Northern Illinois Advances to the MAC Championship Game
MAC Women's Soccer Tournament Bracket
MAC Women's Soccer Tournament Central
No. 8 Northern Illinois 3, No. 4 Western Michigan 2
Box Score
VIDEO: Northern Illinois Head Coach John Ross
VIDEO: Northern Illinois Junior Allie Ingham
KENT, Ohio - The Northern Illinois Huskies advance to the Mid-American Conference Championship game for the first time since 2006 after defeating the Western Michigan Broncos 3-2 on Friday evening at Dix Stadium at Kent State University.
KENT, Ohio – The NIU women's soccer team (5-10-5, 3-6-2 MAC) won their Mid-American Conference tournament semi-final against Western Michigan (13-7-1, 6-4-1 MAC) 3-2 at Dix Stadium on Friday.
The Broncos scored the first goal of the match as Megan Ross got the ball after a corner and beat
MacKenzie Lee (Yorkville, Ill./Yorkville) after Lee had made a diving save on a previous shot. The Huskies only managed one shot on goal in the first half and didn't get any corner kicks with Western getting four corners.
NIU scored tied the game in the 50th minute as
Allie Ingham (Arlington Heights, Ill./Buffalo Grove) received a ball headed by
Natalie Yass (Waukesha, Wis./Waukesha West) after a cross was made by
Jennie Nailor (Hoffman Estates, Ill./Hoffman Estates). Ingham also scored the go-ahead goal in the 59thminute after Yass played the ball into the box and it bounced over the head of keeper Stephanie Heber where Ingham won the race to knock the ball in the net.
"Allie was prepared and ready," Head Coach
John Ross said. "She followed the ball really well on both goals and made sure she put them in the net."
The Huskies added some insurance as freshman
Kelsey Chope (San Jose, Calif./Leland) scored her first career goal in the 73rd minute as she bounced a ball into the box that went through the hands of Heber and into the net before a WMU defender could get to it. That goal made the game 3-1 NIU but would end up being the game winner as WMU's Alex Ruffer scored in the 83rd minute to cut the lead in half.
