NIU women’s soccer opened conference play with a 1-1 draw on the road against the Miami University Redhawks.
“It’s a very difficult place to come here, you know, I don’t think many teams have come here and won games,” said NIU women’s soccer head coach Michael O’Neill. “How they play, the environment, the field is pretty small, so you know, we’re definitely seeing that as a point gain rather than the two lost.”
After a scoreless first half, Huskies sophomore forward Tyra King opened the scoring in the 46th minute.
“We had a free kick, and then (senior defender) Lea (Gruennagel) played it to (junior forward) Kelsi (McLaughlin), and then she played a ball in front of the post,” King said. “So I just ran onto it and headed it, and then luckily it went in.”
King leads the Huskies with 6 goals on the season.
The Huskies lead lasted until the 75th minute of play when Redhawk fifth-year defender Jamie Hlebec tied the game 1-1.
SAVES GALORE
Despite allowing a goal, graduate student goalkeeper Ary Purifoy recorded a season-high 8 saves.
“She (Purifoy) was huge for us,” O’Neill said. “She came in clutch, you know, unfortunately, we were unable to preserve the shutout. But you know, if it wasn’t for her, they could have scored a couple more, for sure, so we are really, really proud of Ary’s (Purifoy’s) efforts.”
In the 25th minute, Purifoy saved a penalty kick to keep the match scoreless.
“We did scouting, and I already knew going in before the game that she was going to go on my right side,” Purifoy said.
OFFENSE OUTCLASSED
The Huskies were outshot 19-10 in Thursday’s game. This is the second time NIU has been outshot this season – the other being 15-14 against the University of Notre Dame on Sept. 5.
Only 4 of the Huskies’ 10 shots were on target, with one being King’s goal.
“We need to make better decisions in the final third, play a bit more, use another layer, rather than just taking maybe shots that aren’t necessarily on, and then just being more composed like in the final thirds, that probably helped us a lot,” King said.
UP NEXT
The Huskies return at 1 p.m. Sunday to face the reigning Mid-American Conference champion Ohio University Bobcats at the NIU Soccer and Track & Field Complex in DeKalb. Live streaming will be available on NIU All-Access and live stats will be provided by SIDEARM Stats.
