Women’s soccer claims No. 4 seed in Big Ten Tournament

A 3-1 loss to Nebraska in Lincoln on Friday assured IU of the No. 4 seed in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament on Wednesday in Champaign, Ill.

IU will play tournament host Illinois at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The Hoosiers (13-5-1, 6-5) and Nebraska (15-3-1, 10-1) both registered 10 shots, but the Cornhuskers were able to finish on their chances more often.

“Overall, we played well,” IU Coach Amy Berbary said. “Again, the story of our season, we didn’t finish on the chances we were given, and when you play good teams, the further in the season you go, you’re going to get fewer chances.

“Today we just came up short,” Berbary said.

After the first 30 minutes of the game were spent mostly in the midfield, Nebraska broke through with a goal when junior Mayme Conroy scored to the far post from just inside the 18-yard box.

Despite a number of scoring chances from junior Kayleigh Stegierwalt, IU was unable to register a goal and went into the half down 1-0.

“Coming into halftime, we told ourselves we did a good job, and we just need to keep it up,” senior midfielder Lisa Nouanesengsy said. “We just needed to get an early goal in the second half.”

Coming out of the locker room in the second half, IU earned that chance to score an equalizer after senior forward Rebecca Candler was taken down in the box to earn a penalty kick.

Nouanesengsy remained a perfect 3-for-3 on penalty kicks in her career after beating the Cornhusker’s goalie to tie the game at 1-1. It was her 10th goal of the season, giving her the most by an IU player since Kristin Arnold also scored 10 in 2007.

“Once we got that goal, we were in it again,” Nouanesengsy said. “That helped us build some momentum.”

But the Hoosiers were unable to find the back of the net again as inclement weather picked up in the second half.

IU was forced to play against the wind as the rain picked up. Nebraska responded to the weather better and was able to tally another goal in the 67th minute and a third in the 85th minute to close out the game and win the Big Ten regular season outright.

“It kind of took us out of our game a little bit,” Berbary said. “We were forced to do some things that we’re not comfortable with. We were forced to play some balls in behind a little more. It kind of played into (Nebraska’s) style a little bit. It really put us
at a disadvantage.”

Wednesday’s trip to the Big Ten Tournament will be the Hoosiers first since 2007, where they lost to Ohio State in overtime in the first round.

“I’m really excited,” Nouanesengsy said. “I think this team deserves to be in the Big Ten Tournament. We worked so hard this year that we are all just excited to get in, and hopefully we can do well.”

Follow reporter Sam Beishuizen on Twitter @Sam_Beishuizen.