University of Louisville
#19 ILLINOIS
Women's Soccer Drops Overtime Heartbreaker to No. 19 Illinois
August 28, 2011 | Women's Soccer
Aug. 28, 2011
Ferguson-Dayes Discusses Sunday's Game
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - After leading for more than 55 minutes in its 2011 home-opener, the Louisville women's soccer team suffered a heartbreaking 2-1 overtime loss to 19th-ranked Illinois on Sunday afternoon at Cardinal Park.
With the defeat, the Cardinals dropped to 1-1-1 overall on the season, while the Fighting Illini improved to 4-0 with the victory. Sunday's loss was the second overtime game of the weekend for Louisville, which earned a 1-1 overtime tie at Toledo on Friday night.
"In all honesty, I think we should've won the game because we had our chances to win it in 90 minutes but we didn't capitalize on two breakaways," said Louisville head coach Karen Ferguson-Dayes. "Illinois is an absolutely great team. We should have scored a second goal in the first half and we had two more legit chances for goals in the second half. Anytime you let a really good team hang around, they do exactly what Illinois did today. As upset as I am because it's a loss, I'm incredibly optimistic because of our effort."
The game-winning goal came in the 95th minute of action and the fifth minute of overtime as Illinois' Shayla Mutz controlled a loose ball, dribbled inside the 18-yard box and found the upper right corner of the net from the left side of pitch for her first goal of the season.
Despite the disappointing loss, the Cardinals had numerous positives while controlling the action for much of the game. After more than 23 minutes of scoreless action, Louisville struck first as sophomore Jordan Pawlik (Fort Wayne, Ind./Bishop Dwenger HS) got loose on a breakway and chipped past Illinois goalkeeper Steph Panozzo into the lower left corner for her second goal of the season. Freshman Devyn Ciotti (Liberty, Ohio/Lakota West HS) and sophomore Christine Exeter (Pickering, Ont./Pickering HS) had the assists on the goal, the first of the season for each.
Louisville held that lead through halftime and deep into the second half before the Fighting Illini broke through for the game-tying goal in the 79th minute when Megan Pawloski found the upper right corner of the net from 11 yards out. The two teams battled through the final 11 minutes of regulation before Illinois' game-winner in overtime.
Senior goalkeeper Chloe Kiefer (Whitefish Bay, Wis./Divine Saviour HS) finished with a career-best eight saves for the Cardinals, while Panozzo had four stops for the Fighting Illini. Illinois finished with a 14-12 advantage in shots, including a 10-5 margin in shots on-goal.
Up next, Louisville will host the Courtyard by Marriott Louisville Airport Cardinal Classic on Sept. 2-4 at Cardinal Park. U of L will play Baylor at 7:30 p.m., ET on Friday in a game that will be preceded by Central Michigan against Kentucky at 5 p.m. On Sunday, the Cardinals will play Central Michigan at 2:30 p.m., while Baylor and UK will open the doubleheader at noon ET.
