Spencer's Eight Lead Northwestern Over Vandy
from press release
EVANSTON, Ill. -- After suffering its first
loss in nearly two years Sunday, second-ranked Northwestern
responded in a huge way Saturday night, dominating eighth-ranked
Vanderbilt from the opening draw en route to a 27-9 victory. With
the victory, the Wildcats improve to 13-1 on the season and 4-0 in
American Lacrosse Conference play, capturing the regular season
conference crown and locking up the top overall seed in the
conference tournament in the process.
"I thought the girls really responded well tonight and showed that
passion that we had been trying to get them to show," said head
coach Kelly Amonte Hiller. "We had a tough week of practice and I
think the girls were looking to make a statement in this game.
Danielle and Katrina had an unbelievable night, and I think this
was one of our most complete games of the season."
The senior duo of Danielle Spencer (Rochester, N.Y./Brighton) and
Katrina Dowd (Yorktown Heights, N.Y./Yorktown) led a furious
Northwestern attack as Spencer notched seven first half goals,
helping the Wildcats roar to an 18-6 lead at the intermission. She
finished with a career-best eight, which is tied for the
second-highest single-game total in program history. Spencer also
added an assist to bring her total on the night to nine, which was
complimented by six draw controls.
Dowd continued to show her ability to come up big when the stakes
are the highest, finishing with five goals and adding three assists
on the night. She scored the first of the game with just 42 seconds
burned off the clock, then capped her night with an unbelievable
behind-the-back shot midway through the second half. Dowd, who
becomes the first Wildcat to surpass 50 goals on the year, also
added five draws for Northwestern, who dominated Vanderbilt (11-4,
4-1 ALC) with a 27-11 edge on the night.
The Wildcats game plan from the opening whistle was to go to the
goal as often as they could as Northwestern pounced out to a 7-1
lead with less than nine minutes gone in the opening half. The
Commodores mounted a run of their own, registering three tallies in
the space of two minutes to cut the deficit to three at 7-4 with
just over 18 minutes remaining.
But that was as close as Vanderbilt would get to staging the upset
as Northwestern responded by scoring nine of the next 10 goals to
break the game open at 16-5 late in the first half. After a
Commodore goal made it 16-6, the Wildcats would put two more
tallies on the board before the half to take the 18-6 break into
the intermission.
Northwestern's scoring barrage picked up right where it left off at
halftime as eight of the first nine goals of the second half came
off Wildcat sticks. With a heavy fog off the lake and strong winds
picking up late in the game, both teams were content to burn the
final minutes off the clock.
Eight different Wildcats scored at least one goal in the victory,
with freshman Erin Fitzgerald (Mt. Sinai, N.Y./Mt. Sinai) netting a
career-best four goals for her first career hat trick. Sophomore
Shannon Smith (West Babylon, N.Y./West Babylon) and freshman Ali
Cassera (Fairfield, N.J./West Essex) each finished with three goals
for hat tricks of their own while freshman Amanda Macaluso
(Smithtown, N.Y./Hauppauge) beat the Vanderbilt goalkeeper
twice.
Junior Rachel Fox (Andover, Mass./Andover) and sophomore Alexandra
Frank (Westwood, Mass./Westwood) each scored a goal on the night
for Northwestern with Frank also tallying four draws for the 'Cats.
Juniors Brooke Matthews (Baltimore, Md./Friends School) and Kendall
Santulli (Hinsdale, Ill./Central) each added an assist on the
night, marking 10 different Wildcats who tallied a point on the
night.
Northwestern dominated in both shots (42-22) and draw controls
(27-11) on the night while converting on seven of nine free
position attempts. Sophomore goalkeeper Brianne LoManto (Miller
Place, N.Y./Rocky Point) recorded six saves on the night with
junior Darby St. Clair-Barrie (Scituate, Mass./Brooks School)
notching a save in relief.
A great crowd of just over 1,000 braved the foggy, chilly and windy
conditions and were treated to a record-scoring night. The 27 goals
scored by the Wildcats on the night is the most since Amonte Hiller
took over the program in 2002, besting the 25 goals scored against
both Davidson and Ohio in 2003. Northwestern extended its ALC
winning streak to 32 games while improving to 8-3 all-time against
Vanderbilt.
Northwestern now gets set to close out the 2010 regular season with
two more home games this coming weekend, beginning with a meeting
with fifth-ranked Virginia on Friday, April 30. The game will be
televised by the Big Ten Network with the opening draw scheduled
for 7 p.m.
