As the wind began to swirl over the Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium on the campus of The Ohio State University, the second game of the 2004 Big Ten Women's Soccer Tournament kicked off.  The No. 4 seeded and defending champion Illinois Fighting Illini took to the field against intrastate rival Northwestern, the tournament's fifth seed. 

Play began with Illinois taking an early advantage in the battle for ball control, establishing the majority of play in the Northwestern end of the field.  The Illini's first quality scoring opportunity came in the 16th minute, when first-team All-Conference selection senior Tara Hurless hit a shot towards the Northwestern net, and Wildcat sophomore goalkeeper Whitney Jones dove parallel to the goal line and knocked the ball away.  The All-Conference member would not be as fortunate four minutes later when Illinois junior forward Natasha Karniski hit a crossing shot past the keeper's reach to break the scoreless tie.  The goal was her first of the season, while the helper gave Hurless her eighth of the year.  Not to be out done, Natasha's twin sister, defender Christen notched the second score of the game off of an in-swinging corner kick that hit off of the hands of Jones with six minutes remaining in the first half.  The unassisted tally was Christen's second of the campaign.  The 2-0 mark is where the first 45 minutes ended.

The second half opened with a flurry of energy from the trailing Wildcats.  After a number of unsuccessful runs into Illini territory, Northwestern began to lose control of the action with Illinois switching fields effectively to keep the ball in Northwestern's half for most of the second period.   The constant possession in the offensive zone paid off for Illinois when Hurless collected her second assist of the contest on Paula Faherty's first goal of the campaign.  Being her last Big Ten Tournament, Hurless showed that she intended to see her Illini defend their tournament title.  In the 64th minute she carried the ball down the far side of the field and from 15 feet out, knocked a crossing shot into the back of the net to put Illinois up by the score of 4-0.  The goal was her ninth of the season and raised her point total to 27 for the season.  Northwestern took control for a few subsequent rushes, but saw and comeback chances dashed as two shots hit the cross bar above the hands of Illinois keeper Leisha Alcia.  After a scoreless tie with Northwestern in their Big Ten finale that knocked them into the tournament's fourth seed, Illinois was not to be satisfied by a four goal margin.  Sophomore forward Brittany Ward knocked in a crossing pass from freshman Ella Masar to end the scoring at 5-0.  For Ward, it was her first goal of the season, while for Masar it was her third assist of the year and Fahrety also received credit for her second helper of the year.

Illinois moves on to face top-seed Penn State in the semifinals of the conference tournament on Friday at 4:30 p.m. at Jesse Owens Stadium.  Penn State won their only match of the season 2-0.