BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – After an early 1-0 deficit that lasted more than 30 minutes, Wisconsin (9-2-3 overall, 3-1-1 Big Ten) bounced back to knock off the Hoosiers (6-5-2, 2-4-0) with a 2-1 victory on Friday evening. The sophomore, forward duo of Cameron Murtha and Lauren Rice pushed Wisconsin over the edge.
The Hoosiers broke the scoring open early, sneaking a shot by Wisconsin keeper Jordyn Bloomer in the 14th minute. Mykayla Brown was behind the goal, her fourth for the season.
Wisconsin let loose in the second half with the first goal coming in the 50th minute on a cross from Camryn Biegalski which led to a Murtha header. The goal was Murtha’s third of the season.
In the 73rd minute, Rice put a move on the Hoosier defender before rocketing a shot to the top, left corner of the goal, giving Wisconsin a 2-1 lead and sealing the victory.
UW outshot Indiana, 11-7 and held a 6-2 corner advantage in Friday’s contest.
Straight from the pitch:
Head coach Paula Wilkins
On the team ability to attack:
“We talked after this past weekend that we wanted to be able to take risks and put some teams under more pressure and I thought the team did a really good job of responding to that. I thought the work rate around the box and getting in the box was 100 times better than it was last weekend and I’m happy with the team being able to respond in that way.”
On the comeback:
“I thought it was good. One thing I told the team was that, even though we got a goal down they didn’t give up. In fact, I thought they kind of stepped up from what they were doing with the pressure and there was a belief in them that they were going to score. They didn’t hang their heads and it showed how this team can be resilient.”
On building for the Purdue game:
“We talked about the energy level and what we need to be able to bring. Indiana threw something different at us, tactically, like other teams have and we just have to prepare to be flexible in those different areas. Every game is teaching us something new and coming out of this game we hope to use this to get better and prepare for the next match.”
Up next: Wisconsin remains on the road to take on Purdue on Sunday, Oct. 7 at Noon. The game can be streamed on BTN2Go.
