After watching an entire day’s worth of rain and wondering whether there would be playable conditions, No. 20 Northwestern (14-1-3) women’s soccer did indeed get on the Lanny and Sharon Martin Stadium turf on the shores of Lake Michigan and pulled out a 1-0 win over Illinois (6-11-2) in extra time, giving the hosts a share of their first-ever Big Ten regular season championship. Kayla Sharples scored the sudden-death winner for the Wildcats.
After a fairly balanced 90 minutes (Northwestern held a 11-10 lead in shots), the two in-state rivals went into extra time. Eight minutes into the additional period, Sharples was able to poke it into the back of the net off a corner kick from Marisa Viggiano.