Illinois soccer traveled to Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium to face the Minnesota Golden Gophers on Sunday. After a good early start for the Illini, they failed to build on it throughout the game and faced the consequences.
It was a match heavily dominated by the Gophers overall, but the Illini started off strong with a goal in the fourth minute. A well-taken corner by junior defender Ella Karolak was connected to by sophomore midfielder Lia Howard, who continued her purple patch with a well-taken, right-footed strike past graduate goalkeeper Megan Plaschko into the bottom left corner.
The Gophers responded in the eighth minute with a nice one-two passing play on the edge of the box that resulted in a shot by senior midfielder Sophia Boman to the top of the net, which was tipped over the crossbar by senior goalkeeper Julia Cili.
Minnesota continued threatening the Illinois goal with a corner that was initially well-defended by the Illini, but the resulting clearance led to a hopeful ball back into the box, which was headed wide from point-blank range by senior midfielder Sophia Romine — a let-off for the Illini.
The Gophers eventually equalized in the 15th minute. A good turn in the midfield led to a line-breaking through ball to graduate forward Megan Nemec, whose one-on-one attempt was well-saved by Cili, but the rebound fell into the path of graduate forward Izzy Brown, who could not miss from a yard out.
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The Gophers went ahead minutes later after a mistake by sophomore defender Ellen Persson, which led to Nemec driving down the right sideline before whipping in a low ball across the box that was passed into the bottom left corner by Romine.
The Illini fought hard but massively struggled to take control of the match. Despite a few good saves by Cili to keep it a one-goal deficit, the Gophers increased their lead a few minutes from full-time. A switch-off in defense allowed Nemec to dribble into the box unchallenged before playing a ball across for Romine to tap it in for her second goal of the match. Final score: Illinois 1, Minnesota 3.
The Illini hoped for better coming into this match after losing to the Ohio State Buckeyes, but it was not to be. This result brings their overall season record to 5-5-3 and their conference record to 1-3-2. Illinois looks for a bounce-back performance on Thursday against Wisconsin at Demirjian Park.
@morrar_mazen
