April 14, 2007
by Simon Brown, Special to Lacrosse Magazine Online
Evanston, Ill. - Northwestern's 19-8 home victory Saturday against No. 8 Penn State featured a first for senior attacker Aly Jospehs: a collegiate game against her sister, Margo, who is a freshman defender for the Nittany Lions.
Both Josephs wear number five, but shared little time on the field thanks to the lopsided score. Aly netted two goals, but was pulled early in the second half, while Margo played a few minutes at the end of the game.
"It was good; it was exciting," Aly said. "I've been looking forward to it all year."
Aly said she has "been trying all year to get some little info about" Penn State from her sister, but to no avail. The No. 1-ranked Wildcats (10-1, 2-0 ALC), however, needed no extra help.
Northwestern scored first and never looked back, though the game remained close for the first eight minutes of play. Leading 6-4, the Wildcats went on a 7-0 run over the final 11:26 of the first half to put Penn State (8-5, 0-2) away. The final goal of that run came with 0:04 left in the half, when sprinting sophomore midfielder Meredith Frank caught a pass from sophomore midfielder Ali Jacobs in stride for an easy score.
"We just were very smart on offense," Northwestern coach Kelly Amonte Hiller said. "We came up with draw controls and we kind of knocked it off one goal after another and once we got a bunch of goals. That last goal with a couple seconds left in the half was kind of icing on the cake."
Frank finished with four goals, as did sophomore midfielder/attacker Hillary Bowen. Three Wildcat tallied two goals each, including freshman midfielder/attacker Danielle Spencer, who came off the bench late in the second half. Sophomore midfielder Hannah Nielsen led the Wildcats with a career-high five assists.
Northwestern dominated statistically. The Wildcats picked up 13 ground balls to Penn State's seven and turned the ball over just five times, compared to 13 turnovers for the Nittany Lions. Northwestern also bested Penn State on draw controls, 17-10.
Perhaps the only negative for the Wildcats were a few "soft" goals, as Amonte Hiller put it, given up in the waning minutes, when most of the starters were on the bench.
It was Penn State's third consecutive game against a top-three opponent, with losses to No. 1 Northwestern and No. 2 Maryland, and an overtime victory over No. 3 North Carolina. Penn State had no answer for Northwestern.
"Everyone is really excited," Nielsen said. "We knew this game was going to be a tough one - Penn State is a great team and we came out here and played really well."
Northwestern will need to play just as well in its next game, a Monday match-up with Maryland at home. That game is of special interest to Amonte Hiller, who led Maryland to two NCAA titles and was the national player of the year there in 1995 and 1996. She is also a former teammate of Maryland coach Cathy Nelson Reese.
"I'm pumped up; I'm just really excited about it," she said.
