Sara Spaulding
The Northern Illinois women’s soccer team earned its second draw of the season Sunday afternoon at Buffalo, 1-1.
Following their win Friday and the tie Sunday, it was the first time since Oct. 17 and 19, 2008, at Buffalo and Kent State that the Huskies (5-4-1, 1-1-2 MAC) secured a win and at least a tie on the road.
“The team fought hard today against quality opponent in Buffalo,” said head coach John Ross. “We didn’t create very many quality chances for ourselves and their keeper did a good job of stopping the opportunities we had. I’m happy with our four points this weekend though, it was good weekend overall.”
NIU opened the scoring in the contest in the 17th minute of play.
Junior Frances Boukidis, the game-winning scorer Friday night at Akron, crossed the ball from her right wing position to the 18-yard box to Cori Frankenberg, who dumped the ball to freshman Sara Spaulding, who chipped the ball high over goalkeeper Sarah Moore into the left side of the net.
“Sara did a great job to get the goal today,” Ross said. “She’s been working hard in practice and it was good to say that hard work pay off today.”
Buffalo (2-8-2, 0-3-1 MAC) drew even in the 54th minute of play when Stephanie Velez tapped a goal into the left siding of the net. N’Dea Johnson crossed the ball to Taylor Thompson who dished to Velez for the finish.
Northern Illinois battled to break the tie in the match, out-shooting the Bulls 16-9 in the second half in the ensuing overtime periods. The Huskies outshot Buffalo 8-2 in both overtime periods. Moore, the UB goalkeeper, made 11 saves in the match. Frankenberg finished with six shots in the match.
The Huskies will return to action at 4 p.m. Friday, Oct. 5, when it hosts Ball State at the NIU Soccer Complex.
For more information on NIU women’s soccer and Huskie athletics, visit www.niuhuskies.com.
