Oct. 28, 2007

Box Score

Locks of Love Day Photos

EVANSTON, Ill. -- Senior Shannon Schneeman (St. Paul, Minn./Cretin-Derham Hall) scored at the 02:55 mark and the Wildcats received contributions from Kelsey Hans (Lakeville, Minn./Lakeville) and Alicia Herczeg (Agoura Hills, Calif./Agoura) to down the Iowa Hawkeyes Sunday at Lakeside Field, 3-0. After the game, head coach Stephanie Erickson and several players cut their hair in support of Locks of Love.

With the win, Northwestern improves to 8-6-4 overall and 3-4-2 in the Big Ten. Iowa falls to 7-7-4, 3-6-0 in conference. Sunday's game will air at 7 p.m. CT Monday evening on the Big Ten Network.

The Wildcats picked up a valuable three points in the Big Ten standings and sit in seventh place with 11 points, one point ahead of eighth place Iowa. The Wildcats, who can finish no worse than eighth in the conference, have secured a spot in the eight-team Big Ten Tournament field with one game remaining.

After the two teams exchanged fouls in the opening two minutes of the contest, Northwestern got on the board at 02:55 on Schneeman's team-leading eighth goal of the season. The senior took a cross into the box and after an Iowa defender touched the ball, but could not clear, Schneeman buried the ball into the back of the net to give NU the 1-0 lead on what ended up being the game-winning goal.

Four of Schneeman's eight goals on the year have been game-winners.

NU took six shots in the first half and forced three Hawkeye saves. Jenny Dunn (Pacific Palisades, Calif./Louisville) and Schneeman forced two Hawkeye saves in the middle of the first half before the Wildcats extended their lead to 2-0.

The Wildcats forced a corner kick at 34:15 and freshman Sam Greene (Santa Monica, Calif./Santa Monica) did the honors. Greene served to the head fellow freshman Jennifer Baumann (Waukesha, Wis./Waukesha) who headed the ball into the goal box where Herczeg was waiting. The sophomore used her head to notch her career-high fourth goal of the season. Herczeg has two goals in the Wildcats' last three games.

Greene forced a save in the closing minutes of the first, but the Wildcats went into halftime with a 2-0 lead.

The Wildcats put on some early pressure to start the second half as Schneeman registered two shots on goal to force two saves in the first seven minutes.

NU added insurance at 51:40 as Hans -- who was not to be out done by Schneeman after she took a temporary team lead in goals -- notched her eighth goal of the year to give NU a 3-0 lead. Hans took a serve from fellow senior Kelly Sitkowski (Elk Grove Village, Ill./Conant) and used her chest to steer the ball into the goal. Hans now stands with 36 goals in her career.

It appeared Iowa had closed to 3-1, but the goal was waved off due to a player being offsides.

Coach Erickson used the opportunity let several Wildcats see the pitch in the 3-0 win. Carolyn Edwards (Lincolnshire, Ill./Stevenson) played close to 19 minutes in goal and the Wildcats used a total of 24 players on the afternoon.

"This was a huge game for us in our push to make the Big Ten Tournament," Erickson said. "We were able to translate what we worked on in practice this week to the game field."

With the shutout, Northwestern has registered eight on the season.

NU closes out the regular season at 7 p.m. Friday night against Wisconsin at Lakeside Field. It will be first night game played at Northwestern's new facility.