May 4, 2007
BALTIMORE - Top-ranked Northwestern continued its dominance this afternoon with a 19-7 win over No. 17 Penn State in the semifinals of the ALC Tournament at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. The Wildcats advance to Sunday's championship game against the winner of Vanderbilt and Johns Hopkins in tonight's second semifinal.
Northwestern delivered the knockout punch right away in the opening minutes, scoring the first seven goals of the game, capped off by Meredith Frank's unassisted goal with 16:56 left in the half.
Bowen opened the scoring just over a minute into the match with an unassisted tally. The Wildcats then piled it on the Nittany Lions with goals from ALC Player of the Year Kristen Kjellman, Aly Josephs and three from Hannah Nielsen who has been on a tear this season, most notably over the last three games.
After Penn State netted its first goal at 14:54 by Amanda Longobucco, Nielsen tied the school's single-season assist mark with her 54th of the season when she fed Bowen to make it 8-1 with 13:13 left. She then broke the record minutes later when she flipped to a cutting Josephs for her 55th of the season.
Nielsen, who now has 19 assists in the last three games, finished with a total five on the afternoon, giving her 57 for the season-the third-highest in NCAA Division I history. The NCAA record is 66 set by Virginia's Lindsay Sheehan in 1986.
Two addition first-half goals by Frank made it 11-1 before Kjellman finished the scoring with an unassisted goal while falling to the ground to make it 12-1 at halftime.
Much of the credit in the first half also went to the Wildcat defense, which forced 10 Nittany Lions turnovers in the opening stanza and 16 overall. Junior defender Christy Finch was her normal aggressive self in the back, forcing four turnovers on her own and scooping up four ground balls.
Penn State started the second half with two quick goals by Kerry Shea and Theresa Bucci. But all that did was spark another run by the 'Cats as Northwestern scored the next five goals for an insurmountable 17-3 lead with 12:10 to go. Frank recorded two in the run along with goals from Danielle Spencer, Katrina Dowd and Ali Jacobs. Quinn Cammarota and Meghan Plunkett also scored their first goals of the season in the closing mintues.
Morgan Lathrop, the ALC Goalie of the Year, didn't face too many shots, but when she did, she denied four and allowed only three goals in 47 minutes.
The win was the 16th-straight overall for the Wildcats who also have now won 16-straight ALC games dating to the start of the 2005 season.
