DePaul, Illinois benefit
from play of Illinois prep stars
By Patrick Z. McGavin
CHICAGO -- The women’s college game is a reverie, a way of getting lost in the moment and shook out of time. The famous assertion of the French philosopher, René Descartes, “I think, therefore I am,” is a concise and natural way to think about the game.
Sitting at Wish Field, just below the “El,” stop at Fullerton Avenue, is to luxuriate in the sounds and activity of modernity pushed up against the unities of time and space relating to 90 minutes of high-level college soccer. It’s the very definition of wonder.
Illinois arrived here to play DePaul in an exciting and tense nonconference game on Aug. 23rd. Games are ostensibly news reports underpinned by who, what and when.
The game was sharply played, physical and at its best achieved a kind of lyrical grace, especially on the Blue Demons’ first goal in the 34th minute as former New Trier star Bina Saipi slotted a ball that forward Morgan Turner crossed to Franny Cerny in a bang-bang sequence for the DePaul equalizer.
In a moment, DePaul had seized the momentum and held it in a way that prevented Illinois from fully recovering. Coming off a stunning 2-1 road victory over no. 3 Duke on Aug. 19, Illinois played majestically throughout the first half.
Former Naperville North star Katelynn Buescher, a midfielder making her first college start, played a terrific ball in space that Morgan Maroney blasted in from about 19 yards in the ninth minute. Illinois appeared ready to take full control minutes later after a disputed foul resulted in a penalty kick.
DePaul freshman keeper Mollie Eriksson corrected anticipated the direction by Illini midfielder Katie Murray and blocked the shot.
“I thought it was a soft call,” DePaul coach Erin Chastain said. “If it ends up not going in, it is probably because it did not deserve to be called. Certainly Mollie made a great save. You go down 2-0 and it’s a different game. For us to stay in the game, it gave us some momentum and belief.”
In the 51st minute, Turner blasted a free kick from about 25 yards that handcuffed Illini keeper Jaelyn Cunningham and took an unorthodox bounce before sliding inside the far post. DePaul completed the scoring with an own goal in the 77th minute, Cerny’s drive off the right edge deflected off an Illini player.
Just the facts: DePaul beat Illinois 3-1.
That was just the beginning.
The game is both personal and aesthetic, achieving one kind of rhythm and pace and the determination, skill and power of the women making their own mark. It is also hard not to consider the political calculus, of the ramifications of more than 40 years of Title IX and how that has opened up access and possibilities for women’s athletics.
The play’s the thing. The private stories of the athletes involved also matter, especially given so many have dominated this site with demonstrations of their skills and accomplishments.
The three high schools that have shaped the Illinois girls’ game this decade -- New Trier, Naperville North and Barrington -- were represented.
The past and future collided, and the charge was ecstatic. Five of the Illinois players are former Chicagoland Soccer all-state players. Four DePaul players earned the same distinction. Former Barrington star Jackie Batliner missed the game with an injury, or the Blue Demons would have equaled the mark. (Batliner returned a week later and scored her first career goal, a header, in the 26th minute, in the Blue Demons’ 1-0 victory over Minnesota.)
Two DePaul players, the already referenced Saipi and freshman defender Sydney Parker, were high school teammates at New Trier. Illinois junior forward Kelly Maday was their celebrated teammate. Maday scored 18 goals and contributed 20 assists in earning the Gatorade Player of the Year award in leading the Trevians to their third-consecutive Class 3A state championship.
In June 2017 Batliner’s Barrington team ended the New Trier run in a penalty shootout in the championship of the Class 3A state title. On June 2nd, the Fillies again worked their magic with another scintillating penalty game shootout victory. Barrington defeated Naperville North 1-0 on a 76th-minute goal. That is how close the three teams were. (In 2017, Naperville North was the only team to beat both Barrington and New Trier.)
