Box Score Sept. 21, 2013 – The Concordia University Chicago women's soccer team headed to Wisconsin for the second time in four days to take on Edgewood College in Madison. They hoped that another trip up north on this cool fall day would bring the same result as the previous trips this season. Unfortunately, it was not to be as Edgewood scored on two set pieces to take a narrow 2-0 victory over the Cougars in their first Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference action of the year.

Edgewood played like the more experienced team in the first half. They opened the scoring off a corner kick in the 28th minute when junior goalkeeper Callie Hasselbring (Houston, TX/Cypress Ridge) could not get away from the face guarding pressure of the Edgewood offensive players. Overall the Cougar play was not up to their expected standard.

The highlights of the first half included Elise Bicek (Mokena, IL/Lincoln-way East) doing a phenomenal job off the bench on the defensive line, and Annie Rockert (Kankakee, IL/Herscher) who played exceptionally in her return from injury and provided a much needed physical presence in the middle of the field.

In the second half, the Cougars came out with energy and motivation determined to prove their intent on residing in the upper half of the NACC to stay. The shot totals closed on the Edgewood shot advantage making it 4 to 6 in the second half. The play was much improved, but the connection in the final third was not there.

Concordia head coach Thomas Goines made tactical adjustments to the deep sweeper play by Edgewood. In the first 15 minutes of the second half, the Cougars charged down the field and forced the Eagles into numerous errors. Unfortunately, CUC was not able to capitalize through a combination of miscommunication and untimely whistles.

As the Cougars pushed forward to equalize in the 81^st minute, Edgewood got a counter attack and was awarded a penalty kick which Jenna Mineau converted to put the game away. Freshman Caeleigh Morton (Oswego, IL/Oswego) created several scoring chances in the final 15 minutes that almost equalized the game.

"Edgewood is a benchmark team in the top half of the conference," said Goines. "The girls realize that they need to raise their level of play during conference games because everyone plays tough as they hunt for that NACC conference tournament berth."

Hasslebring made four saves, all in the first half. The Edgewood keeper made three saves with two coming in the second half.

Concordia (4-1-1) will be away on Tuesday at Aurora, but return to the home field with four home games in a row. The next home game is on Saturday, Sept. 28 against the Milwaukee School of Engineering.