Northwestern
Vanderbilt
Wildcats Will (Barely) Share ALC Title
5/6/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Lacrosse
May 6, 2004
Box Score in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
EVANSTON, Ill. - When all was said and done in Thursday afternoon's American Lacrosse Conference title match between Northwestern and Vanderbilt -- after the teams had played 60 minutes of regulation and six more minutes of overtime to settle matters -- there was no doubt who the big winner was.
It was the fans who got to witness this game.
In a game that had all the ups and downs of a roller-coaster ride at Great America, Vanderbilt scored early in the second overtime session and that proved to the be the difference as the Commodores emerged from NU's Thomas Athletic Complex with a 10-9 victory.
The loss was Northwestern's first in 14 games, and as a result the sixth-ranked Wildcats (14-2) must now share the 2004 ALC crown with Vanderbilt (10-4) as both have 5-1 marks. However, the No. 11 Commodores earned the conference's first-ever automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament by virtue of winning this head-to-head battle.
It is likely that Northwestern will also hear its name called Sunday when the 16-team field is announced at 5:30 p.m. Central (6:30 Eastern) on College Sports Television.
"It was an exciting game for the fans," said NU head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller. "The second half, especially, had a definite postseason feel to it. I think this will be a great thing for us, because now we know what it means to be in a game like this. Vanderbilt has been there before and they have a lot of players who were playing to continue not just their seasons but probably their careers -- they showed urgency early on and we didn't, and that was the difference."
Vanderbilt -- which also won the inaugural ALC title in 2002 -- boasts a senior-laden team, but was a definite bubble team heading into this contest (the Commodores are also at Notre Dame Saturday). That urgency sparked them to the first three goals of the game and a 5-1 halftime lead. Of particular importance were two goals in the final 20 seconds of the stanza, by Jess Roguski and Meg Spies.
"Vanderbilt did a good job of slowing the game down in the first half, and then when we got it at the offensive end we tried to take some bad risks and made a lot of mistakes," said Amonte Hiller, whose team scored its only goal of the half on Sarah Albrecht's free-position try. "We played like a young team that had not been in this situation before."
If the first half served as a wake-up call, the second half was a jolt. Lindsey Munday knocked home a free-position goal 2:45 in, and then less than a minute later Kristen Kjellman scored an unassisted goal. Aly Josephs scored at the 8:15 mark to make the score 5-4, but Vanderbilt responded immediately when Kate Hickman tallied her second of the day just 45 seconds later.
"We changed up a few things defensively, but offensively it was more about wanting it," said Amonte Hiller. "It became a matter of digging deeper and getting what is at stake out there. I think our younger players figured it out in the second half."
The teams went into a holding pattern for nearly eight minutes after that, before Josephs scored her second unassisted goal of the contest, and with 10 minutes left in regulation the score was 6-5 in the Commodores favor.
Northwestern tied it with 8:46 to play on Munday's sidewinding shot, then took a 7-6 lead with 6:48 left when Josephs notched her third on a feed from Albrecht. Two minutes later, it looked like the 'Cats had doubled their advantage when Kjellman scored, but she was ruled in the crease and the goal was disallowed.
Vanderbilt came back. Michelle Allen -- who led all scorers with four goals and three assists -- scored an unassisted goal with 3:21 to play, and then just 32 seconds later NU was forced to play the rest of the game without All-ALC defender Courtney Koester when she received her second yellow card (and thus an ejection) on a dangerous foul.
It looked like Vandy would get the win when Allen scored with 1:30 to play, but once again a crease violation was called and the goal was wiped out, keeping the score at 7-7. Neither team was able to get a final shot in the last minute, and the game went to overtime.
In the first three-minute session, Josephs got things started when she took the opening draw and went in unmarked for her fourth goal of the game after just 11 seconds. Allen tied it up at the 1:32 mark, but NU again needed little time to go up when Albrecht won the draw and fed a streaking Laura Glassanos who netted the open chance. With just 31 seconds left, however, Allen fed Hickman and the teams switched ends with the score tied 9-9.
In the second overtime, Vanderbilt took the lead with 2:03 on the clock when Kelly Devlin scored her first goal of the day thanks to a feed from Roguski. The Commodores then won the ensuing draw control and were able to keep the ball away from the NU defense the rest of the way.
"I think some of the sting is taken off this loss because we feel very confident about our chances of making the NCAA Tournament," said Amonte Hiller. "In retrospect, this was a great thing for us -- we learned what it means to play in a game like this, and we were able to learn in a regular-season game instead of next week in the tournament. There will be no excuses when next week comes."
GAME SUMMARY
Score by Half
Vanderbilt (10-4, 5-1) 5 2 2 1 -- 10
Northwestern (14-2, 5-1) 1 6 2 0 -- 9
Goals
Northwestern: Josephs 4, Munday 2, Albrecht, Kjellman, Glassanos.
Vanderbilt: Allen 4, Hickman 3, Roguski, Devlin, Spies.
Assists
Northwestern: Albrecht 2.
Vanderbilt: Allen 3, Roguski 3.
Goalie Saves
NU - Gersuk 6; VANDY - Bastanelli 7.
Shots: Vanderbilt 20, NU 18
Free-Position Goals/Att.: NU 2/4, Vanderbilt 0/1
Ground Balls: NU 24, Vanderbilt 20
Caused Turnovers: NU 8, Vanderbilt 8
Draw Controls: Vanderbilt 16, NU 7
