Purdue Soccer Shocks No. 7 Wisconsin 1-0

Purdue soccer barely qualified for this year’s 8-team Big Ten tournament, while Wisconsin was 10-0-1 in Big Ten play and ran away with the regular season title. Only a 2-2 tie with Iowa prevented them from taking the full 33 possible points, and that included a 1-0 win at Purdue on October 6th. The Badgers entered the tournament ranked 7th in the nation, while Purdue’s 2-1 win at Indiana on the final day of the regular season moved the Boilers into a 3-way tie for the final tournament slot with Nebraska and Northwestern. Since Purdue beat the Cornhuskers and tied the Wildcats that gave Purdue the spot in the tourney.

The Boilers will be staying for a while, too, as they shocked No. 7 Wisconsin today 1-0 in Madison. Ena Sabanagic scored in the dying moments of the first half and Marisa Bova had six saves for her 9th shutout of the season.

The win is Purdue’s second this season over a ranked team, as it beat #19 Iowa 1-0 back in September. It is the program’s first win over a top 10 ranked team since it beat #9 Texas A&M in August of 2009.

Purdue now moves on to the semifinals, which will be hosted by Rutgers on Friday. Purdue will play #4 seed Penn State at 11am on BTN, and the Nittany Lions won at Purdue 2-1 on October 13th should Purdue reach the Big Ten Tournament final it would be Sunday afternoon against the winner between Rutgers and Michigan.

At 8-8-3 overall Purdue likely needs to win the Big Ten Tournament’s automatic bid in order to reach the NCAA tournament, but with Bova in goal (she is second in the league in clean sheets) they have a great chance.