Wolverines Finish Out Regular Season with Tie at Purdue

Saturday, November 1

West Lafayette, Ind.

7:00 PM

Michigan

12-4-3, 8-2-3B1G

Purdue

6-11-2, 2-10-1B1G

OT 5

OT 6

Michigan

Purdue

Jessica Heifetz

Wolverines Finish Out Regular Season with Tie at Purdue

11/1/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer

Box Score PDF Boxscore

By: Whitney Dixon

Site: West Lafayette, Ind. (Boilermaker Soccer Complex)
Score: Michigan 1, Purdue 1 (2OT)
Records: U-M (12-4-3, 8-2-3 Big Ten), PUR (6-11-2, 2-10-1 Big Ten)
Attendance: 277
Next U-M Event: Wednesday, Nov. 5 -- vs. Minnesota - Big Ten Tournament Quarterfinals (West Lafayette, Ind.), 7:30 p.m.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- The No. 25-ranked University of Michigan women's soccer team played to a 1-1 draw at Purdue in its regular-season finale on Saturday (Nov. 1) at Boilermaker Soccer Complex. With an 8-2-3 record in Big Ten play, the Wolverines finish in third place in the conference, marking the third straight season U-M has finished third or better.

After more than 60 minutes of scoreless soccer, sophomore Nicky Waldeck broke the stalemate in the 63rd minute, as sophomore Jessica Heifetz threaded a long through ball from just over midfield to Waldeck, who put a shot past Purdue keeper Maddy Olsen as she came out to challenge at the top of the penalty box.

A little more than two minutes later, the Boilermakers tied the match 1-1 on a penalty kick from Maddy Williams, following an inadvertent hand ball in the box by the Wolverines.

Neither team managed the game-winner in the remaining 25 minutes of regulation, forcing the game to overtime.

Three minutes into the first overtime period, Purdue was awarded its second penalty kick of the match. Mollie Kuramoto's shot attempt collided with the cross bar and bounced back into play, where it was cleared away by the Michigan defense. That proved to be the best chance for either team in the two overtime periods, and Michigan eventually earned its third tie its last four matches.

Freshman goalkeeper Megan Hinz had six saves in net for Michigan, including a diving save in the second half to keep Purdue from taking the lead.

U-M begins the postseason next Wednesday (Nov. 5) at the Big Ten Tournament in West Lafayette, Ind. As the No. 3 seed, Michigan will play No. 6 Minnesota in the quarterfinals at 7:30 p.m. The Wolverines defeated the Golden Gophers during the regular season, 2-1 in overtime, on Sept. 12.

GAME SUMMARY

By Periods	1	2	OT	OT	F
Purdue	0	1	0	0	1
Michigan	0	1	0	0	1

Scoring, Time (Assist)
2nd -- U-M, Nicky Waldeck, 62:38 (Jessica Heifetz)
2nd -- PUR, Maddy Williams, 64:51 (Penalty Kick)

Shots: U-M 22, PUR 25
Shots on Goal: U-M 12, PUR 7
Saves: U-M 6 (Megan Hinz), PUR 11 (Maddy Olsen 4, Erika Yohn 7)
Corner Kicks: U-M 10, PUR 4
Cards: None

NOTES

• With the tie, Michigan finishes in third place in the Big Ten with an 8-2-3 record, marking the third straight season U-M has finished in the top three.

• Michigan went 1-0-3 in its last four games, including ties against Purdue, Ohio State and Northwestern.

• Nicky Waldeck scored her 12th goal of the season and remains in second place in the Big Ten in points with 29 this season (12G, 5A).

• Jessica Heifetz earned her third career start today and tallied her second assist of the season. She now has eight points on the season (3G, 2A), including a goal and an assist in the last two outings.

• Michigan was outshot by Purdue, 25-22, but allowed just seven shots on goal, compared to U-M's 12.

QUOTES

Michigan Head Coach Greg Ryan
On his thoughts on the game ... "The way we're looking at it is we know we can play better, and so that's going to be our focus going into the Big Ten Tournament. You look at the games across the conference and other teams are being upset and we still did not take a loss. The last five games, we have a loss to Penn State, three ties and a win over Illinois. The way we look at it is two-fold; 1. This is the end of an amazing regular season for this team. We're extremely proud of what we've done. 2. We know we can play a lot better and we know how we can play a lot better. That's going to be our focus going forward. We finished third in the Big Ten and we now have a great shot of getting into the NCAA Tournament. There are so many positives that we can take from this season -- Nicky Waldeck shows up and scores her 12th goal of the season tonight.

"Credit to the teams we're playing, we're no longer 'Michigan the young team,' now we're 'Michigan who can beat anybody.' We're everybody's big game now even though we're all freshmen and sophomores. Purdue played out of their minds tonight, Northwestern played out of their minds last week and then did the same again yesterday and knocked off Minnesota. These teams are continuing to fight. I thought Purdue played great tonight."

"Another big positive for us was to get Alyssa Dillon in the game because it allowed us to push Madi (Lewis) up top, and we need her attacking on that right side."

On the team finishing third in the Big Ten after being picked fifth ... "When a team loses eight starters and starts a bunch of freshmen and sophomores, it's been an amazing season for such a young team so far. The fact that they have continued to fight, whether up, down or tied it doesn't matter. They just fight their hearts out. Nobody thought we would be this good. And it's not like we were way back in third, we were fighting for second tonight. I'm just so proud of this team."

On what the team is focused on heading into the Big Ten Tournament ... "Right now the most important thing for us is recovery. We know how we play when we play our best and we haven't played really well since the Ohio State game. We've had two straight double weekends, including last weekend on the road, and then we're on the road again today, so our kids are a little beat up right now. The most important thing will be recovering for Wednesday. In terms of what we can do better on the field, we need to do better in our final third. We need to create better chances and put our chances away."