Northwestern University Athletics
No. 20 Wildcats Play Twice This Weekend
4/10/2003 12:00:00 AM | Women's Lacrosse
April 10, 2003
EVANSTON, Ill. - With less than a month remaining in the regular season, and more than half of its schedule completed, the Northwestern women's lacrosse team suddenly has to start thinking about how each game is important if it holds any hope of making it into the 16-team NCAA Tournament field.
That is especially true when two games come up on the docket that have no bearing on the American Lacrosse Conference standings.
This weekend is just such a weekend, as NU takes plays two non-conference games. On Friday, the 20th-ranked Wildcats (6-3) host No. 16 Stanford at Lakeside Field at 4 p.m. Perhaps more importantly, on Sunday they travel to Blacksburg, Va., to take on an unranked Virginia Tech that bested them last year in Evanston.
The Virginia Tech game has been moved up one hour and will begin at 11 a.m. ET.
"We are taking the approach that every game is important; we do not put all the weight on one or two games," said head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller. "However, we had a nice win Sunday against Connecticut, and it is exciting to have another big game on our home field Friday. We are going to approach these two games the way we approach every game -- we will focus on the things we need to do to win."
In Stanford, NU faces a squad who has faced an ambitious schedule already this season, with the only losses on its 8-2 ledger coming against No. 3 Duke and No. 6 Georgetown.
"Stanford has a good team and is very well-coached; I expect them to have excellent stick skills," said Amonte Hiller. "Offensively they are very balanced, so the key for us is to play good team defense. I am very excited about the matchups across the field; I think it will make for a really interesting game."
Virginia Tech (2-10) has struggled record-wise this season, and on Wednesday the Hokies were dumped by Virginia 19-4. However, they have played close games with No. 8 Syracuse (an 8-7 loss) and No. 15 Notre Dame (a 16-13 loss).
"I think Virginia Tech is a little younger than they were a year ago, so they are experiencing some of the ups and downs that go with being a young team," said Amonte Hiller. "The key for us will be how we respond to being on the road; we need to put our best game forth to get the win."
Northwestern made up for lost ground on the national scene last weekend with a home win against Connecticut, knocking the Huskies out of the national poll and replacing them. Friday provides another chance to make a statement against a higher-ranked team.
"I was not concerned about our mental state entering the UConn game," said Amonte Hiller, noting the 'Cats had lost three in a row before that win. "After our losses during spring break, it seemed like our players were ready to get going right away. In the UConn game they just stepped up their mental focus and kept it going for 60 minutes."
Amonte Hiller felt one of the keys to Sunday's win was the offensive ball movement and balance, and she expects that to be a factor again this weekend.
"Right now we have a lot of women who are starting to play with confidence," she said. "We are starting to find our groove as an offense, and by that I mean people are starting to get comfortable with the other people around them -- where they are making cuts, where they want passes, stuff like that."
