Bowling Green State University Athletics
Women's Soccer Drops Home Opener, 4-2
September 29, 2000 | Women's Soccer
Sept. 29, 2000
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University women's soccer team mounted a late rally, but could not recover from a 3-0 deficit against Northern Illinois University in Mid-American Conference action Friday afternoon (Sept. 29). The result was a 4-2 NIU win at BGSU's Cochrane Field in the Falcons' home opener.
The visiting Huskies, now 3-7-1 overall and 1-2-1 in MAC play, got first-half goals from a pair of Andersons to take a 2-0 lead into the intermission. Megan Anderson scored on the rebound of a Becca Bleyer shot at the 16:02 mark, and Tiffany Anderson doubled the lead just under seven minutes later.
In the second half, Katie Klaas, who had drawn an assist on NIU's second goal, scored a marker of her own at 56:14 to give the visitors a three-goal lead.
Junior Beth Wechsler got the Falcons on the board at the 67:33 mark, converting on her second penalty kick in three matches to cut the NIU advantage to 3-1.
Just over 10 minutes later, senior Michelle Lisy blasted a shot past NIU goalkeeper Katy Boll to cut the visitors' lead to a single goal. Classmate Jamie Eshleman drew an assist on Lisy's 16th career goal, which ties her for the school lead with Tracy Gleixner. Lisy's goal came at the 77:49 mark.
The Huskies put the match away at 83:57, when Jill Heikkila scored on a header off a Bleyer corner kick.
The Falcons lost for the first time in four MAC matches, and drop to 5-4-0 overall.
BGSU fell despite holding a 22-9 advantage in shot attempts. The Falcons had 13 shots on goal to the Huskies' five, but Boll made 11 saves for the visitors.
Erika Flanders took the loss in goal, making one save on the day. Freshman Ashley Beel played the final 29:33 in net.
"We found a team who did to us what we've been doing to other teams," said Falcon head coach Andy Richards. "Northern Illinois played with intensity, played with passion and put us under pressure.
"Unfortunately, it coincided with a 45-minute stretch in which we didn't play with any composure. We fell into their trap, and didn't play to our strength.
"In the second half, we showed real strength of character in coming back to make it a 3-2 game. But, we had put ourselves into a hole by defensing poorly and making mistakes.
"Michelle Lisy had a great strike on her goal, and Beth put away her penalty kick. We had some other good performances -- Kasey Freeman came on and showed some passion in the last 10 minutes, and Lindsay Enser had another good game, to name a few.
"But, we are very disappointed in the performance. We have undone a lot of good work that we have done in the past. But, we have a lot of matches left, and we will have chances to make things right. Hopefully, we can start with a good performance Sunday."
The Falcons return to action with that Sunday (Oct. 1) match, taking on Western Michigan University at Cochrane Field. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:00 p.m.
