Maryland women’s soccer drops close match to Illinois, 3-2

Maryland’s late game rally came up just short, as the Terps allowed multiple goals for the first time in a match all season after getting out ahead within the first minute of the game. 

The Terps dropped their match to Illinois, 3-2, dropping them to 2-2-5 on the season.

“The details and habits are what gets you, especially in the Big Ten,” coach Meghan Ryan Nemzer said. “I thought that we forgot what made us a great defensive team, and I thought at moments we were trying to solve things individually instead of staying together as a unit, so this will be a great teaching moment for us.”

Maryland women’s soccer battled against Illinois in the final match of its six-match homestand. 

Just 14 seconds into the match, Alyssa Poarch struck first off of a Catherine DeRosa delivery to put the Terps on top in easily their quickest opening blow of the season. Poarch now has more than twice as many shots taken this season (27) as Mikayla Dayes (13), the next highest on the team. Poarch’s score was her second of the season.

The only thing the Illini had going for them early was a 3:0 corner kick advantage in the first fifteen minutes alone, but they failed to make anything materialize off of the opportunities.

Maryland maintained its aggression. Poarch took a stab at extending the lead and Sydney Urban attempted a header at the goalline, but neither found the back of the net. Urban’s header was swiftly taken care of by Illinois goalkeeper Julia Cili.

On top of anchoring the defense, defender Amanda Schafer got a chance of her own to build on the score. This attempt would sail too high, but it kept the Illini in the hot seat as Maryland finished the first half with seven shot attempts.

Though Illinois did a solid job defending any other attempts on its goal for the rest of the period, Maryland’s Malikae Dayes closed the half on her own terms by staving off a two-on-one situation deep in the Terps’ territory to keep the Illini pinned down entering the break.

Illinois attempted just two shots in the first half.

The Terps added three more shot attempts to their double-digit total within the first ten minutes of the second period, but continued to come up empty on offense.

Sydney Stephens saw the Terps toiling away on offense and responded big, evening the score at one apiece off of a Maeve Jones feed at the 57 minute mark to pull the match even.

Nine minutes later, the Illini got themselves a corner kick, and Ella Karolak capitalized when she sent the ball through the net in the 66th minute. For the first time all season, Maryland allowed multiple goals in a match.

Illinois dealt all of this damage despite having taken half of the shots Maryland had to this point, seizing the lead for the first time tonight while being outshot by five through 75 minutes.

With 18:18 remaining, Ashley Prell dealt yet another blow to the Terps.

Mikayla Dayes cut through the Illini defense off of an Olivia Hicks-delivered ball to pull the Terps within one in the 78th minute, putting the Terps down 3-2. Breathing life into the Terps offense, this showed their fight in the face of potentially falling back down to a .500 record.

Maryland’s late game rally ultimately came up just short, even though they took 14 shots to Illinois’ six. Kam Fisher took one more try with under 30 seconds left, but her shot missed just off to the right as the Terps’ hopes of a last second draw slipped away.

“It’s just unfortunate it ended the way it did,” Alyssa Poarch said. “Our word is fight, so we like to fight back. We were down 3-1, and we knew we could score two more goals… if we had another five minutes, we would.”