The Illini upped their record to 3-1-2 on the season as they tied No. 23 Stanford 1-1 on Friday and defeated the University of San Francisco 2-0 Sunday.

The Illini and the Cardinal played a scoreless first half, but the Illini had the better of the play as they outshot the Cardinal 4-1.

“We had chances throughout the match, but we just weren’t able to capitalize on them,” said Illini head coach Janet Rayfield.

The game would continue to be scoreless until the 77th minute, when junior forward Eva Strickland broke the deadlock with a goal. She scored after a scramble in the box.

Stanford only had three shots on goal for the whole game, but in the 89th minute Stanford scored the tying goal.

Sophomore goalie Lindsay Carstens came off her line to control a cross by junior midfielder Rachel Buehler that came into the box, but she was unable to control the ball against Stanford midfielder Leah Trapscott. Trapscott put the ball in the net and forced overtime.

“We had cleared the ball, but our team didn’t push up together or she (Trapscott) timed her run perfectly. Lindsey came out to meet the cross, but she wasn’t able to get there,” Rayfield said.

Neither team was able to put a shot on goal in the two overtime periods, so both teams had to settle for a tie.

“I told my team that we had just outplayed one of the top teams in the country,” Rayfield said.

On Sunday, the Illini were able to defeat San Francisco 2-0 on goals in each half from Strickland and senior midfielder Laura Redmond.

San Francisco came out and put the first shot on goal as forward Laina Ceddia tested Carstens with a shot, but she was able to come up with the save.

After that the Illini were able to control the game as sophomore midfielder Kristy Weeks, sophomore defender Mary Therese McDonnell and freshman midfielder Marti Dejarlais had shots, but all of their shots went over the crossbar.

The Illini found the breakthrough in the 42nd minute as Strickland scored her second goal of the weekend. She received a ball from Weeks and chipped it over goalie Kelly Pohle to give the Illini a 1-0 lead going to halftime.

“We needed to be rewarded for our play in the first half. We had dominated the half, and the longer that the game remained scoreless, the more confidence they would have,” Rayfield said.

The Illini continued to control the game in the second half, and were able to give themselves some breathing room in the 81st minute, when Redmond scored her second goal of the season to give the Illini a 2-0 lead as the Illini were rarely threatened in the game.

“We put together two games of good soccer. The challenge we face is being more dangerous when push numbers forward into the attack,” Rayfield said.