The Purple Aces tied the Louisville Cardinals for the first time in program history on Wednesday night. The 2-2 draw with the Cardinals was also UE’s first point away in the series since a 2-0 win in 1991. Evansville was the only team to lead on Wednesday night through 90 minutes of action. The Aces held the game lead for 32 minutes while the match was tied for 56 minutes.
Northern Illinois is still looking for its first win of conference play with four matches left in 2024. The Huskies only have two wins on the season with victories over Mercyhust and Chicago State. Junior midfielder Jose Gomez is NIU’s offensive leader with eight points from two goals and four assists in 12 games played. The Huskies leader in goals though is senior forward Kevin Kelly with three goals through 12 games. Overall Northern Illinois has nine different goal scorers in 12 games.
Two UE players scored their second goals of the season in Louisville. Redshirt freshman midfielder Jacopo Fedrizzi (Giulia, Italy) 2nd goal came in the 45th minute while fifth year forward Kai Phillip’s (Diego Martin, Trinidad & Tobago) 2nd goal came in the 63rd minute. Evansville now has six players with multiple goals through 13 matches.
Saturday’s match will be the Aces first at Northern Illinois in program history. UE and NIU have only played three games over the past 10 years with all three matches occurring at Arad McCutchan Stadium. This is only the second match where the two teams will meet as conference foes.