Contact: Tyler Friel, Sports Information Graduate Assistant, 630-637-5302

Box Score

WHEATON, ILL. (Nov. 2, 2016) – Competing in the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) women's soccer tournament for just the second time in program history, the North Central College women's soccer team was defeated 4-0 Wednesday night at Joe Bean Stadium.

With a tough task at hand taking on the number one seed and a team that had won six of their last seven, the Cardinals were up for the challenge against host Wheaton College.
The Thunder would strike first in the opening half as Madison Peebles would score off a corner kick at the 14:34 mark. The Thunder extended their lead six minutes later as
Sarah Van Wingerden scored off a deflection from the Cardinal keeper Nicki Seiton. Wheaton would hold that 2-0 advantage into the half.

The Cardinals (5-11-2) would attempt to overcome the two goal deficit all of the second half, just trying to get any momentum going to spark a comeback. Unfortunately, Wheaton would double their lead in the final ten minutes, scoring in the 81^st and 85^th minute. The Cardinals were outshot 19-10 including an 11-5 disadvantage in shots on goal.

Despite the Cardinals season having ended, they have nothing to hang their heads about. They were able to accomplish something that had only been done once (2012) in program history in making it to the conference tourney. They established a new conference wins record with four on the season and they did it all under a brand new head coach.

Andrew Gamarra was able to lead this team to the conference tournament in just his first year and has definitely set a new standard of expectations for future seasons. He will also be the first to take zero credit and give all the recognition to his players on how they performed this season.

The Cardinals graduate five seniors but will look to pick up right where they left off in the 2017 season.