EVANSTON, Ill. -- Alicia Herczeg (Agoura Hills, Calif./Agoura) scored her team-leading fourth goal of the season as Northwestern women’s soccer opened Big Ten play with a 1-0 win over No. 19 Indiana Friday at Lakeside Field.

Herczeg’s goal came in the 81st minute. Bri Westlund (Cottage Grove, Minn./Park) served an indirect kick to the right side of the goal mouth, where Jennifer Baumann (Waukesha, Wis./Catholic Memorial) put her head on it but had the ball deflected by an Indiana defender. Northwestern (4-5-1, 1-0-0 Big Ten) kept the ball alive when Emily Langston (Los Altos, Calif./Los Altos) made a header pass to Herczeg on the left side of the goal and the senior headed it home.

Northwestern took seven shots in the second half after managing just one in the first 45 minutes. The ’Cats nearly scored in the 76th minute when Baumann had a shot cleared off the line by a Hoosier defender.

NU goalkeeper Carolyn Edwards (Lincolnshire, Ill./Stevenson) recorded her fourth shutout of the season. The junior made six saves, including a pair of point-blank stops to keep the match scoreless. Edwards’ biggest play of the night came at the 61:00 when she was able to swat away a shot by Indiana’s Devon Beach.

“When your goalkeeper makes saves like that, you get a good feeling that you’re going to win,” said Northwestern Head Coach Stephanie Erickson. “They had incredible chances and she stole them from them. She was brilliant and it really gave the rest of our team the confidence to go at it.”

The ’Cats open Big Ten play with a win for the first time since 2006. The victory is NU’s first over a ranked opponent since a 1-0 win over Illinois on Sept. 28, 2008.

Northwestern closes the weekend with a 3:30 p.m. match Sunday against No. 15 Purdue. Admission and parking are free for all regular season women’s soccer games.