The Northern Kentucky University women’s soccer team fell, 3-0, to top-seeded and No. 1 ranked West Virginia at WVU’s Dick Dlesk Stadium on Saturday evening in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The tournament appearance was the first at the Division I level for any team at NKU.
“Obviously I’m disappointed to have given up a goal in the first minute of the game. I thought our team showed a great deal of resilience playing against the No. 1 team in the country,” said head coach Bob Sheehan. “We really battled to be at 1-0 at the half, which we felt good about. We came out in the second half with some momentum and it looked like we were going to start to create some opportunities, but gave up the second goal. It’s tough to be down 2-0 at that point. West Virginia is an outstanding team and I think our players competed and I’m really proud of their performance.”
NKU ends its winningest Division I season with a 13-7-1 overall record, which included a 6-2-1 mark in the Horizon League. The Mountaineers picked up their NCAA-leading 20th victory to move to 20-1-1 overall as they advance to the second round where they will host the winner of the Ohio State/Dayton match.
Sophomore Emily Lohmann made her 19th start of the season and posted a career-high eight saves for the second-straight match.
Lohmann saw 80:44 minutes in goal before senior Brooke Schocker stepped in for the final 9:16. The Norse held WVU without a shot on goal while Schocker was between the posts.
The Norse assisted Lohmann and Schocker with a trio of team saves, two of which came from defender Chrissy Spears, to total a season-high 11 saves for NKU on the day.
WVU goalkeeper Michelle Newhouse posted her fifth shutout of the season and made one save. The shutout was WVU’s NCAA-leading 15th of the season.
West Virginia jumped on the board 49 seconds into the match when Heather Kaleiohi fired a shot from the close left wing into the upper right of the goal.
The Norse defense kept an aggressive Mountaineer offense at bay throughout the remainder of the half, holding them scoreless on 12 more shot attempts, four on goal.
The Mountaineers found the back of the net in the 30th minute but was called offside. Lohmann took the goal kick that made its way up-field for Payton Naylor who managed NKU’s lone shot on goal, pulling Newhouse out from between the posts for a save.
The NKU offense was at its most aggressive at the start of the second half, firing three shots in the first 12 minutes after managing two total in the first half.
In the 49th minute, Jessica Frey broke through for a one-on-one with the WVU goalkeeper, but a defender gave chase to deflect her shot attempt that spun wide.
In the 53rd minute, WVU extended its lead to 2-0 with a goal from Michaela Abam. Abam was hugging the left sideline when she fired the shot that floated above Lohmann’s reach.
An unassisted goal from Ashley Lawrence from the top of the 18-yard box iced the match with just 15 minutes remaining.
Norse Notes
Macy Hamblin led NKU with three shots to boost her season total to 69. She now has a career total of 220 shots across her three seasons, which is ranked fourth all-time in NKU program history.
Lohmann made 25 saves across NKU’s four postseason matches. She ends her sophomore campaign with 78 total saves, the most for an NKU goalkeeper since the 1999 season. She is tied for third all-time with Lauren Piening (1998) in single-season saves.
Lohmann’s clip of 4.11 saves per game is third all-time behind senior Brooke Schocker’s 4.19 saves per game recorded in 2014.
Head coach Bob Sheehan wraps up his 20th year as the only head coach in NKU program history with a record of 297-94-26 including a 45-48-1 record at the Division I level.
From NKU Athletics