W Soccer: Ohio State Heads to Purdue & Illinois – Ohio State Buckeyes
10/22/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio State starts a season-ending stretch of road games with two games this weekend. At 4 p.m. Friday the Buckeyes play Purdue in West Lafayette, Ind., and at 1 p.m. Sunday the team plays Illinois in Champaign, Ill. Ohio State concludes its regular season schedule Friday, Oct. 31 with a 4 p.m. game at Penn State.
Team Records: Ohio State is 7-7-2 overall and 4-3-0 in the Big Ten Conference (5th with 12 points); Purdue is 10-4-3 overall and 4-1-2 (4th with 14 points) in the Big Ten; Illinois is 9-7-0 overall and 3-4-0 (T6th with nine points) in the Big Ten. Purdue is 6-1-1 at home this year. Illinois is 6-0-0.
LIVE STATS AVAILABLE
Watch live statistics of the Purdue game at www.purduesports.cstv.com and of the Illinois game at www.fightingillini.cstv.com.
MORE BIG, BIG TEN GAMES
Ohio State trails Big Ten leader Penn State by six points entering this weekend’s games and is three points in front of Wisconsin, Illinois and Northwestern, who currently hold down the final three of eight spots for the Big Ten Tournament, which will be contested Nov. 6-9 in Iowa City.
WHAT IS LEFT
Four teams – Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue and Illinois – finish the season with a round-robin set of games. Purdue has home matches at its Varsity Soccer Complex Friday vs. Ohio State and Sunday vs. Penn State. It closes out its season Oct. 31 at Illinois in a game that will be televised by the Big Ten Network. Illinois, starting with a game Friday vs. Penn State, plays its final three games at its home field, Illinois Soccer & Track Stadium, including its finale, Oct. 31, vs. Purdue.
MOST RECENTLY…
Ohio State snapped a two-game Big Ten losing streak with a 3-2 win over Iowa last Friday but then dropped a 2-0 game to Minnesota. After starting 3-0 in the Big Ten, Ohio State has lost three of its last four games.
Purdue is 5-1-2 in its last eight games, including a 2-1 OT loss to Indiana in its only Big Ten game last week.
Illinois, meanwhile, has lost three consecutive 1-0 games on the road (Iowa, Minnesota and Indiana) and has fallen out of the NSCAA/adidas Top 25 poll.
WHO TO WATCH
Eleven points in seven Big Ten Conference games has boosted Ohio State freshman Paige Maxwell into the team lead with seven goals and 16 points. Lisa Collison is right behind Maxwell with six goals and 14 points. Ashley Bowyer has a team-high six assists and 10 points.
Purdue, under the direction of 11th year coach Rob Klatte, is led by a trio of scorers: junior Loredana Riverso (7 goals, 4 assists, 18 points), freshman Kellie Phillips (4-7-15) and senior Felicia Schroeder (6-2-14).
Illinois, coached by seventh-year mentor Janet Rayfield, is led by junior Chichi Nweke (5-3-13) with seniors Marti Desjarlais and Emily Zurrer netting three goals apiece.
COMPARING THE TEAMS
Ohio State will be matching up against two of the most difficult teams to score against in the Big Ten. Illinois is second in the conference with a goals allowed average of .81. Purdue is fourth at .88. Ohio State is 10th at 1.62. Offensively, Purdue scores 1.59 goals per game (5th) compared to 1.56 for Ohio State (6th) and 1.19 for Illinois (10th).
GAME NOTES: BUCKS vs. BOILERS
This series, which Ohio State leads, 7-6-2, has been one of streaks. Ohio State has lost five consecutive games to Purdue. This coming after Ohio State went 7-1-2 in the first 10 games between the two teams. Ohio State’s last win over the Boilermakers came in 2004, 2-0. Purdue has defeated Ohio State twice in each of the past two years, in the regular season and the Big Ten tournament. A few more notes:
Ohio State has won four of five matches against Purdue in West Lafayette with the only loss coming in its last visit there in 2005.
Caitlin Colfer scored against Purdue in the Big Ten tournament championship game last year.
OHIO STATE vs. ILLINOIS NOTES
One of Ohio State’s big wins of 2007 came over Illinois, 2-1, in double overtime to kick off the Big Ten schedule. That win broke a 5-all series tie between the two teams. Ohio State has won two consecutive games over Illlinois, including a 2-0 win in 2006, and five of the last seven. Illinois’ last win came in 2005, 2-1, in Columbus. Here’s more on this series:
Alex Burzynski and Lisa Collison scored Ohio State’s goals in the win last year over Illinois. Collison also assisted on Burzynski’s score.
Caitlin Colfer assisted on one of Lara Dickenmann’s two goals in the 2-0 win over Illinois in 2006.
MAXWELL TIES RECORD
Paige Maxwell tied the school record of three goals in one game with the natural hat trick in the team’s 3-2 win over Iowa last Friday. The true freshman staked the Buckeyes to a 2-0 lead and, after Iowa closed to 2-1, scored the game-winner in the 71st minute. Maxwell totalled a season-high five shots on goal vs. the Hawkeyes and now leads the team in shots (34) and shots on goal (17). The three-goal game was the eighth in school history, a feat accomplished by seven different players.
COLLISON ON THE CUSP
Lisa Collison needs just one goal to tie the all-time school record of 35 career goals held by Lisa Grubb. With six goals and 14 points so far this season, Collison has upped her career numbers to 34 goals and 78 points. Her points total is good for fourth on Ohio State’s all-time list. Collison has eight multi-goal games and 12 game-winning goals to her credit.
BEACHY NETS MULTI-POINT GAME
Lauren Beachy’s two assists vs. the Hawkeyes represented her first multi-point game as a Buckeye. She set up Paige Maxwell on the first two goals of the game. Beachy’s four assists this year are tied for second on the team with Caitlyn Martin, behind Ashley Bowher’s six.
STREAK SNAPPED AT 51
An injured leg, suffered Oct. 12 in the Michigan game, has sidelined standout goalkeeper Lauren “Taz” Robertson after 51 consecutive starts dating to the 2006 season. True freshman Katie Baumgardner has started the last two games in goal for the Buckeyes.
LOTS OF LINEUPS
Injury and other medical issues have caused 27 games to be missed by starters or key reserves and, as a result, coach Lori Walker and staff have started 13 lineups in 16 games this season.
ACADEMIC ACCOLADES
Seven Buckeyes who are at least sophomores academically and have an overall grade point average of at least 3.30 are up for the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District soccer team. The seven: Lauren Beachy, Ashley Bowyer, Caitlin Colfer, Cassie Dickerson, Amy Graeff, Courtney Jenkins and Ali Schwach.
CORNER KICKS…
Ohio State is 5-1-1 in games it outshoots its opponents. The only loss was vs. Minnesota.
With freshmen Taylor Moront and Katie Baumgardner making starts last week, Ohio State has now had seven true freshmen start in games this year.
Ohio State is outscoring its opponents, 10-3, in the first half but is getting outscored, 22-14, in the second half of games.
Only two players – F Ashley Bowyer and D Lauren Steuer – have started all 16 games.
Ohio State was 6-3-2 at home this year and is now 65-29-9 in Jesse Owens Mem. Stadium.
NEXT WEEK
Ohio State travels to Happy Valley for an Oct. 31 match against Penn State.
###OhioStateBuckeyes.com###
