Lake Monsters: Northwestern Hands Penn First Defeat
by Chris Gentilviso | Special to Lacrosse Magazine Online
|
| Hannah Nielsen scored three of her four goals in the
second half to lead No. 1 Northwestern over No. 3
Penn. © TD Paulius |
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Two undefeated teams
arrived at Lakeside Field on Saturday, possessing two different
agendas.
As the top scoring offense in the nation, No. 1 Northwestern had
notions of erasing last season’s disappointing 11-7 loss to
Penn in its regular season finale.
As the top scoring defense in the nation, No. 3 Penn had notions
of erasing last season’s disappointing 10-6 loss to
Northwestern in the NCAA Championship game.
The Wildcats executed their agenda, using a four-goal second-half
spurt from junior Katrina Dowd and senior Hannah Nielsen to walk
away with an 11-9 victory over the Quakers on Saturday night.
The different result had much to do with Northwestern’s
ability to control possession.
“I felt like when we did have the ball, we could put it in
the net,” Penn coach Karin Brower said. “We need to
have the ball a lot more to win that game.”
Northwestern (16-0, 4-0 ALC) had little trouble with Penn’s
heralded defense over the first 10 minutes, mounting a 3-0 lead on
a pair of quick-stick goals by Dowd and junior Danielle Spencer,
and a free-position conversion from freshman Alexandra Frank.
“We were really able to take the wind out of their sails
right off the bat,” Northwestern coach Kelly Amonte Hiller
said. “We made some offensive opportunities for ourselves and
were really able to take advantage.”
But over the next 10 minutes, the Wildcats lost that advantage.
The Quakers used their speed to race to a 5-0 run of their own,
headed by two goals apiece from Kaitlyn Lombardo and Emma Spiro.
Penn (13-1, 7-0 Ivy League) also profited from a lopsided
first-half foul differential of 15-6, which saw two yellow cards
lead to the final goal over that stretch.
For the first time this season, the Wildcats trailed at halftime,
6-5, and much of that had to do with poor play on draw controls.
The Quakers won seven of the first 12 chances, leading to a 10-6
advantage in shots entering the break.
It was nothing but a wake-up call for Dowd and her teammates.
“We needed to know that they can both score and have a great
defense, so we needed to possess,” Dowd said.
Dowd continued picked up the slack on the Northwestern attack
without senior leader Hilary Bowen. With a hat trick Saturday, the
junior has 45 goals in 14 starts this season. By comparison, before
tearing her ACL in her left knee against California on April 4,
Bowen had 48 goals in 12 starts.
When the game’s crucial minutes arrived, Nielsen took center
stage. Coming off her first game this season without a goal against
Ohio State last Wednesday, she was aware of the adjustments she
needed to make.
“I didn’t think I was putting a lot of pressure on the
defense,” Nielsen said. “I came into that game thinking
I needed to dodge more and create more pressure to open other girls
up.”
With 17 minutes remaining in the game and the two teams knotted at
seven, Nielsen did just that, shifting past the Penn defense with
an acrobatic underhanded goal. Four minutes later, she got a step
on her defender and slipped a goal past Penn goalkeeper Emily
Szelest, upping the lead to 9-7.
As the defense’s attention shifted to her scoring ability,
Nielsen shifted to her passing game. Streaking into the offensive
zone, she fired a rocket from way outside the fan to Dowd at the
edge of the crease, giving the Wildcats an 11-7 lead with
seven-plus minutes remaining. Nielsen finished with a team-high
seven points, including three assists to pad her NCAA record to
201.
More importantly, Nielsen’s play capped a 4-0 run that
spanned more than 13 minutes in the second half. That control down
the stretch was a product of the Wildcats winning seven of the
final 10 draws.
With arguably the best poise from her team this season, Amonte
Hiller saw this game as a model that will aid Northwestern in its
quest to win a fifth straight national title.
“That's really the first time we’ve been able to
successfully stall,” Amonte Hiller said. We didn’t do
it against Virginia and I think that experience is really going to
help us down the stretch.”
