Northwestern University Athletics
The 2003-04 Athletic Year in Review
7/1/2004 12:00:00 AM | General
July 1, 2004
EVANSTON, Ill. - The 2003-04 athletic season, Northwestern's first under new Director of Athletics Mark Murphy, was one of the finest in recent memory as the entire year was dominated by standout performances by the Wildcat teams and their athletes.
2003-04 Honors Sheet in PDF Format
2003-04 N-Club, Center Court Awards Sheet in PDF Format
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The fall once again set the tone for success. The football team hit a hot streak in the second half of the season, defeating nationally ranked Wisconsin at Ryan Field and using that as a springboard to a .500 Big Ten season and a berth in the Motor City Bowl in December. It was NU's fourth bowl game since 1995. Women's volleyball advanced to the NCAA Championship for the second year in a row -- quite a feat, considering the most recent postseason appearance before last season was 1984. Men's soccer continued its rapid ascent, finishing with a .500 record for the first time since 1988 and punctuating the campaign by snapping a lengthy losing streak against Big Ten opponents with a win over nationally ranked Michigan in the first round of the conference tournament. The field hockey team won nine games, the most since 1995, and finished at .500 overall for the first time since 1996. Women's soccer finished just shy of making the Big Ten Tournament for the second year in a row, but had two players earn first-team All-Big Ten, a first since 1998.
Men's swimming dominated the landscape during the winter -- the 'Cats finished third at Big Tens and 11th at NCAAs, winning five conference titles and earning 13 All-America honors in the process. Matt Grevers was dominant in his first year at Evanston, and it was recognized when he was named Big Ten Co-Swimmer of the Year as well as Freshman of the Year. Men's basketball captured its share of the spotlight with its best Big Ten season since 1968, earning Bill Carmody the Big Ten's Coach of the Year award from a panel of media voters. Senior Jitim Young capped a glorious career by earning consensus first-team All-Big Ten honors. Another head coach, fencing's Laurie Schiller, was the National Coach of the Year after he led his charges to sixth among the women's teams at the NCAA Championships. During the season he got his 800th win as a coach at Northwestern. Finally, the wrestling team sent four grapplers to the NCAA Championships -- all of them underclassmen.
The spring sports were dominated by the women's teams. Women's tennis had another amazing campaign, going 9-1 during the Big Ten regular season and then winning the Big Ten Tournament on its home courts in May. The 'Cats hosted an NCAA regional for the fourth year in a row, defeating UIC and Notre Dame, before losing to Duke in the Round of 16 in Athens, Ga. Lacrosse made a quantum leap in its third year back as a varsity program -- a 15-3 record, a share of the American Lacrosse Conference title at 5-1, and advancement to the NCAA Tournament quarterfinal round where the 'Cats lost to eventual national champion Virginia. Softball also made steps forward at both the conference and national levels, finishing fourth in the Big Ten and going 2-2 at arguably the toughest of the eight NCAA regionals. Finally, women's golf earned its fourth NCAA Central Regional appearance in five years, and nearly advanced to the national championship with an 11th-place finish. At the end of the spring, Claire Pollard (women's tennis) and Kelly Amonte Hiller (lacrosse) had earned conference Coach of the Year honors, while Cristelle Grier was Big Ten Women's Tennis Player of the Year for the second straight year and three other athletes -- Eileen Canney (softball), Alice Kim (golf), and Kristen Kjellman (lacrosse) -- were conference Rookies of the Year.
NU's athletes were also recognized for their efforts in the classroom. Jason Wright and Jeff Backes were both named to the CoSIDA Academic All-America Football Teams, and they were joined as Academic All-Americans by Jeremy Cook (men's soccer), lacrosse player Courtney Koester (women's at-large) and swimmer Tony Swanson (men's at-large). Cook was also the recipient of an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship. Five other NU student-athletes were named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District Teams in their respective sports -- Luis Castillo (football), Molly Greene (women's soccer), Carri Leto (softball) and Samantha McComb (women's basketball). At the conference level, a total of 119 Northwestern student-athletes were named Academic All-Big Ten.
