April 12, 2003
LINCOLN, Neb. - The Nebraska women's soccer team defeated Santa Clara 1-0 Saturday afternoon to wrap up the spring season with a solid 5-2 record.
Freshman Nikki Baker scored the only goal of the game at the 53:11 mark when she broke free of her defender and knocked in a shot with her left foot that bounced off the left post and went into the net.
"I think we looked at it in comparison to the fall where they were clearly the better team and we had to hang in there for 90 minutes," head coach John Walker said. "Today it was a pretty even game. The last 10 minutes we had to hang on a little bit but I thought earlier in the game we played well."
Sophomore Iman Haynes had one of the best scoring opportunities of the day with 30 seconds remaining in the first half when she had an open shot at the net, but the ball went high to send both teams into halftime scoreless.
The Nebraska defense took another strong stand, cutting off Santa Clara's shots in the goal area. Brooke Bredenberg recorded her fourth shutout of the spring season and only allowed goals against Women's United Soccer Association opponents after being moved from the midfield to the goalkeeper position.
Bredenberg recorded six saves for the Huskers, while Santa Clara's two goalkeepers recorded two saves each.
Santa Clara outshot Nebraska 20-11 for the contest and had seven shots on goal to NU's five. The Broncos also took five corner kicks to the Huskers' three. Junior Kristi Candau led SCU with seven shots, three of which were on goal.
Freshmen Katie Bunkers and Aly Scace as well as junior Christy Harms played strong defense the entire game, but were critical to the Husker victory in the last ten minutes of the game when Santa Clara put on a strong offensive attack.
"We did a really good job not allowing them to penetrate on us," Walker said. "If you want to shoot from 20 yards we are in pretty good shape."
Both teams were shorthanded with one player from each team playing for the U.S. Under-21 National Team. Nebraska only had one substitute to give at any point in the game.
Nebraska avenged the loss to Santa Clara in the NCAA Tournament, when SCU knocked the Huskers out with a 3-2 loss in the Round of 16. The Broncos proceeded to the National Championship game where they fell to Portland, 2-1 in double overtime.