Gophers Draw Wisconsin in Big Ten Border Battle
University of Minnesota 2-2 University of Wisconsin–Madison
The cold and windy conditions in the Twin Cities on Thursday were the same conditions in Madison, Wisconsin where the women Gophers soccer team traveled for the border battle between the two Big Ten schools.
With the tough weather conditions, the Badgers (7-3-2, 2-0-2) may have thought they were in big trouble after the Gophers (4-6-2, 1-1-2) took an early lead in the 23rd minute on a goal from Nicole Baier unassisted. Taylor Uhl doubled the lead when she scored her 8th of the season just two minutes after the break. Her 47th minute goal put Minnesota up 2-0. But Wisconsin’s Lindsey Johnson scored just 10 minutes later from a corner kick served up by Woodbury, Minn., native Catie Sessisons. Then 3 minutes later Alev Kelter notched her 3rd of the year by beating Minnesota goalkeeper Cat Parkhill with an unassisted shot from 25 yards out.
“We obviously wanted to come out with a win, especially going up 2-0 against Wisconsin,” said head coach Mikki Denney Wright. “But in those kind of conditions, on the road against Wisconsin I’ll take the tie.”
“It was a much improved performance from Sunday. I think we’ve sorted a few things out with our group. We have to work on being consistent. This group is really up and down at this point which isn’t unusual for a young team. I think if we can sort out the consistency, we can get some good results in the next game.
That next game is a rare Sunday morning match at Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium where at 11:00 a.m. the Gophers kick off against defending Big Ten champion Penn State. The Nittany Lions come into Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium after defeating Ohio State 3-1 at home.
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