Players naturally move on and upward, and the natural response is to track the matriculation of those players. The Illinois and DePaul game was too good to turn down, a chance to revisit old friends, see the physical, athletic and structural differences in the game and get excited by their maturation and heightened skill.
Saipi was a great player in her own right at New Trier. In her senior year in 2016, she scored 16 goals and had 13 assists for the Trevians. She was a starter on the three state title teams. She punctuated her career in grand style by scoring a goal in the Trevians’ dominant state title performance over Collinsville.
“I am definitely a homebody, so that was something I wanted to do and play close to home,” Saipi said. “Having my family come to games was very important to me and played a huge role in my coming here.
“I knew Erin [Chastain] and I knew what kind of team DePaul was before I got here. They were a very hard working and blue collar, just the team I wanted to be a part of. So when I made my decision, I wanted to be part of a team like that. I wanted to be part of a scrappy, underdog team that fights for everything. That’s what we show every game.”
Saipi played 87 minutes, a remarkable achievement she went nearly 18 months without playing after she suffered a series of injuries that would have devastated most people her age. Her toughness, resolve and spirit proved unbreakable.
DePaul has a national roster, but the core is deeply recognizable and composed of players like Saipi and Parker who refined and developed their games growing up on the North Shore. Adrian Walker and Gwen Walker excelled at Lake Forest. Saipi, Parker and the Walker sisters played together at FC United. Parker was just 72 days removed from the end of the her high school career in the Class 3A state title game at North Central College.
Solidarity and cohesion are the primacy of the game. Parker took great strength from the realization she was not alone.
“Although I am a freshman, it builds up my confidence having people that are here and knowing what it is like to start in college at such a young age,” she said. “People like Adrian and Bina have helped me out a lot. They have already done it. That has helped my transition.”
High school soccer in the North Shore is meaningful and demanding, and it creates a culture of high achievement and expectations the players have learned to carry forward.
“Adrian [Walker] and I are best friends,” Saipi said. “We are also roommates, and to be able to play together and be around each other every single day, I just love it. We are like sisters. To be around people that I know and grew up with just makes it all the more worthwhile.”
Like tennis, watching soccer in person not only deepens the experience. It gives a far more realistic and sharper sense of the rapid-fire movement, pace and intricacies of the game. Your understanding naturally grows.
In just her third college game, Parker played the full 90 minutes.
“It’s definitely a faster pace, and the game is more physical,” she said. “You are playing against women who are older than you. Playing as a freshman, it is definitely a bigger transition and role than I have ever had before.
“I think you can always be physically tough. Making sure you are mentally tough and grinding through the amount of minutes that you play and doing the little things you worked on, that is important and a different aspect to college soccer, making sure that you are mentally prepared. So far it has been amazing.”
One thing that stands out about the college game is that every potential scoring moment is a privileged and rare action. Illinois was officially credited with seven shots, DePaul just four. Every opportunity represents something fragile and irreplaceable.
“You are not going to get a lot of opportunities,” Saipi said. “To put away the two or three chances you get are huge in a college setting. You might only get one shot a half. To be really focused and composed in front of the net, whether it’s a cross or something in front of the goal, you have to be all in, all the time.”
The Lincoln Park campus is about a 25-minute drive from Maday’s house. Illinois plays Northwestern at the end of the conference season. Until then, the game marked the closest she will get to a hometown game.
“There’s definitely a lot of emotions going through me,” Maday said. “Almost the entire [DePaul] backline is people I have been playing with or played against my whole life. We had more fans than I have ever had before, right in front of me, and playing in Chicago, there was definitely a lot of emotions that went into it.”
Maday has always been a graceful, even poetic player. She moves so beautifully so crisply off the ball. Illinois held big advantages in time of possession and attempted corner kicks and nearly twice as many shots on goal. She lamented the missed chances.
“Playing against a defense that has not played against your style of play is different,” Maday said. “They did not know much about us. We switched up last year from playing one up-top to now having two there.
