Northwestern University Athletics
Women's Lacrosse Ready To Get Started
3/6/2002 12:00:00 AM | Women's Lacrosse
March 6, 2002
EVANSTON, Ill. - The 2002 season opener has been a long time coming for the Northwestern women's lacrosse team.
11 years in the making, to be exact.
When the Wildcats step onto the field with Marist College Friday afternoon in Madison, N.J., it will be the first varsity game for the program since 1991, when it was disbanded after a decade-long run of excellence. NU's weekend will conclude Sunday with a game against Richmond in Baltimore, Md.
For head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller, the weekend cannot get here soon enough.
"We are so excited," she said. "It has been a long preseason, which has been good and bad. It's been good because we have a lot we want to accomplish, and we needed the time to prepare our players. But it's been bad because I think the women are sick of seeing each other every day-they are ready to face outside competition."
Northwestern's first season has been carefully scripted, and the initial weekend is no different. Marist is a young program which has played twice already this season. Richmond, on the other hand, would qualify as a mid-level power. Last weekend, the Spiders dropped a 15-6 decision to defending NCAA runner-up Georgetown, and then lost to nationally ranked Delaware.
The focus this weekend will not necessarily be on the teams lining up opposite the Wildcats, though.
"We're not as concerned with our opponent as we are about ourselves," said Amonte Hiller. "We still need to do a lot of work on our stuff, so this weekend will serve more as a barometer of where we are than anything else."
At the same time, Amonte Hiller has carefully scripted the schedule to make sure her youthful team-15 freshmen dot the 19-player roster-is not outgunned in their first taste of college lacrosse.
"I'm happy with the balance of our first weekend," she continued. "Marist has already played twice, but they lost last weekend to another first-year program in George Washington. Richmond is going to be an excellent program soon-they have a great coach in Sue Murray-but I think it will be a good game for us to start the season with."
