Northwestern University Athletics
The 2004 Season in Review
6/10/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Lacrosse
June 10, 2004
EVANSTON, Ill. - In 2002, the Northwestern women's lacrosse program regained varsity status within the University, and under head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller a freshman-laden squad went 5-10 (including 2-4 in the newly-formed American Lacrosse Conference).
In 2003, despite the absence of its leading scorer from the year before, the Wildcats improved to 8-8, with another 2-4 conference campaign.
With that in mind, the table was set for the team to make another step forward in 2004. However, could anyone have suspected that the step would in fact be a giant leap?
There was at least one person who did.
"I had a feeling we could have the type of season we did," said head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller. "I knew we had the personnel returning and they were being joined by a really good freshman class. When you see how hard these players work during the offseason, you expect to see them succeed when the time comes to hit the field."
The numbers are old news by now, but they bear repeating when talking about the 2004 Northwestern University Women's Lacrosse season.
*A 15-3 record, highlighted by a 13-game winning streak during the regular season.
*A 5-1 ALC mark, allowing the 'Cats to tie Vanderbilt for the conference title -- in fact, NU's only league loss came to Commodores, 10-9 in overtime.
*An NCAA Tournament berth -- in fact, an NCAA Tournament home game in the first round. The 'Cats beat Notre Dame in that contest, 10-8, before falling in the quarterfinal round to eventual champion Virginia.
*The No. 6 ranking in the final IWLCA national coaches poll, a poll that did not have the Wildcats in the Top 20 in the preseason. That ranking ties the highest any NU team has ever had (you have to go back to 1989 to find the last time it happened) and is also the highest any ALC team has ever had.
*School records for wins, win streak, goals and points.
Truly, it was a season for the ages.
"I really felt like our chemistry this season was amazing," said Amonte Hiller. "If you ask any of the players, I think they would tell you that we had a great group of women who were excited to be a part of this program and did what it took to help the team. It was a selfless group that worked hard; everything that they accomplished, they deserved."
Accolades arrived by the boatload following the season, as the lacrosse nation took notice of the Wildcat program. Six players earned IWLCA regional All-America honors -- after two years without one NU player getting so honored -- and two of them, Courtney Koester and Kristen Kjellman, were second-team All-America selections. Kjellman was named National Rookie of the Year by Inside Lacrosse and womenslacrosse.com, while Amonte Hiller was the National Coach of the Year by both outlets as well as the IWLCA's Mid-Atlantic Region Coach of the Year. Within the conference, six players earned All-ALC honors, while Kjellman and Amonte Hiller were bestowed the rookie and coach of the year awards.
The season began with a 25-6 drubbing of ALC foe Davidson, but two days later the 'Cats fell in their first true test, 15-9 at Duke. They would not lose again for 74 days -- a span of time that saw them win 13 games in a row.
The winning streak was slow to gain steam. NU pulled out a one-goal victory at Rutgers when Lindsey Munday scored in the final minute, and then one week later the 'Cats got their first "major" win when they knocked off then-No. 15 and the preseason ALC favorite Ohio State, 9-6. Any momentum from that win was dulled by final exams, however, and during spring break the 'Cats edged out wins against Colgate (7-5), Delaware (9-8 in sudden-victory overtime) and Virginia Tech (12-11).
"We had our difficulties with those early games, but I felt like we really took some steps forward in the win against Virginia Tech," said Amonte Hiller. "After that game we sat down as a team and talked about regaining our focus on what we thought was important -- having fun and getting better. Once we did that, we went to Connecticut and really broke out."
Northwestern indeed broke out in that UConn game, crushing the Huskies 18-4, and then following that up during Easter weekend with a pair of blowout wins at Stanford (11-5) and Cal (16-4). Another step toward respectability came the following weekend with a 13-11 victory at No. 18 Penn State.
The biggest step was still to come.
After playing nine of its first 11 games on the road, the 'Cats finished the season with five straight home contests. The first one came against then-No. 6 Notre Dame, NU's regional rival, and the 'Cats won 9-5. The next one was against then-No. 9 Johns Hopkins, and this time Northwestern won the meeting between the only unbeaten teams left in the ALC 15-9. The statement had been made: this NU team was for real.
"I think the Notre Dame and Hopkins games were not important to us as much as they were important to others around the country," said Amonte Hiller. "I think those wins validated our presence in the rankings for a lot of people. It certainly raised the level of excitement about our program for our players."
A pair of blowout wins -- 25-7 over ALC foe Ohio, and 16-4 vs. Denver -- set the stage for NU's showdown with Vanderbilt in the regular-season finale. The Wildcats had already clinched a share of the ALC title, but with the NCAA's automatic berth on the line a senior-laden Commodore squad got up early and then held on to snatch away the overtime win.
Northwestern still received an at-large bid into the 16-team field, and hosted Notre Dame in a rematch game at the Thomas Athletic Complex. Despite a slow start, the 'Cats came roaring back and ultimately pulled out a 10-8 decision. The season, however, came to a close three days later in the quarterfinal round at Charlottesville, Va. when the Cavaliers pulled away from an 8-8 second-half deadlock with three straight goals en route to the win.
"It was disappointing to lose, because once you are in NCAAs you want to win it," said Amonte Hiller. "However, our team left everything out on the field in that Virginia game and did all that we could ask for. If you can't win the tournament, the next best thing is that the team that beats you wins it."
It has taken three years for the Northwestern program to gain a spot among the nation's elite teams. With that in mind, only one question can be asked ...
What will the next step be in 2005, when the program plays its fourth season?
