Sept. 24, 2005
Box Score
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Northwestern's field hockey team dropped its Big Ten opener at Penn State on Saturday, Sept. 24, by the score of 6-2.
Northwestern lit up the scoreboard first just nine minutes into the match, as forward Jill Putnam (Greenfield, Mass./Greenfield) rebounded a shot in front of the Penn State cage and sent it past the Nittany Lions' keeper to make it 1-0 Northwestern.
The Wildcats kept the Penn State offense on its heals until the 20th minute when Penn State's Bekah Hostetler shot one from the top of the circle past NU goalkeeper Sherri-Anne Nyberg (Kelowna, British Columbia/Kelowna Secondary) to tie the score at 1-1.
Six minutes later, Nyberg was called for a foul and Penn State scored on the ensuing penalty stroke, making it 2-1.
After two more late Penn State goals, the Wildcats went into the break down 4-1.
Northwestern played evenly with the Nittany Lions coming out of the break and continued their play for most of the second stanza. But with 10 minutes to go, Penn State tallied two quick scores to give them a 6-1 lead.
Northwestern's Meghan Small (Bethlehem, Pa./Moravian Academy) took a Christine Nannicelli (Walpole, Mass./Walpole) pass following a penalty corner and knocked it home for the game's final, 6-2.
With the loss, the 'Cats drop to 5-3 on the year. Northwestern will be back in action at Bucknell starting at 10 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 25.