EVANSTON, Ill. -- No. 13 Northwestern notched its second consecutive shutout as the Wildcats blanked 17th-ranked Indiana 3-0 Sunday afternoon at Lakeside Field.
"Indiana came in with one loss all season, so we knew it was going to be a tough battle," Northwestern head coach Tracey Fuchs said. "I thought we really executed our attack corners well and in the second half, in particular, we played a really nice possession game."
Despite boasting one of the top defenses in the Big Ten, NU entered the weekend without a clean sheet. However, the 'Cats earned a 1-0 overtime victory against Rutgers on Friday before completing the weekend with the blanking of the Hoosiers.
Northwestern was on the attack right out of the gates, earning a penalty in the opening minute of the contest. Though the Wildcats were unable to cash in on the opportunity they did in the seventh minute of play when Isabel Flens fed a beautiful pass to Caroline Troncelliti who was waiting on the doorstep to tap in a goal past Maggie Olson. The tally was the seventh of the year for Troncelliti.
Northwestern eventually extended its advantage to 2-0 at 28:43. An initial shot on goal by Flens was saved by Olson but the rebound came to Dominique Masters who roofed a rocket into the top of the cage for her sixth goal of the season.
The 'Cats carried the two-goal advantage into the intermission after holding a 7-2 advantage in shots.
Despite dominating the attack, the NU advantage remained a precarious two goals as the Wildcats were continually able to snuff out Indiana counter-attacks thanks in large part to the play of All-Big Ten back Lisa McCarthy and the rest of the Northwestern defense.
The 'Cats barely missed out on stretching their lead to three as shots by Ashley Bernardi and Flens went just wide of the cage. Olson made saves on Northwestern's third and fourth penalty corners of the half, but NU broke through on its fifth try as Flens took Masters' feed and knocked in her team-leading ninth goal of the season.
That was more than enough scoring for Maddy Carpenter and the Northwestern defense. The senior goalie made three saves while NU defenders made two more saves to earned the weekend shutout.
The Wildcats finished the match with an advantage of 16-7 in shots and allowed just two penalty corners after not allowing any to Rutgers on Friday. NU accumulated seven corners of its own.
Northwestern ventures away from Lakeside Field for each of the next three weekends beginning with a key conference tilt at Iowa next Sunday at noon.