University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
Rutgers (Quarterfinals)
Gophers Bow Out of Big Ten Tournament
11/1/2015 12:00:00 AM | Soccer
Nov. 1, 2015
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. - The No. 6 seed University of Minnesota women's soccer team fell to the No. 3 seed Scarlet Knights of Rutgers 4-1 in the quarterfinal round of the Big Ten tournament.
With the loss, Minnesota's record moves to 11-6-3 overall.
"Rutgers did a great job capitalizing in our mistakes in critical moments," said head coach Stefanie Golan. "They are a really good team and we expect them to do well moving forward."
"Rutgers has a really great back line and they are very disciplined defensively, so anytime we play them, we know that we're going to have a rough time getting looks," said freshman April Bockin. "I think today that we did a better job at keeping the ball around the box and creating more opportunities but unfortunately, we just didn't capitalize on them."
Minnesota got on board early as sophomore Maddie Gaffney scored her third goal of the season off a corner kick just three minutes into the game.
"We started out fast with a goal off a corner that Maddie put directly in," said Golan. "We know that they struggle with corners, so each time we earned one, we felt like we had a chance to score."
The Gophers early tally would be the only one for the Maroon and Gold as Rutgers would answer with two, leading into to half.
Twelve minutes in, Cassie Inacio scored unassisted just outside the right of the 18 to deflect off the defender to score.
With under ten minutes to play, Erica Skroski scored off a header fed by Rachel Cole on a free kick.
In the first period, Minnesota notched four shots, earned three corner kicks, tallied one save and had four fouls.
"We knew today was going to be really tough, but I think that we did a really good job, especially in the first half controlling the ball in the midfield and getting it there," said junior co-captain and Big Ten Forward of the Year, Simone Kolander. "I was just that final piece, whether it was taking a shot or obviously finishing to the goal that we had trouble with."
Sixteen minutes into the second half, Rutgers' Colby Ciarrocca scored off a rebound as the ball came out of possession from junior goalkeeper Tarah Hobbs in the goal.
The Scarlet Knights final tally came in the 77th-minute as Hayley Katkowski chipped in near the post off a Kenie Wright corner kick.
Hobbs' record in goal moves to 10-6-3 on the season.
On the night, the Gophers tallied eight shots, five corner kicks, three saves and nine fouls.
"We're in a little bit of a rut, but we have a whole week of practices now and some time off and we'll watch the NCAA selection show together on Monday and hope for the best," said Bockin.
"We're disappointed, because one of our goals in the beginning of the season was to win the Big Ten Championship and now, that's not going to happen for us. But, all we can do is just keep our heads up and focus on what's next and that's possibly a post-season run in the tournament."
"For us, we need to take advantage of the time we have to prepare for the next step," said Golan. "It is my job to have the team ready to compete and read to execute and I haven't done a good enough job the past few games. We have a really good team when we put it all together, but we will work to get back to a good place while we await the NCAA selections. If we are fortunate enough to be selected, we as a staff are confident that we can have our team ready to perform. We love our group and will work to come out on the other side of this."
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