“You have to take care of those opportunities early, because [eventually] the defense learns what you like to do and where you like to go. It’s easier for them to start tracking runs and kind of predicting where the ball is going to go after the early part. Capitalizing on those early opportunities is definitely really important.”
Just two years separate Maday and Buescher, but the differences are telling. Maday already possesses the classic lived-in look of experience and wisdom. Buescher is the wondrous and fresh new face learning on the fly. She made her first college start.
“I was a little nervous, but I was appreciative of the opportunity and ready to go out and take it to them,” she said. “As a team, our goal was to be active instead of reactive. I think we showed that in the first 20 minutes. That was my mindset.”
She also had an assist against DePaul. Naperville North coach Steve Goletz called her the hardest-working player he ever coached. Buescher has a high ceiling. Whatever steep learning curve she is going through is worth it.
“I’m starting to think and play at the same rate,” she said. “It’s also about learning how to play with your teammates. I am in a different part of the field. It’s still soccer, but it’s a different feel. I’m getting used to that. I am getting used to what I need to do for my teammates.”
The New Trier, Naperville North and Barrington players are expected to be here. Those schools have a structure, hierarchy and culture that creates a template for success. The most remarkable presence and backstory was that of Patricia George, the starting Illinois senior defender. She played the entire game, bringing a toughness and athleticism to the Illinois backline.
She plays with a verve and edge, perhaps a proverbial chip on her shoulder that shows she belongs. She has a much different background. George was the only Chicago Public League player on either team. She played at Von Steuben, a high academic achievement school with a developing soccer program in Albany Park.
Her odyssey speaks volumes about the new opportunities of the game. She played with the boys’ team as a way to challenge herself. Her story goes to show the game is not monolithic, and the stories touch all sides.
“It took a lot of hard work, and putting work in on my own,” she said. “My dad was my soccer coach in high school. He was the one who inspired me to put that work in on my own. Playing at Von Steuben, the players were not as technically sound and dedicated toward soccer as I was.
“My passion for the game helped me push to want to play Big 10 and get to a higher level of play.”
from play of Illinois prep stars
By Patrick Z. McGavin
CHICAGO -- The women’s college game is a reverie, a way of getting lost in the moment and shook out of time. The famous assertion of the French philosopher, René Descartes, “I think, therefore I am,” is a concise and natural way to think about the game.
Sitting at Wish Field, just below the “El,” stop at Fullerton Avenue, is to luxuriate in the sounds and activity of modernity pushed up against the unities of time and space relating to 90 minutes of high-level college soccer. It’s the very definition of wonder.
Illinois arrived here to play DePaul in an exciting and tense nonconference game on Aug. 23rd. Games are ostensibly news reports underpinned by who, what and when.
The game was sharply played, physical and at its best achieved a kind of lyrical grace, especially on the Blue Demons’ first goal in the 34th minute as former New Trier star Bina Saipi slotted a ball that forward Morgan Turner crossed to Franny Cerny in a bang-bang sequence for the DePaul equalizer.
In a moment, DePaul had seized the momentum and held it in a way that prevented Illinois from fully recovering. Coming off a stunning 2-1 road victory over no. 3 Duke on Aug. 19, Illinois played majestically throughout the first half.
Former Naperville North star Katelynn Buescher, a midfielder making her first college start, played a terrific ball in space that Morgan Maroney blasted in from about 19 yards in the ninth minute. Illinois appeared ready to take full control minutes later after a disputed foul resulted in a penalty kick.
DePaul freshman keeper Mollie Eriksson corrected anticipated the direction by Illini midfielder Katie Murray and blocked the shot.
“I thought it was a soft call,” DePaul coach Erin Chastain said. “If it ends up not going in, it is probably because it did not deserve to be called. Certainly Mollie made a great save. You go down 2-0 and it’s a different game. For us to stay in the game, it gave us some momentum and belief.”
