In the 10th minute of Wednesday’s quarterfinal match of the Big Ten Tournament, the piercing sound of a whistle was heard and a red card was drawn from the pocket of a referee. A Minnesota player had successfully blown past the last Illinois defender on her way toward the goal. In an attempt to regain possession, Illinois freshman Amy Feher tripped the forward inside the 18-yard box. Minnesota was awarded a penalty kick, which sophomore Taylor Uhl converted for her 20th goal of the season.

Not only did the red card allow the Gophers to take the 1-0 lead, but it also forced the Illini to compete with 10 players on the field. After another Minnesota goal, Illinois scored two unanswered tallies to force extra time before winning on penalty kicks 3-2 to advance to Friday’s semifinal matchup.

“Our team has so much heart and is able to face adversity and (Wednesday) was really special,” senior Niki Read said. “It makes you enjoy it more when you do pull off wins like this because a win 5-0 would be wonderful, but when you win games like this, it pulls you closer together as a team and makes you realize how important each other are.”

In the 20th minute, freshman midfielder Aliina Weykamp recorded her first goal of the season after a free kick from junior midfielder Vanessa DiBernardo bounced over the charging keeper. Weykamp was able to come in from behind and fire it into the back of the net.

“She got in on several attacks before the goal and was a spark of energy,” head coach Janet Rayfield said. “She came in today and said, ‘Hey, I want to make a difference,’ and it showed with the fight and scrap in the box to get that goal. It was that goal that got us believing, and it was that goal that got them doubting whether or not just having 11 men was going to be enough of a difference.”

The second half started with back-and-forth possessions until the 65th minute when Read recorded her third goal in her last three games. The duo of DiBernardo and Read worked to the Illini’s advantage once again, tying the score 2-2 at the end of the 90-minute regulation period.

“Our forwards had been working so hard throughout the game, and I think that they were focusing on our front-runners,” Read said. “When I saw that opening, V (DiBernardo) just gave me the perfect ball.”

Heading into overtime was nothing new for Illinois, but this time the team was short-handed. For the second year in a row, Illinois would be battling for its place in the semifinals via penalty kicks.

With senior Steph Panozzo in the goal for the Illini, the confidence remained high after the end of double overtime.

“I trust her and know that she is going to come up big for us in games like this,” freshman Nicole Breece said. “I had no doubt that she was going to have some big saves today and going into PKs, I was 100 percent confident in her and knew that she could win us the game.”

Panozzo did just that, making a critical diving save to her left against Minnesota’s second kicker, Marissa Price. Next was Minnesota junior MacKenzie Misel, whose shot hit the post. Finally, sophomore Taylor Wodnick’s shot went wide.

Illinois sealed a bid to take on the tournament’s No. 1 seed, Penn State, with the three missed attempts.

“I don’t know how else to describe this performance except heart with a capital H-E-A-R-T,” Rayfield said. “This will be one of the games that will go down in the record books, not because it was a penalty kick win, but because of the way it happened and the inch-hurdle fortitude this team showed to make it happen.”

Gina can be reached at [email protected] and @muelle30.