Lara Kazandjian works her way down the field against Nebraska (Spomer / WBR)
The third-largest crowd in program history, perfect game-time temperatures, not a spec of clouds in the sky, a physical and experienced side against a scrappy, technical one. Creighton and Nebraska’s women’s soccer squads had all the ingredients to produce a memorable season-opener at Morrison Stadium on Thursday night and the Bluejays and Huskers delivered just that for 90 minutes.
The match ended in a 2-2 tie thanks to a late CU goal by senior left back Hannah Luke and some thrilling goalkeeping in crunch time by senior netminder and team co-captain Keelan Terrell.
“It was an entertaining game … to watch,” Creighton head coach Ross Paule said. “We knew it was going to be a very highly intense and emotional game at times. We were going to have to weather some storms and overall, I think we did. We rose to the challenge, we fought, we got into the game and played our style for a good amount of time and squeaked out a tie there at the end. It had a bit of everything in this game, it really did. It’s a good one to build on.”
Hannah Luke had a late goal to earn the draw for the Jays (Spomer / WBR)
Nebraska came out fast and physical and forced Creighton to chase the game at the onset of the match. The pace resulted in an early goal for the Huskers as junior midfielder Florence Belzile found senior forward Eleanor Dale in front of the 6-yard box. Dale’s one-timer smashed the back of the net for a 1-0 lead in the 9th minute of play. Creighton thought they leveled the match with 24:23 left in the first half when senior Maddie Radke redirected a ball into the upper left corner of the net off of a perfect left-footed lob by senior midfielder, and preseason All-Big East selection, Lara Kazandjian. But the flag went up along the left sideline and the match-tying goal was taken off the board.
“That was probably the coolest goal I’ve ever scored in my life,” Radke said of the nullified match-tying moment that wasn’t. “That’s all I have to say. I will never let that down. It’s going to haunt me, but… yeah, I’m sad about it.”
The Parker, Colorado native may still be sad about it after the fact, but her sorrow on the pitch only last about 27 minutes as she was redeemed in the 48th minute. It started with a seated flick from senior captain Abigail Santana to junior midfielder Azumi Manriki, then a loft into the box for a right-footed redirect by Radke over Husker goalkeeper Sami Hauk and into the center of the net to level the match at 1-1.
“Maddie is a player who is always going to give you 100%,” Paule said. “She’s always going to give you her heart behind it. She did that today. This was one of her best games as a Bluejay in terms of consistency both with the ball and without the ball. I think she was very in-tuned today and was rewarded with two goals despite ending up with one.”
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The Huskers regained the lead 10 minutes later when an awkward, bouncing cross into the box found First Team All-Big Ten forward Sarah Weber unmarked on the far post. The former two-time Nebraska Gatorade Player of the Year polished it off with ease to give Nebraska a 2-1 lead with 32:31 left to play.
Creighton didn’t stop throwing punches, however, and in the 83rd minute just as it looked like they were going to run out of time, Hannah Luke came through out of nowhere to draw the Bluejays even once again. The senior out of Darlington, England was part of a late double substitution onto the pitch along with her backline opposite side back Gabby Grimaldi at 82:43. Five seconds later, Luke found herself unmarked just in front of the right edge of the six. A lead pass by Manriki found Kazandjian in front of the 18-yard box, who then put the ball on a string to Luke. The English ball striker opted for a one-timer instead of settling it and got just enough of a flick on it to spin it away from Mauk as it bounced inside the near post to make it 2-2 with 7:12 left in the match.
Bluejay keeper Keelan Terrell made some great saves down the stretch (Spomer / WBR)
From sideline surveillance to jubilation in the box in under 10 seconds.
“We only had 10 minutes left so we knew we had to make a big push since it was obviously 2-1 at the time,” Luke said. “We just had a good sequence of play — we switched the ball and had Azumi in a great space and some good forward runs by Lara. I just pulled wide hoping that she would see me. We have a good connection on the field, and I think she just knew I’d be there.
“Honestly, as soon as the ball came to my feet I thought ‘just hit it and hope for the best.’ I knew the ball was coming across my body. I just thought I needed to lace it and see what happens.”
After a few hectic moments of brilliant goalkeeping by Keelan Terrell, the game clock hit 90:00 and the Jays and Huskers walked off the pitch to a 2-2 draw. The Bluejays aren’t much into celebrating results that don’t fall into the ‘W’ column. They have more belief in themselves than to “settle” for that. But with six freshman making their collegiate debuts, plus the absence of two dynamic attacking pieces up top, a result against a side that brought back all 17 contributors from a team that just missed the cut for an at-large bid and was receiving votes in the United Soccer Coaches Association preseason poll is something the Bluejays can build on.
Obviously you always strive for the win,” Luke said. But we’ll take a draw. [Nebraska] is a big team, they are an extremely good team, they’ve beaten some really good teams in the past, and I think we just went in with the mentality to fight and to give to them what they give to us.
“Ultimately, I think we were the team that passed the ball more, we made better chances. Unfortunately, we had an offside goal, but I think we had a big threat in behind and our defense was solid. We worked as a team and it’s only going upwards from here on.”