University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
Nebraska
Late Goals Send Minnesota Over Nebraska, 4-2
10/26/2012 12:00:00 AM | Soccer
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Oct. 26, 2012
In the final match-up of the regular season, the Minnesota Golden Gophers defeated the Nebraska Cornhuskers, 4-2, to earn the No. 4 seed in the Big Ten Tournament. After an early lead, Nebraska came back to tie the game, but Lauren Bauer and Allie Phillips scored two more in the last four minutes to lift the Gophers to an 11-7-1 overall record (6-4-1 B1G) on the season.
Senior Tamara Strahota found the back of the net first, scoring in the twelfth minute of the match to put the Gophers ahead early. A battle in the box set up multiple blocked shots by the Maroon and Gold before Strahota connected to the upper left corner. At the 29:36 minute mark, a well-executed play from Olivia Bagnall and Taylor Wodnick pushed the ball forward and cleared the Nebraska defense to open the opportunity for Katie Thyken from 10 yards out.
With just over 13 minutes left to play, Mayme Conroy tightened the gap with a goal for the Cornhuskers, shooting from 18 yards out to the upper left corner. Eight minutes later, Conroy found the net again to tie the match at two.
Not to be outdone, the Gophers fired two goals within 50 seconds of each other to establish a two-goal lead once again. At 87:55, Wodnick served a corner kick, connecting with Bauer in the box for a header goal. Phillips followed with her own goal at 88:44 by chipping a shot from forty yards out to soar over Nebraska's goalie.
Strahota led the Gophers with four shots. Phillips had three shots while Taylor Uhl and Haley Helversen each added two. Minnesota held the slight shot advantage of 19 to 18 but showed greater accuracy with an 11 to 7 shot on goal edge.
As the No. 4 seed, the Gophers will face the No. 5 seed in game two of the opening day of the Big Ten Tournament on Oct. 31. Kickoff is scheduled for 1:30 p.m.
