2-1 victory over UMD
MARQUETTE, Mich. — The NMU women’s soccer team rounded out the opening weekend home stand with another win, grinding out a 2-1 decision against the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs.
“A win’s a win, and we’ll take it no matter how you come by it,” added head coach Erin Egolf in her post-game media availability. “It was a scrappy game against a scrappy team that gave us everything they had, and again, we had a moment of resilience there [at the end]. [We] let in an equalizer late, and again, our response was great: we come back down a couple minutes and find the game-winner. That’s huge.”
The Wildcats started on the front foot right away, as senior forward Isabella Lorens assisted on an Alyse Daavettila goal just 44 seconds into the match. Lorens was awarded a spot in the starting eleven after notching a pair of assists in the 3-2 win against St. Cloud on Friday, giving her three assists in her opening two matches.
After a relatively equal first half of play on the stat sheet, with each team registering five shot attempts, the Bulldogs piled on the pressure in the second half, outshooting the ‘Cats 15-2 in the final 45 minutes, with eight on goal to two, and garnering four corners to one.
The Bulldogs also held an advantage in corners in the second half, 4-1, and capitalized on a set piece, scoring a header from a corner with just over eight minutes to go to notch the game level. But just like the St. Cloud match on Friday, the ‘Cats responded to the goal conceded with one of its own just moments later, as senior captain Madison Bilbia played a ball to cutting Addison Frantti, who was able to collect the pass and beat the keeper to the far side.
“It was a great feeling [scoring that goal],” added Frantti. “We knew we had to score, and it was only a couple minutes left, so [I am] glad we were able to get a six-point weekend for the team. We went down [and had to come back] last game [against St. Cloud], and then this game they tied it up [late and we responded again], so it’s great to be able to pull off two wins like that against two quality teams… We’ve got two more tough opponents next weekend, and we’ll continue to work hard.”
“They put us under a lot of pressure, in that second half, especially, and that’s how our conference is going to be in a lot of games,” added Egolf. “You’re going to have to dig results out; [it] might not always be pretty soccer, but you’ve gotta find a way, so I’m really proud of him for finding a way to win today.
“We hadn’t been out of our half for most of the second half. We had [to deal with] pressure, pressure, pressure, and then really good composure from [Bilbia] to find a good run from Addison, and the finish was class, it doesn’t get better than that, especially again after you go down [just earlier]. We talked a lot about mentality on Friday, and this speaks a lot to their mentality… we found a way to dig out a result.”
A big reason for the positive result and three points for the win was the play of redshirt-sophomore goalkeeper Carly Sides, who made eight saves from 20 attempts and 10 on target, the second-most saves in a game in her collegiate career. Sides has now earned wins in back-to-back starts to open the campaign, and holds a .769 SV% and 1.50 GAA.
“I did anything to keep the ball out of the back of the net. I owe it a lot to my defense, and the entire starting eleven today… We were able to connect. [The Bulldogs] were applying a lot of high pressure, and building around [the defense] helped give us success today… [The two wins this weekend] feel awesome, and we’re going to keep working hard. We can’t let the highs get too high or the lows too low, and we’ll keep working toward two games in Ohio next weekend.”
The starting back line of captains Madalyn Nissen and Irene Kiilunen, Riley Hill, and Ava Buhlman put in a full 90-minute shift against the Bulldogs today to go along with netminder Sides, who credited their play as a crucial piece of the team’s success down the stretch and into clutch time.
“It’s hard to play 90 minutes, and it’s hard to play 90 minutes under pressure even more,” said Egolf. “The fact that they were able to hang in there and deal with a lot of pressure as [the Bulldogs] threw a lot of numbers forward, especially in that last 15 minutes to try and equalize. I thought they managed it.
“We put ourselves under a lot of pressure today by not being able to keep the ball, but again, it’s how we respond to things, and I thought our back four responded really well. We had a lot of communication; they covered for one another very well, and to allow one goal against a team that’s putting on that much pressure [was good]. We still have some things to work on, but to go 90 minutes, especially after that effort we put in on Friday, is tremendous.”
The Wildcats saw 17 players make appearances today, adapting and adjusting to what was being thrown at them over the course of the match. After a taxing game against #16 St. Cloud State on Friday, head coach Egolf knows that one of this teams’ strengths is its depth off the bench.
“They have a lot of belief in each other, and it doesn’t matter who it is [on the field], they all expect a lot. The standards are high, we have a belief in what we’re doing, and I think we’ve got to take that into every game. Not every game’s going to be beautiful, perfect soccer, and today certainly wasn’t, but we still found a way to get it done, and I think that that speaks a lot to them and being able to be adaptable and flexible in how we play… I was super proud of them on Friday, and even more so today. Friday took a lot out of us, and we came back, and we put in even more of a shift today. That’s really great to see that so early on from this group.”
And now, after successfully defending home turf and starting the season 2-0, the ‘Cats round out the non-conference schedule with a trip to Cedarville, Ohio, where the team will take on the Yellow Jackets on Thursday and the Northwood Timberwolves on Saturday. Fans can watch the action on FloCollege and follow along using LiveStats provided by nmuwildcats.com.
