Northwestern University Athletics
No. 1 Wildcats Take on Vanderbilt Sunday
4/29/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Lacrosse
April 29, 2005
EVANSTON, Ill. - If the women on the No. 1-ranked Northwestern women's lacrosse team learned anything from their last regular-season loss -- which came almost a full year ago -- one of the lessons may have been, "don't count your chickens before they hatch."
#1 Northwestern vs. #18 Vanderbilt
Sunday, May 1 * 1 p.m.
Vanderbilt Lacrosse Complex (Nashville, Tenn.)
Sunday afternoon, the Wildcats travel to Nashville to face the team that defeated them on that day, Vanderbilt. NU head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller sees the primary focus this weekend being to make sure history does not repeat itself.
"I think the players are focused on playing well and taking care of business," she said. "They know that these games are crucial. We cannot start thinking about NCAAs until we play these next two games (Sunday at Vandy, next Thursday vs. Ohio State). I think last year's game is still pretty fresh in a lot of minds."
In truth, Northwestern can start thinking about the upcoming NCAA Tournament. As the No. 1 team in the land, the Wildcats are virtually assured an at-large bid. However, a win on Sunday would clinch NU a share of the American Lacrosse Conference crown, and it would secure the conference's automatic bid -- in a worst-case scenario, the `Cats would end up sharing with Penn State, who they beat a few weeks ago.
That said, Northwestern has been a strong-starting team all season, and Amonte Hiller hopes to see that happen again Sunday.
"Our focus is going to be to come out hard," she said. "These last few weeks we are only playing one game a week, so we are looking to improve our game and get the most out of our practices so that we are sharp on gameday."
Amonte Hiller is wary of this Vanderbilt team. The Commodores -- who advanced to last year's NCAA Final Four -- are ranked 18th nationally, with a pedestrian 6-7 record (3-2 ALC). However, Vandy gave defending NCAA champion Virginia a great game last weekend, and when Amonte Hiller looks at this team she sees a familiar sight -- her team, a little more than a year ago.
"I think Vanderbilt, right now, is a lot like we were early last season," she said. "They are young, but they have a lot of talent and they have really improved over the course of the season. I really respect Cathy Swezey as a coach, so I expect them to be fired up to play this game -- this is a game that can make their season."
Last week's convincing win over Johns Hopkins seemed to punctuate a three-week stretch that has seen the Wildcats' bandwagon take on overflow. That game at Homewood Field was, in many ways, the lacrosse world's first glimpse of Amonte Hiller's squad since they took over the No. 1 spot six weeks ago -- and judging from the words of praise that have spilled out, the `Cats left quite an impression. Is Amonte Hiller concerned that, at this stage of the season, her players may start believing the hype?
"The players have done a great job all season of taking care of what we can control," she said. "That has been the focus to this point, and it will continue to be the focus as we head into this weekend."
Some notes as the Wildcats head to Nashville...
* NU and Vanderbilt are meeting for the fourth time in the modern era of NU lacrosse, with the Commodores holding a 3-0 lead in the series; last year, Vandy defeated the `Cats, 10-9, in overtime in Evanston. That is the only loss the Wildcats have suffered in their last 29 regular-season games.
* NU and Vanderbilt shared the American Lacrosse Conference title a year ago; a win Sunday will clinch a share of this year's ALC title for the Wildcats, as well as the conference's NCAA automatic bid.
* Vanderbilt, 18th in this week's IWLCA poll, is the seventh ranked team NU has played this season.
* NU entered the week ranked No. 1 in the IWLCA national poll for the sixth straight week; the Wildcats are the first team outside of the Eastern Time Zone to earn the top spot, and they are the first American Lacrosse Conference team to hold the No. 1 ranking.
* NU's 15-0 start is the best in program history.
* NU is 28-1 in its last 29 regular-season games, with the lone loss coming in overtime (last year vs. Vanderbilt).
* NU entered the week with the most wins in Division I this season (15), and the `Cats are the only undefeated team left after Dartmouth's 10-9 loss at BU Wednesday night.
* NU has set program records for assists (121) and points (357) in a season, and with 236 goals the Wildcats need three to break that single-season record set last year.
* NU leads the nation in scoring offense (15.73 gpg), scoring defense (5.87 gpg allowed), scoring margin (+9.87), and draw controls per game (15.87).
* NU also is sixth nationally in caused turnovers per game (12.27).
* NU has had five games with a double-digit unanswered scoring streak (three in the ALC) -- 10 vs. Johns Hopkins, 11 vs. Davidson, 10 vs. California, 10 vs. Ohio, 16 vs. Oregon.
* NU has had an unanswered goal streak of eight or more goals in six of the last seven games, and has had a run of five or more goals in all but two contests this season (Penn, North Carolina).
