[NORTHWESTERN WOMEN] It’s been 12 seasons since Northwestern went to the NCAA Tournament, but the Wildcats look like NCAA material as evidenced by their 1-0 winover UCLA, which lost its first game to an unranked team since 2006.
A pair of freshman combined for the lone goal in the 54th minute.
KateAllen scored off a cross from Julie Sierks, who had driven her way through traffic to the end line for her third goal in three games.
“Ithought we earned the win,” said Northwestern coach Stephanie Foster. “I think you go into that game expecting to defend, which we did, but we also created alot of good chances for ourselves and we were able to put one away in the second half. This is definitely the biggest regular-season win ever for our program.”
The Wildcats’ ability tohandle UCLA’s set pieces was key. Senior goalkeeper Carolyn Edwards made several key saves and disrupted UCLA’s 10 corner kicks.
“Our backline was so smart today,” Foster said. “UCLA has incredible athleticism but we didn’t let them get in behind us. And Carolyn really owned her box. She was brilliant.”
Northwestern nearlywent on top in the 43rd minute when Emily Langston shot from point-blank range. UCLA goalkeeper Chante’ Sandiford made adiving stop to her left, but the rebound kicked back to Northwestern. Jill Dunn crossed the ball back to Sierks, whose shot was again stopped by Sandiford.
The win keeps Northwestern unbeaten through three games for the first time since the 1998 season.
It puts its unbeaten record on the line Tuesday night when it travels to rankedBYU.