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Records

Upper Iowa (7-3, 5-1 NSIC) || Northern State (6-3, 3-3 NSIC)

Recap

Payback in soccer is never easy. It's something you have to earn. The Upper Iowa Women's Soccer team lost to Northern State last year in Aberdeen and that thought may have crossed the minds of some of the players on Saturday as the Wolves took Pattison Field.

The Peacocks got their revenge defeating NSU, 3-0, at home thanks to a stifling defense and goals from the Wronski sisters. Aimee Wronski netted her eighth and ninth goals of the season, while her older sister Corinne Wronski found the back of the net for the first time this season to help the Peacocks extend their win streak to four games.

After a scoreless first half from both teams, the Peacocks got things going on offense thanks to dominant midfield play from Nicole Poirier. The Deerfield, Wisconsin native had a solid game in the middle for UIU as she started both of the first two goal-scoring plays.

In the 52nd minute, Poirier snagged a loose ball and jetted it up the field to Aimee Wronski. After dodging one, then two defenders Wronski struck hard and found the back of the net.

Wasting no time after getting their first, the Peacocks added another goal less than two minutes later. This time though, it was Corinne Wronski showing the crowd how it's done. The redshirt-junior stepped in front of a Poirier pass just in front of the net and made the score 2-0.

The Peacocks weren't done though.

In the 61st minute, Aimee Wronski got another good look at the goal, again on a breakaway. Amanda Millard controlled the ball at midfield and launched it into the final third for Wronski to pick it up. This time, she had to juke just one defender as she stepped back and lofted the ball over the head of the NSU goalkeeper.

The goal was Wronski's ninth of the year, tying her for the most goals in a season since Liz Kaluzinski netted nine in the 2011 season.

The defense was stellar throughout the game, posting their fourth total shutout this year.

The Peacock defense held NSU to just two shots on goal - both saved by goalkeeper Kaitlyn Emanuel - and nine total. In comparison, the Peacocks placed eight of their ten total shots on frame. 

Stat of the Game

The Peacocks played a total of 21 players in Saturday's win, while only 17 different Wolves saw the field. 

SOUNDING OFF

Head Coach Brian Diaz…

On the Win… "Certainly any conference win is a good win, especially at home. NSU is a team that knocked us off last year in the regular season so it was a good response for us to come out and make a statement. To be fair though, the score is a little flattering for what the game was really like. So I give credit to Northern State for their play in the first half, but I thought our girls came out in the second half and really got settled in."

On Aimee Wronski… "She was a little frustrated in the first half – they did a good job of slowing her down, but we were not executing offensively as a unit like we wanted to, so we talked about that at halftime. We wanted to settle in and move the ball around. When we did that, we opened up space for Aimee and our wide players and we got some dangerous opportunities. If you give Aimee any opportunities like that in front of the goal, she's going to finish them."

On Nicole Poirier… "Nicole has stepped up over the past few matches. What really made her stand out today was that we finished the end of her passes today more than in the past. It was a good team win today and it was great to see Nicole get on the stat sheet with those two assists."

On Cori Wronski… "I thought our entire team recognized the soft spot in their defense and took advantage of it. We discussed those opportunities all week, but to see the girls execute it was something else. Cori took advantage of it once and it was good to see her finish and get the goal."

On the Shutout… "Defensively, we were solid from the get-go, even when we were struggling early to get ahold of the game. We were focused and we really played well defensively. They only had two shots on goal today and we really didn't give up a lot of dangerous opportunities from them. I liked that I was able to substitute back there a lot and we still kept a zero on the board. It may sound cliché, but if you don't allow a goal, you're not going to lose."

On Playing MSU Moorhead… "If we play our style and if we play the brand of soccer that we want to play, we are a tough team to beat and I'd put us up against any team in the conference. Yet, we have to come out and execute. If we don't play our style of play, this conference is so tight that anybody could beat anybody. We need to be able to bring the intensity week after week – you have to show up every day."

Up Next

The Peacocks are looking to keep their four-game winning streak alive tomorrow as they take on the Dragons of MSU Moorhead on Pattison Field at 1 p.m.