competitive first half. We worked extremely hard and were in the game but those two quick goals in succession in the second half kind of harshed the vibe a bit from our standpoint. It's maybe not a 4-0 game when you look back at it in terms of how we were competing and putting ourselves out there."
NIU (1-2-1) had the first shot on goal in the game in the sixth minute off the foot of
Monica Correa (Des Plaines, Ill./Saint Viator) which was stopped by Missouri goalkeeper Riley Wilkerson. Correa had another opportunity for the Huskies to strike first in the 18th minute. The redshirt-freshman hit a free kick that caught a deflection off the Tigers' wall, forcing Wilkerson into a sprawling save.
Missouri (2-2-1) went up 1-0 in the 21st minute when Landis Canada pounced on a deflected corner kick in the NIU box and sent the ball into the back of the net. The Tigers nearly went up 2-0 10 minutes later but NIU's
Elle Wainscott (Oswego, Ill./Saint Francis) blocked a Rylie Morse shot to stop a Missouri counterattack. Freshman Goalkeeper
Alexandra Devory (Ruckersville, Va./William Monroe) then stopped an Olivia Chianelli shot in the next minute. Missouri's last scoring chance of the first half came in the 39th minute when Audrey Gilbert was denied of a goal by a Devory kick save which sent the game to halftime 1-0.
"Our backline to start the game –
Elle Wainscott,
Genevieve Wilson and
Peyton Cornejo – were fantastic against some really, really good athletes," O'Neill said of the defensive effort in the first half. "
Lauren Mrugala and
Maddy Sheppard were both very good defensively in front of them. Alex did well, but her teammates in front of her also held their own and that's something that's going to help us win games in the future."
The Huskies had an opportunity early in the second half to draw level.
Sarah Roy (Saint-Julie, Quebec/Champlain College Saint-Lambert) made a run up the left wing in the 57th minute and fired a shot that brough Wilkerson off her line to make a save. Ten minutes later Missouri went up 2-0 on a Lana Adams strike from 20 yards out, then went up 3-0 on Canada's second goal of the evening.
Missouri outshot NIU 15-4 on the night, with eight shots on goal to the Huskies' four. Devory made four saves for the Huskies as Wilkerson also stopped four shots for the Tigers.
"Alex was phenomenal tonight," O'Neill said. "She was really composed with her feet and made two or three really good saves to keep it close for the first half. I'm excited to see how she progresses with that performance under her belt."
NIU is back in action on Sunday, August 30 when the Huskies head out to Milwaukee to face the Marquette Golden Eagles. Kickoff is at 1 p.m.
--NIU--
