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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Purdue women's soccer held the Big Ten's top-scoring team at bay for 60 minutes, but No. 9 Minnesota broke through for two goals in a 15-minute span to defeat the Boilermakers 2-0 Sunday.
Purdue (3-7, 1-3 B1G) remained winless against nationally ranked teams since 2009. Including a win and a loss at the 2014 Big Ten Tournament, the Golden Gophers (9-2-1, 3-0-1 B1G) improved to 6-1 in West Lafayette dating back to 2009. Minnesota swept its Indiana-Purdue road trip this week with a pair of shutout wins and is tied with No. 16 Penn State atop the Big Ten standings after the first two weeks of action.
The Gophers scored in the 61st and 76th minutes, the goals coming from Josee Stiever (5th of 2016) and April Bockin (7th). They've combined for 12 of Minnesota's league-leading 28 goals this year.
Purdue goalkeeper Jordan Ginther helped keep her side in the game with eight saves, six coming in the second half. The senior finished the weekend with 17 saves. But the Boilermakers were outscored by a combined margin of 5-0 in the second half in their losses to Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Tough game for the Boilermakers as they fall to No. 9 Minnesota 2-0. Here are the highlights. https://t.co/5z83S5oT7M
-- Purdue Video 🎥 (@purduevideo) September 25, 2016
The Gophers were able to challenge the goalkeeper with much more frequency Sunday. They recorded 10 shots on goal among their 16 shots. Purdue had just one shot on goal among its 11 shots. Minnesota `keeper Tarah Hobbs made a quality diving save to her right to deny Hannah Leinert an equalizer into the top left corner of the net in the 62nd minute shortly after the Gophers had taken the lead.
Stiever put away her own rebound from the right side of the six-yard box after Ginther made the initial save. Julianna Gemes set up the opportunity with a long pass up the right flank. Simone Kolander and Bockin teamed up for a 2-v-2 sequence against a pair of Purdue defenders, connecting passes back and forth as they moved to the top of the 18-yard box. Bockin scored with a chip shot over Ginther's head.
Both teams had a shot carom off the crossbar. In the 78th minute, a Leinert corner kick bounded to Mikayla Lasky inside the 18-yard box. Lasky's header pinballed off the bar and remained in play. Two minutes later, Ginther made a punch save on Kolander and got an assist from the crossbar as the deflected shot caromed away.
Ginther's best save of the day came in the 41sts minute when she used a full extension dive to her left to deflect a shot by Maya Rajacich wide of the right post. Ginther also opened the game with a nice save on Kolander's one-touch shot in the sixth minute, which was the first scoring chance of the day for either side.
Despite the results this weekend, head coach Drew Roff felt the Boilermakers played 3 quality halves of soccer. https://t.co/4XkpxkNsRV
-- Purdue Soccer (@PurdueSoccer) September 25, 2016
Megan Kaser, Vanessa Korolas and Lasky went the distance among the Purdue field players. Korolas and Lasky were back at defender Sunday after starting primarily in the midfield over the last few weeks, forming a new-look back row with Hannah Mussallem and Kaser. Katie Bittner was the first Boilermaker off the bench and logged 48 minutes to lead the reserves.
Purdue returns to action Friday when it visits Iowa for the fourth time in the last five years.