Soccer adds two ties to record

By Greg Doddridge
Staff Writer

The Purdue women's soccer team came from behind twice this weekend to notch two ties in three days.

The Boilermakers (7-5-3, 3-3-3 Big Ten) tied Iowa, 1-1, on Friday and Illinois, 1-1, on Sunday.

"Hey, it's not a loss," said freshman Lauren Sesselmann. "It's better than that. We played as hard as we could."

Purdue was down 1-0 against Iowa with 14:55 to go in the second half when freshman Kim Comisar scored from 10 yards out off of a cross from Sesselmann. Sophomore Jenna Silverman was also credited with an assist on the play.

The Boilers were also down 1-0 to the Fighting Illini in the second half until 7:22 to go when sophomore Emily Whetter assisted on Sesselmann's eighth goal of the season.

"I was just watching the ball," said Sesselmann, who now holds the Purdue record for points (21) and goals (8) in a season. "I was going back and forth inside the box and I was just watching it, and it hit off of Emily's chest right there and I saw my opportunity to go in there and just nail it as hard as I could."

The Boilers are seventh in the conference with 12 points after their two ties this past weekend. A team is awarded three points for a win and one point for a tie.

"Two very hard games," said Purdue coach Rob Klatte. "We come out with two points and we give up four more. I have to tell you that I thought both games, I thought we played pretty well, especially the second half of the Illinois game. I thought we fought hard in the Iowa game. We created lots of chances."

The Boilers out-shot the Hawkeyes 18-8.

Silverman had a shot on goal against Iowa with about 2:30 to play in the second half, but that attempt was caught by the Hawkeyes' diving goalkeeper, Britta Vogele.

Sophomore Annette Kent went one-on-one with an Iowa defender with 13 seconds to go in the first overtime. Her shot on goal was just right. And Kent had a shot saved less than a minute into the second overtime when she sent a strong shot on goal from the right side.

Purdue also out-shot the Illini 24-15.

"(Sunday) we were unlucky," said Klatte. "I'll be honest; we were unlucky in the second half and the overtime periods not to find a second goal and that's disappointing because we put ourselves in positions to score."

Sesselmann took a pass from sophomore Courtney Coppedge and sent the ball at the goal with 1:53 to go in the second overtime against Illinois. But her shot hit the left goalpost.

"There was a post in the way," said Klatte. "As Tricia (Taliaferro), the Illinois coach, said as she was leaving the field, 'You're going to be hearing 'Ping!' in your sleep.'"

But Klatte had nothing but praise for his team.

"I thought our kids worked excessively hard, so I'm proud of them," said Klatte. "It's not quite the result we wanted, but I am proud of them."

Injury Update

Junior defender Kelli Merritt was involved in a collision during a play against Iowa on Friday with 13:56 to go in the second half. She started the game against Iowa.

Klatte said Merritt would not be released to play until 48 hours after her concussion symptoms go away.

"It definitely reduces someone who plays a large amount of time for us," said Klatte. "She is a good distributor of the ball."

Purdue teams dominate during inaugural meet

Soccer adds two ties to record

Volleyball team loses to Indiana, Illinois

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