Gophers End Season with Loss To Penn State in Big Ten Tournament
The University of Minnesota Golden Gopher Women’s Soccer team’s 2011 season came to an end on Friday afternoon in Evanston, Illinois, site of the Big Ten tournament. The lady Gophers (9-10-2) lost 3-1 to Penn State (19-3-0 overall) who won the Big Ten regular season with a 10-1-0 league record and who now move on to the post season tournament final on Sunday.
At the end of the game the Gophers lagged behind Penn State by only 4 shots with the Nittany Lions taking 11 to Minnesota’s 8. But corner kicks gave a better picture of Penn State’s ability to keep Minnesota off the ball and away from good scoring opportunities, dominating 9-2.
Penn State took the lead early in this one when Jess Rosenbluth chipped a shot over the Gopher defense and their goalkeeper Cat Parkhill in the 5th minute. The ball hit off the far post and thumped off a turning Parkhill’s face and caromed into the goal.
Ali Schaefer and Maddy Evans each scored goals for the Nittany Lions in the 67th and 77th minute respectively. Minnesota’s Big Ten Rookie of the year Taylor Uhl was able to get a consolation goal late in the game bringing her total on the year to 15.
“Myself and the rest of the Gopher soccer family would like to thank our four seniors for their dedication to the program,” head coach Mikki Denney Wright said.
“The team continued to grow and get better all year, so I expect to have a good season next year with having so many girls returning,” concluded Denney Wright.
It has been a frustrating year for Denney Wright as she was forced early to switch from her normal 3-5-2 formation to a 4-4-2 after giving up too many goals early in the season. The team continued to improve but like many young teams was inconsistent and gave up too many goals in critical moments of games. The encouraging factor for Denney Wright’s program is all the freshman that made a significant impact this season to the program and can only improve in the coming years.
The Gophers will also have Tamara Strahota back next season as a senior after being redshirted this year after recovering from a torn ACL sustained last summer.
Midfielder Olivia Bagnall, forward Nicole Baier, goalkeeper Cat Parkhill, midfielder Allie Phillips, and defender Marissa Price will all return next season, also as seniors, to lead the charge for the Gophers 2012 season.
Comments are closed.