W Soccer: An Exciting Weekend of Home Games Set – Ohio State Buckeyes
9/30/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
COLUMBUS, Ohio A Big Ten Conference season-opening road win behind them, the Ohio State Buckeyes now turn their attention to a pair of key games this weekend at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium. Friday at 7:30 p.m. the Buckeyes host Wisconsin and Sunday at 3 p.m. they host the Northwestern Wildcats.
RECENT RECAPS
Ohio State has won four consecutive games and has evened its record at 4-4-2 overall. The team opened its Big Ten season Sunday at Indiana and secured a 1-0 win behind a Courtney Jenkins goal (from Paige Maxwell) and goalkeeper Lauren Robertson’s four-save shutout.
Wisconsin dropped both games of its home weekend: 2-1 to Illinois and 1-0 to Purdue. The Badgers are 6-4-1 and 0-2-0 in the Big Ten.
Northwestern split its two home games last weekend: losing to Purdue, 1-0, but bouncing back to defeat Illinois Sunday, 1-0. The Wildcats are 6-4-1 and 1-1-0 in the Big Ten.
OHIO STATE SOCCER TICKETS
Game tickets are $5 for adults, $3 for children and groups of 10 or more can purchase tickets in advance for $2 apiece. OSU students get in free with a valid ID.
STREAMING VIDEO
Both games this week will be streamed to the web live through Buckeye Vision, a subscription service. For details, click on the Buckeye Vision link at OhioStateBuckeyes.com.
LIVE STATS ON THE WEB
Live statistics are available at OhioStateBuckeyes.com on the main home page, the women’s soccer front page and through the women’s soccer schedule page.
EARLIEST CONFERENCE ROAD WIN
The win at Indiana in Ohio State’s first conference road game of the season represented the earliest conference road win for an Ohio State team. Last year’s NCAA tournament Buckeye team didn’t get its first road win until Oct. 19.
FREE GAS! FREE GAS! FREE GAS!
Students can register at the game Friday to win one of two $50 gas gift certificates from Speedway. The winners will be announced at halftime of the Wisconsin game.
MORE FRIDAY FESTIVITIES
Friday night Big Ten crowds are typically large, fun and enthusiastic at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium. To add to the fun this week, the band, cheerleaders and Brutus Buckeye will be in attendance. Give-aways include 500 pon-poms.
TEAM WILL WARM UP IN PINK SUNDAY
October is national Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The Buckeyes will kick off activities to help generate awareness and raise funds to benefit women and their families who are affected by the disease by wearing pink jerseys during warm-ups of the game Sunday vs. Northwestern. The team will also wear the jerseys during warm-ups of the Iowa and Minnesota games, Oct. 17 and 19, respectively. Following the season the jerseys will be auctioned as a fund raiser.
PINK BRACELETS AND BALOONS, TOO
The Northwestern game will include stadium entrance give-aways of 750 pink bracelets plus a give-away of 500 pink balloons. The balloons will all be released in unison prior to the start of the game.
ROBERTSON IS PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Lauren Robertson, Ohio State’s competitive junior goalkeeper, is this week’s Big Ten Conference co-Defensive Player of the Week. She totaled nine saves in two shutout wins last week 2-0 over Wright State and 1-0 over Indiana.
NO GOALS FOR 216 MINUTES
Robertson, who picked up two Big Ten Conference player of the week honors last year, has not allowed a goal in the past 216 minutes covering parts of three games.
OHIO STATE BIG TEN HISTORY
Ohio State is 56-67-11 all-time in regular season games against Big Ten competition. The Buckeyes have better than .500 or winning series records vs. Illinois, Iowa, Michigan State, Minnesota and Northwestern. The team has qualified for the Big Ten tournament 12 times in its 16 years and won tournament titles in 2002 and 2004.
2008…SO FAR
It started with two jaw-dropping losses on the road to open the season: 4-3 to now ranked Milwaukee after tying the score from two goals down in the 88th minute. The Panthers won it on an 89th-minute PK. Road game #2 was a 2-1 OT loss to Marquette after giving up the tying goal with six seconds to play. Then came two ties at home by 1-1 scores to Charlotte and Bowling Green. Rutgers scored the game-winner in the 82nd minute of its 1-0 win and when No. 12 Duke defeated Ohio State, 4-2, two weeks ago the Buckeyes were 0-4-2, somewhat stunned, definitely disappointed but in no way broken. And then…
FOUR CONSECUTIVE WINS
The four-game winning streak started with a decisive win over Evansville, 3-1, was followed by a comeback win over Louisville in OT, 2-1, and was extended with a 2-0 win over Wright State last Wednesday. Then came the crucial test at Indiana. The Buckeyes passed, 1-0. Some highlights of the streak:
GK Lauren Robertson has allowed just one goal in 357 minutes.
Two Buckeyes – Robertson this week and Lisa Collison last week – have been named Big Ten player of the week.
Collison has been instant offense off the bench with seven points in the four wins, including game-winning goals vs. Evansville, Louisville and Wright State.
Paige Maxwell scored in the first two minutes vs. Evansville, Collison scored two minutes after entering the game and Taylor Moront also scored. Evansville’s goal was an own goal.
Emily Esbrook assisted on each of Ohio State’s first two goals vs. Evansville.
Ohio State came back from a 1-0 deficit on the strength of two stunning goals to defeat Louisville. Collison set up the tying goal in the 82nd minute, a header by Moront, and then scored the game winner in the 98th minute, off an assist from Ashley Bowyer.
A DH attendance record was set with a paid attendance of 3,186 fans for the women vs. Louisville and men vs. Michigan State games.
Collison scored three minutes after entering against Wright State and Ali Schwach scored her first goal of the year to stake the Buckeyes to a 2-0 lead.
Terrific footwork and vision enabled Maxwell to flick a sweet pass to Courtney Jenkins, who blasted the game winner off an IU defender’s shoulder in the win over the Hoosiers.
Coach Lori Walker has started the same lineup of nine sophomores and freshmen the past four games alongside juniors Ashley Bowyer and Lauren Robertson.
SERIES NOTES
Wisconsin leads the all-time series against Ohio State, 8-6-1. Ohio State holds a 7-6-1 advantage against Northwestern.
Ohio State was 7-3 last year and was coming off a win over Illinois when NU and UW recorded 2-0 and 1-0 victories, respectively.
The Bucks/Badgers series is 3-3-2 the last eight years.
The Wildcats have won three consecutive games over Ohio State dating to a 2-1 Ohio State win in 2004.
Wisconsin freshman Laurie Nosbusch has five goals and four assists to lead her team.
Senior Amanda Hoffman leads NU with five goals.
OSU keeper Nicole Morris stopped a school record 22 shots vs. Wisconsin Sept. 11, 1994.
Lisa Collison tied the school record with three goals vs. NU Oct. 1, 2006.
In 1994, Tiffany Tisdale set an OSU record with 14 shot attempts vs. NU on Oct. 30.
FOUR NCAAs UNDER WALKER
Lori Walker is in her 12th-year as Ohio State head coach. She has guided the team to four NCAA tournament berths (2002-03-04-07), four Big Ten tournament championship games and two Big Ten tournament titles (2002 and 2004). She has an Ohio State record of 123-96-20 and an overall mark, which includes two years at Kansas, of 136-119-21.
Click on the PDF Game Notes for more statistics and notes.
###OhioStateBuckeyes.com###
