Wheaton, Ill. -- The Thunder women's soccer team extended the program's streak of reaching every CCIW Tournament semifinal since the competition's inaugural edition in 2002 with a hard-fought 1-0 victory over North Park University on Saturday evening. Wheaton, the #4 seed in this year's conference tournament, hosted the fifth-seeded Vikings for a quarterfinal contest and earned a second shutout win against the Chicago squad this fall to extend its campaign. Tonight's result also maintained the Thunder's unbeaten home record against North Park, with Wheaton owning a 16-0-1 all-time mark against the Vikings at Joe Bean Stadium. The Orange and Blue move on to face the CCIW regular season champion and #1 seed in the bracket, North Central College, on Wednesday night in Naperville.
The Windy City visitors fired off the first of their 21 shot attempts in Saturday's game four minutes in shortly after earning the match's first corner kick. But the opening effort on target came from All-CCIW Second Team member
Calah Strong, who stung the palms of the NPU goalkeeper in the seventh minute.
Annika Vandervelde nearly found the bottom corner to put Wheaton in front 11 minutes later, but the Vikings' shot-stopper denied this attempt. The Thunder's newly crowned CCIW Goalkeeper of the Year
Lydia Martin was called upon to make two saves in quick succession in the 30th and 33rd minutes. But high-quality looks at goal proved few and far between for both sides in a scoreless first half.
Both teams began to mount offensive pressure in the opening exchanges of the second frame, as the hosts carved out three corner kick opportunities and the guests forced four stops from Martin (
pictured left) in the first 16 minutes of the half. The sophomore net-minder made another save in the 67th minute, but the middle portion of the period was a stalemate until the deciding incident of the night arrived 17 minutes from full time.
A forward pass was played down the right wing into the box, and
Lily Lindquist gave chase, beating her North Park marker for speed before being brought down from behind right on the byline. The referee quickly awarded a penalty kick, and after dusting herself off from the turf, the Second Team All-Conference midfielder stepped up to assume the responsibility from 12 yards. Just as she did one week ago in the Thunder's key win at Illinois Wesleyan, Lindquist successfully buried her spot kick with a strong blast into the right side of the net that gave Wheaton a 1-0 lead. (
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The home side attempted only one more shot down the stretch as protecting the narrow advantage took priority against a talented Vikings attack. But North Park could only muster a single attempt on target to test Martin before the last desperation kick at the end of the game, as a stout Thunder back line held firm to notch a seventh shutout of the season. The Vikings could not score on Wheaton across 180 minutes of play this fall, with tonight's win coming after the Thunder's 2-0 regular season success in the city in late September.
NPU tallied 12 more shot attempts than Wheaton and registered nine efforts on goal compared to the hosts' three. But clinical finishing eluded the Vikings, as Martin's strong performance and Lindquist's well-taken goal made the difference. The Thunder took four corner kicks to North Park's three, while the possession was a perfect 50-50% split in Saturday's competitive battle. Lindquist's strike was her third of the year, while Martin's nine saves were the most since she racked up 13 in last month's visit to UW-Whitewater. The All-CCIW First Team goalkeeper picked up her sixth clean sheet of her debut season with the program in this evening's win.
After returning home in winning fashion, Naperville now beckons for Wheaton, as the Thunder travel to take on the top-seeded Cardinals for the second time in two weeks. Kick-off is set for approximately 7:30 PM at Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium on Wednesday following the conclusion of the men's semifinal between Wheaton and North Central. The winner will advance to face either Carroll University or Elmhurst University in next Saturday's CCIW Championship game.