In the 51st minute, Turner blasted a free kick from about 25 yards that handcuffed Illini keeper Jaelyn Cunningham and took an unorthodox bounce before sliding inside the far post. DePaul completed the scoring with an own goal in the 77th minute, Cerny’s drive off the right edge deflected off an Illini player.
Just the facts: DePaul beat Illinois 3-1.
That was just the beginning.
The game is both personal and aesthetic, achieving one kind of rhythm and pace and the determination, skill and power of the women making their own mark. It is also hard not to consider the political calculus, of the ramifications of more than 40 years of Title IX and how that has opened up access and possibilities for women’s athletics.
The play’s the thing. The private stories of the athletes involved also matter, especially given so many have dominated this site with demonstrations of their skills and accomplishments.
The three high schools that have shaped the Illinois girls’ game this decade -- New Trier, Naperville North and Barrington -- were represented.
The past and future collided, and the charge was ecstatic. Five of the Illinois players are former Chicagoland Soccer all-state players. Four DePaul players earned the same distinction. Former Barrington star Jackie Batliner missed the game with an injury, or the Blue Demons would have equaled the mark. (Batliner returned a week later and scored her first career goal, a header, in the 26th minute, in the Blue Demons’ 1-0 victory over Minnesota.)
Two DePaul players, the already referenced Saipi and freshman defender Sydney Parker, were high school teammates at New Trier. Illinois junior forward Kelly Maday was their celebrated teammate. Maday scored 18 goals and contributed 20 assists in earning the Gatorade Player of the Year award in leading the Trevians to their third-consecutive Class 3A state championship.
In June 2017 Batliner’s Barrington team ended the New Trier run in a penalty shootout in the championship of the Class 3A state title. On June 2nd, the Fillies again worked their magic with another scintillating penalty game shootout victory. Barrington defeated Naperville North 1-0 on a 76th-minute goal. That is how close the three teams were. (In 2017, Naperville North was the only team to beat both Barrington and New Trier.)
Players naturally move on and upward, and the natural response is to track the matriculation of those players. The Illinois and DePaul game was too good to turn down, a chance to revisit old friends, see the physical, athletic and structural differences in the game and get excited by their maturation and heightened skill.
Saipi was a great player in her own right at New Trier. In her senior year in 2016, she scored 16 goals and had 13 assists for the Trevians. She was a starter on the three state title teams. She punctuated her career in grand style by scoring a goal in the Trevians’ dominant state title performance over Collinsville.
“I am definitely a homebody, so that was something I wanted to do and play close to home,” Saipi said. “Having my family come to games was very important to me and played a huge role in my coming here.
“I knew Erin [Chastain] and I knew what kind of team DePaul was before I got here. They were a very hard working and blue collar, just the team I wanted to be a part of. So when I made my decision, I wanted to be part of a team like that. I wanted to be part of a scrappy, underdog team that fights for everything. That’s what we show every game.”
Saipi played 87 minutes, a remarkable achievement she went nearly 18 months without playing after she suffered a series of injuries that would have devastated most people her age. Her toughness, resolve and spirit proved unbreakable.
DePaul has a national roster, but the core is deeply recognizable and composed of players like Saipi and Parker who refined and developed their games growing up on the North Shore. Adrian Walker and Gwen Walker excelled at Lake Forest. Saipi, Parker and the Walker sisters played together at FC United. Parker was just 72 days removed from the end of the her high school career in the Class 3A state title game at North Central College.
Solidarity and cohesion are the primacy of the game. Parker took great strength from the realization she was not alone.
“Although I am a freshman, it builds up my confidence having people that are here and knowing what it is like to start in college at such a young age,” she said. “People like Adrian and Bina have helped me out a lot. They have already done it. That has helped my transition.”
High school soccer in the North Shore is meaningful and demanding, and it creates a culture of high achievement and expectations the players have learned to carry forward.
“Adrian [Walker] and I are best friends,” Saipi said. “We are also roommates, and to be able to play together and be around each other every single day, I just love it. We are like sisters. To be around people that I know and grew up with just makes it all the more worthwhile.”
