The Illini soccer team made a big statement in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament Wednesday afternoon – the women are hungry to defend their title.

The Illini defeated Northwestern 5-0 to advance to the semifinals of the tournament, avenging an Oct. 22 scoreless tie against the Wildcats in Evanston.

The Illini set the tone early in the pre-game warm-up that they were ready to play.

“During the warm-up, we were passing well, we were talking, we were competing,” said junior defender Christen Karniski. “That really set the tone for us.”

It did not take the Illini long to get going from there. In the 21st minute, senior forward Tara Hurless found junior defender Natasha Karniski wide open on the right side of the net. Karniski fired it in from 12 yards out, giving the Illini the early 1-0 lead. It was the second goal of the season for her.

The Illini were not finished. Right before halftime, Natasha’s sister Christen gave the Illini a 2-0 lead on a corner kick. As Karniski kicked the ball towards the net, Northwestern goalkeeper Whitney Jones went for the save, but the ball bounced off her hands and into the goal.

“The whole team gave a lot of effort,” Karniski said. “We were especially motivated because we tied them when we played them before. We wanted to show them that we could score against them.”

In the second half, while the Illini defense remained stingy, the offense kept the surge going. Junior midfielder Paula Faherty recorded her first goal of the season assisted by Hurless, and 31 seconds later, Hurless added an unassisted goal.

The Illini bench also got involved in the scoring. Sophomore forward Brittany Ward, who is a Champaign native, scored the Illini’s final goal. She was able to get inside the box and freshman forward Ella Masar and Faherty found her for the score.

“Once we got one goal,” Faherty said. “It made it easier to get the others. The goals just kept coming. We were pretty upset that we tied them earlier in the year and we wanted to make up for that.”

In the win, the Illini posted their highest total of goals in a match all season. Senior goalkeeper Leisha Alcia got her eighth shutout of the year.

The Illini believe they made a statement in that first game.

“It was definitely great to get a win in our first game,” Karniski said. “Not only did we win it, but we won 5-0. I think that makes a statement that we are going to come out and play.”

The Illini advance to play No. 1-seeded Penn State in the semifinals tomorrow at 3:30 p.m.

“We’ll sit down and talk about it tonight,” Karniski said. “We’ll prepare ourselves mentally and come out and compete and play our best.”

With the way the Illini played in Penn State earlier this season, falling to the Nittany Lions by a score of 2-0 in a highly contested battle, they believe they can pull off the upset.

“We’re excited about it,” Faherty said. “We played well against them earlier in the season and we couldn’t come up with a win. We want to finish this time around.”