Oct. 12, 2007

Box Score

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Although Illinois held a 20-9 advantage in shots through 110 minutes of soccer, Northwestern battled the Illini to a scoreless tie Friday in Champaign. Senior goalkeeper Lauren Johnston (Denver, Colo./Denver East) made six saves to earn her third shutout of the season.

With the tie, Northwestern's record moves to 6-5-3, 1-2-1 in the Big Ten, while Illinois moves to 7-4-1, 2-2-1 in conference.

The Illini came out fast, racking up three quick shots on the Wildcats through the first seven minutes of the first half. Johnston made four of her saves in the opening frame as Illinois fired off eight shots. NU took two shots in the first half with neither going on goal.

Alicia Herczeg (Agoura Hills, Calif./Agoura) took one in the early stages of the half and Krystal Patterson (St. Louis, Mo./Shiloh (Ga.)) let one fly in the 43rd minute.

Despite the shot disadvantage, NU and Illinois went into the half tied at 0-0.

The Wildcats put on some early pressure in the second half as Shannon Schneeman (St. Paul, Minn./Cretin-Derham Hall) took her first of four shots for the contest and the 'Cats registered a corner kick opportunity. The Illini hit the crossbar in the 53rd minute and had two shots blocked in the 59th minute for the Wildcats to preserve the tie.

Schneeman took two more shots in the middle stages of the second half as the Wildcats could keep the Illini out of their third of the field. The Illini recovered and had a shot blocked and then saved in the 86th minute. Freshman Jennifer Baumann (Waukesha, Wis./Catholic Memorial) followed up with having a shot of hers blocked in the next minute.

Johnston made a save in the 89th minute to keep the score knotted at 0-0 and force the first of two overtime periods.

Johnston made a save off a header shot five minutes into the first overtime to preserve the tie on Illinois' only opportunity. In the second of two 10-minute overtimes, Illinois had two shots go wide in the first three minutes before NU registered its only shot on goal -- a Jenny Dunn (Pacific Palisades, Calif./Louisville) shot -- in the 106th minute.

The Illini had one shot sail high with three seconds left and the game ended in a 0-0 tie.

The game was NU's only contest of the weekend. The Wildcats return to action at 4:30 p.m. Friday at Michigan. The game will be televised live by the Big Ten Network.