Like tennis, watching soccer in person not only deepens the experience. It gives a far more realistic and sharper sense of the rapid-fire movement, pace and intricacies of the game. Your understanding naturally grows.
In just her third college game, Parker played the full 90 minutes.
“It’s definitely a faster pace, and the game is more physical,” she said. “You are playing against women who are older than you. Playing as a freshman, it is definitely a bigger transition and role than I have ever had before.
“I think you can always be physically tough. Making sure you are mentally tough and grinding through the amount of minutes that you play and doing the little things you worked on, that is important and a different aspect to college soccer, making sure that you are mentally prepared. So far it has been amazing.”
One thing that stands out about the college game is that every potential scoring moment is a privileged and rare action. Illinois was officially credited with seven shots, DePaul just four. Every opportunity represents something fragile and irreplaceable.
“You are not going to get a lot of opportunities,” Saipi said. “To put away the two or three chances you get are huge in a college setting. You might only get one shot a half. To be really focused and composed in front of the net, whether it’s a cross or something in front of the goal, you have to be all in, all the time.”
The Lincoln Park campus is about a 25-minute drive from Maday’s house. Illinois plays Northwestern at the end of the conference season. Until then, the game marked the closest she will get to a hometown game.
“There’s definitely a lot of emotions going through me,” Maday said. “Almost the entire [DePaul] backline is people I have been playing with or played against my whole life. We had more fans than I have ever had before, right in front of me, and playing in Chicago, there was definitely a lot of emotions that went into it.”
Maday has always been a graceful, even poetic player. She moves so beautifully so crisply off the ball. Illinois held big advantages in time of possession and attempted corner kicks and nearly twice as many shots on goal. She lamented the missed chances.
“Playing against a defense that has not played against your style of play is different,” Maday said. “They did not know much about us. We switched up last year from playing one up-top to now having two there.
“You have to take care of those opportunities early, because [eventually] the defense learns what you like to do and where you like to go. It’s easier for them to start tracking runs and kind of predicting where the ball is going to go after the early part. Capitalizing on those early opportunities is definitely really important.”
Just two years separate Maday and Buescher, but the differences are telling. Maday already possesses the classic lived-in look of experience and wisdom. Buescher is the wondrous and fresh new face learning on the fly. She made her first college start.
“I was a little nervous, but I was appreciative of the opportunity and ready to go out and take it to them,” she said. “As a team, our goal was to be active instead of reactive. I think we showed that in the first 20 minutes. That was my mindset.”
She also had an assist against DePaul. Naperville North coach Steve Goletz called her the hardest-working player he ever coached. Buescher has a high ceiling. Whatever steep learning curve she is going through is worth it.
“I’m starting to think and play at the same rate,” she said. “It’s also about learning how to play with your teammates. I am in a different part of the field. It’s still soccer, but it’s a different feel. I’m getting used to that. I am getting used to what I need to do for my teammates.”
The New Trier, Naperville North and Barrington players are expected to be here. Those schools have a structure, hierarchy and culture that creates a template for success. The most remarkable presence and backstory was that of Patricia George, the starting Illinois senior defender. She played the entire game, bringing a toughness and athleticism to the Illinois backline.
She plays with a verve and edge, perhaps a proverbial chip on her shoulder that shows she belongs. She has a much different background. George was the only Chicago Public League player on either team. She played at Von Steuben, a high academic achievement school with a developing soccer program in Albany Park.
Her odyssey speaks volumes about the new opportunities of the game. She played with the boys’ team as a way to challenge herself. Her story goes to show the game is not monolithic, and the stories touch all sides.
“It took a lot of hard work, and putting work in on my own,” she said. “My dad was my soccer coach in high school. He was the one who inspired me to put that work in on my own. Playing at Von Steuben, the players were not as technically sound and dedicated toward soccer as I was.
“My passion for the game helped me push to want to play Big 10 and get to a higher level of play.”