May 27, 2007
SEE ALSO: Stall-For-All Makes For Anticlimactic Finish
by Andrew Scurria, Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff
PHILADELPHIA - Julie Myers found herself in a familiar hole, so she tried to climb out the only way she knew how.
"We tried to turn it into a positive," the Virginia women's lacrosse coach said. "Maybe being five goals down at halftime is a good thing for us," she told her players.
It may have been against Duke, where just two days ago the Cavaliers had rallied from 10 down for the biggest comeback win in tournament history. But battling a superior Northwestern team - and an unfavorable game clock - proved too much to overcome this time, and the Cavaliers went home empty after a 15-13 defeat in the NCAA Division I women's lacrosse championship game.
Northwestern captured its third straight national title in front of a record crowd of 6,075 by halting the Cavaliers' comeback bid in brilliant fashion and dominating the game's possession war.
"I kind of had a feeling today would be hard-fought," said Wildcats coach Kelly Amonte Hiller - no small thing for a coach who had spent the year watching her team blow out opponents by double-digit margins. "I think when you've won before people are gunning [for you]."
Put the Cavaliers in that category. They did their best to turn the game into a track meet, racing up the field and earning six free-position shots and converting five of them.
But the Wildcats pushed back, and Virginia couldn't match their opponents' firepower in what turned out to be the highest scoring national championship game ever.
The Wildcats won nine out of 12 draw controls in the second half.
"We knew that they were good, but until you get in that situation you always hope it will never come to that point," said Northwestern sophomore Hilary Bowen, who responded with an eye-popping five goals and two assists.
Once Northwestern had the lead, it did everything in its power to hold onto it.
That meant holding onto the ball for dear life. With less than 10 minutes to go and the Wildcats sporting a one-goal edge, Bowen set up camp behind goal, and Myers chose not to pressure her.
It took five minutes, a chorus of boos from the crowd, and a spectacular effort on defense, but Virginia finally whacked the ball loose to give itself a chance.
"That was a great delay on their part," Myers said. "We weren't real sure we were going to come up with that next draw, so I don't think that we could have taken that chance any sooner than we did."
Then, after a massive tumble around midfield, Northwestern's Katrina Dowd emerged with the ball and did what the Cavaliers could not - strike quickly. Her unassisted goal a few seconds later put the Wildcats up 15-13 with 2:29 to go.
The win was a true Northwestern performance. Top scorer Kristen Kjellman managed just one goal, but the Wildcats got a big boost from the freshman Dowd, who scored an unexpected hat trick to help hold off that late Virginia charge.
"The upperclassmen and the other players out there gave me the confidence and told me, 'Don't be scared, don't be shy, take it to goal,'" Dowd said. "They found me on my cuts and I put it away."
"I was obviously nervous," said Dowd, who was completely stuffed on her first shot on goal but hardly missed anything after that. "Just to get my first shot out of the way, I knew I had to settle it down."
The Wildcats' defense settled down, too. After goalie Morgan Lathrop and defenders Christy Finch and Annie Elliott spent more time high-fiving each other than defending Virginia in the first half, they were a bit shell-shocked when the Cavaliers came out firing in the second.
Virginia scored on its first five possessions after halftime, but after Amonte Hiller told her team to calm down, the Widcats of old emerged.
"I just wanted to take a little bit of air out of the ball," Amonte Hiller said, "but still be aggressive when they came out and played us."
For now, Amonte Hiller can take time off from being aggressive - and take some time to appreciate what three straight NCAA titles mean.
"Every [title] is different," she said. "This is a very different team than we had in 2006 or 2005...I think we have our own niche."
