Northwestern University Athletics
Kjellman is National Rookie of the Week
4/27/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Lacrosse
April 27, 2004
EVANSTON, Ill. - Freshman Kristen Kjellman was named the womenslacrosse.com National Rookie of the Week, which was announced Tuesday morning.
The recognition came on the heels of two more standout performances by the rookie, who is making a strong case for American Lacrosse Conference and national Rookie of the Year honors. She led all scorers with four goals in each of last week's games, helping the Wildcats knock off a pair of top-10 opponents (then-No. 6 Notre Dame and then-No. 9 Johns Hopkins).
In addition to Kjellman's honor, junior goalkeeper Ashley Gersuk was named to the insidelacrosse.com National Honor Roll for her performances against the Irish and Blue Jays. It was the second time Gersuk has been so honored this spring. She was one of five players named to the Honor Roll; Virginia's Nikki Lieb was recognized as the National Player of the Week.
Thanks to those performances, Northwestern's third-year varsity program is ranked sixth in this week's IWLCA national coaches poll -- the highest ranking ever for the 'Cats (they were also ranked sixth three times during the previous era of varsity play, from 1982-92; the most recent of those three rankings was March 28, 1989).
Following Sunday's 15-8 win over Johns Hopkins, Northwestern (12-1, 4-0 ALC) has won 11 games in a row. That is a school record, and the second-longest win streak in the country behind No. 1 Princeton (23).
The Wildcats are also the lone unbeaten team left in the American Lacrosse Conference, with home games still to play against Ohio (Friday) and No. 11 Vanderbilt (May 6). This is the first year the champion of the ALC -- a three-year-old conference -- receives an automatic bid into the 16-team NCAA Tournament.
Kjellman has scored 41 goals this season, which is a high for a Northwestern player since the program was brought back to varsity status in 2002. She also has nine assists for a total of 50 points, which leads the team and is the most in the modern era -- junior Sarah Albrecht had 42 points as a freshman in 2002.
In addition to their lofty ranking in the IWLCA, the Wildcats are also ranked sixth by both insidelacrosse.com and womenslacrosse.com. They are at home two times this weekend as part of Wildcat Women's Sport Weekend, hosting ALC foe Ohio Friday at 4 p.m. and unranked Denver Sunday at 1 p.m.
