Huskies Stun Top Seed Ball State In Penalty Shootout (original) (raw)

MUNCIE, Ind. – The NIU women's soccer team (4-10-5, 3-6-2 MAC) upset Mid-American Conference regular season champion Ball State (14-3-3, 9-1-1 MAC) Sunday as the game went to a penalty shootout.

"We've been taking PKs at practice for a couple of weeks now," Head Coach John Ross said. "We had an idea of who was comfortable, where they go, what type of shots they take and we narrowed it down last night."

The Huskies shot first in the shootout as Allie Ingham scored, and Allison Abbe of the Cardinals was stopped by MacKenzie Lee (Yorkville, Ill./Yorkville). Taylor Sarver (Machesney Park, Ill./Harlem) and Natalie Yass (Waukesha, Wis./Waukesha West) both scored for NIU as did Lorina White and Monica Padilla for Ball State.

Natalia Pena (Hoffman Estates, Ill./Hoffman Estates) was next up for NIU and she was stopped by Cardinal goalkeeper Alyssa Heintschel with Paula Guerrero scoring for Ball State to tie the shootout. Haley Cummings (Spring, Texas/Home School) put the pressure on Ball State by scoring and Lee came up huge again by stopping Yela Ziswiler, clinching the win for NIU.

"MacKenzie plays like a starting goalie," Ross said. "It's just taken her a little bit of time to get more and more comfortable but we know she can play and she's a really good goalie."

Both sides split possession about evenly in the first half with the Cardinals getting five shots to two for the Huskies, including opening goal of the match by Sam Kambol in the 38th minute. Kambol won a bouncing ball in the center of the field about five yards outside the box and fired a shot over Lee that sunk under the crossbar for the goal.

The Huskies got the equalizer in the 58th minute as Sarver found a bouncing ball off of a Yass free kick and put it in the back of the net.

"For Taylor, it just takes one little crack and she can change the game," Ross said. "Natalie is more comfortable now with all that we put on her making a lot of plays on set pieces as a freshman."

The Huskies now advance to the semifinals of the MAC Tournament to be played at Kent State on Friday as the Huskies will face Western Michigan.