* NU held Johns Hopkins without a goal the last 46:09 of its game last Friday.
* When Hopkins scored the first goal of Friday's game, it marked just the second time this season NU didn't score first (the other was Duke, who took a 2-0 lead to start the game); the Wildcats' average score before their opponent's first goal in the other 13 games is 5.15.
* NU has averaged 16.4 goals per game since the season opener -- hitting double figures in each contest -- and won by an average of 10.5 goals per game.
NU's goalscoring breakdown this season
12 women scoring: 1 (Oregon)
11 women scoring: 1 (Denver)
10 women scoring: 2 (California, Davidson)
9 women scoring: 2 (Connecticut, Stanford)
8 women scoring: 2 (Ohio, Penn)
7 women scoring: 1 (Notre Dame)
6 women scoring: 2 (Duke, Johns Hopkins)
5 women scoring: 3 (New Hampshire, Rutgers, Penn State)
4 women scoring: 1 (North Carolina)
* Only two teams have reached double figures against NU -- Notre Dame (11) and Duke (11).
* NU has trailed a total of just 27 minutes and 09 seconds in the last 14 games (a total of 840 minutes); of that, only 8:15 of it occured in the second half.
* NU has five players with 20 or more goals this season -- senior/junior Sarah Albrecht (21), juniors Lindsey Munday (38) and Laura Glassanos (38), and sophomores Kristen Kjellman (43) and Aly Josephs (31).
The following goalscoring streaks are in place...
(number in parentheses represents number of games this season in which players have scored)
Kjellman 12 (13)
Glassanos 7 (14)
Josephs 6 (13)
Albrecht 4 (12)
NOTE: Glassanos has a six-game streak with multiple goals.
Munday snapped a streak of eight consecutive games with a goal (and five in a row with two or more goals) at Hopkins.
Multi-Goal Games This Season
Six Goals: Kjellman 1
Five Goals: Kjellman 3, Munday 2, Glassanos 2, Josephs 1
Four Goals: Kjellman 3, Munday 1, Josephs 1, Glassanos 1, Albrecht 1, Flynn 1
Three Goals: Munday 5, Glassanos 5, Josephs 3, Albrecht 2, Kjellman 1, Boege 1, Darmody 1
Two Goals: Josephs 5, Munday 4, Glassanos 3, Kjellman 2, Albrecht 2, Flynn 2, McCandlish 1, Bush 1, Boege 1, Finch 1, McCann 1, Elliott 1
Unassisted Goals This Season
Kjellman 14, Josephs 14, Munday 11, Glassanos 11, Albrecht 8, Darmody 4, Flynn 3, Finocchiaro 2, Bush 2, Elliott 1, Finch 1, McCandlish 1, H. Alley 1, C. Koester 1, Lenahan 1, Cammarota 1
On The NU Single-Season Lists
Assists: Munday 1st with 40; Kjellman 5th with 26; Glassanos t-8th with 19.
Points: Munday 4th with 78 (modern era record); Kjellman 7th with 69.
On The NU All-Time Lists
Goals: Kjellman 6th with 96; Glassanos 8th with 86; Munday 9th with 81; Albrecht 10th with 71; Josephs 11th with 62.
Assists: Munday 2nd with 64; Albrecht 4th with 49; Glassanos and Kjellman, t-5th with 43.
Points: Munday 4th with 145; Kjellman 5th with 139; Glassanos t-6th with 129; Albrecht 8th with 126.
Saves: Gersuk 1st with 498.
NU Individuals in the National Stats:
Goals per game: Kjellman, 18th (3.07)
Assists per game: Munday, 2nd (2.67); Kjellman, t-8th (1.86)
Points per game: Munday, 1st (5.20); Kjellman, 3rd (4.93)
Draw Controls per game: C. Koester, 3rd (4.00); Kjellman, t-16th (2.93)
Goals Against Average: Gersuk, 1st (6.01)
* Munday and Kjellman have formed a dynamic duo -- in addition to being 1-2 on the NU scoring chart, they have combined with each other on 30 goals this season. Munday has assisted 20 Kjellman goals, and Kjellman has assisted 10 Munday goals.
* Kjellman had a combined 17 points (12g, 5a) in the last three games -- vs. No. 2 Duke, No. 8 Penn State, and No. 11 Johns Hopkins (including five unassisted goals); she is averaging 3.4 goals and 5.1 points per game in NU's last 12 games, since she returned to the lineup from illness, and has scored four or more goals in six of the last nine games.
* Kjellman's 12-point game vs. UConn on April 3 remains the national high for this season.
* Munday averaged 6.8 points per game in the five contests before Hopkins (where she had one assist).
* Annie Elliott has scored eight goals on eight shots this season, while Kristen Boege has seven goals on seven shots.
