NIU women’s soccer (9-4-5, 3-3-4 MAC) scored a late goal to tie with the University of Toledo Rockets (6-7-4, 3-4-3 MAC), leaving the Huskies tied for fifth place in Mid-American Conference standings with one match remaining.
“I’m proud of the resilience to come back from down a goal,” said NIU women’s soccer head coach Michael O’Neill. “Putting ourselves in a difficult position is not a good thing, but the resilience, the perseverance to come back to get that goal could be hugely important for us with one game left. Really proud of the energy and effort. I don’t think we shied away from that against a tough, well coached team. We deserve to get that point.”
In the 37th minute Rockets sophomore midfielder Kayla Flory sent a header just out of reach of NIU graduate student goalkeeper Ary Purifoy.
After the goal for Toledo, NIU limited the Rockets’ offense to 1 shot for the remainder of the match.
Senior defender Lea Gruennagel reflected on the Huskies’ defensive effort.
“We really wanted to press high and play in their half,” Gruennagel said. “We wanted to limit their shots on goal and dominate the game. It’s a good result to still get one (point) out of the game.”
NIU forced Rockets freshman goalkeeper Paige Dornheggen to make 6 saves before they found the back of the net.
In the 86th minute, graduate student midfielder Abby Zipse stepped up to take a corner kick for the Huskies, hooking the ball into the net, scoring for the third straight game.
Zipse explained her mindset, and how the Huskie offense dominated the match.
“It just takes one,” Zipse said. “I used to joke that I was cursed, and that first goal kind of broke that curse and now I’m just trying to go out with a bang. I think it really helped that we were dominating the game. We were going at them and going at their goal. With how dominant we were on the attack and just continuing to go at them, I felt like we could get at least one.”
“I’d be lying if I said I thought she’d score three in a row,” said O’Neill on Zipse’s success. “The more she starts to think about life after college and soccer, she’s still got 100% heart and soul in this program. Scoring goals and winning games, getting us back in games, it kind of sums her up because she’s just a warrior. She’s out learned on and off the field, so really pleased for her.”
The Huskies outshot the Rockets 11-3, while creating 7 shots on goal. Sophomore forward Tyra King created 6 shots, 5 of which were on goal.
The Huskies are currently tied with Miami University for fifth place in the MAC, looking to clinch the last spot in the Championship Tournament in their last match of the regular season.
“We’ve got to be brave, we’ve got to be courageous,” O’Neill said. “We’re not going to deviate too much from the NIU soccer that we’ve played all year. We’ll look forward to what Thursday will bring and be ready for the challenge as we always are. It’s going to be chaos (in the MAC standings). As the chaos ensues around us, we can only control ourselves and I’ll echo that message this week. What will be, will be, but if we take care of business then good things will happen.”
UP NEXT
The Huskies play their final regular season match at 2 p.m. CST Thursday against the Western Michigan University Broncos at the WMU Soccer Complex in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Live stats will be updated on StatBroadcast and a live stream will be available via Broncos All Access.
