Northwestern University Athletics
The 2004-05 Athletic Year in Review
6/30/2005 12:00:00 AM | General
June 30, 2005
NU's 2004-05 Honors and Awards in PDF Format
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EVANSTON, Ill. - The 2004-05 athletic season, Northwestern's second under Director of Athletics Mark Murphy, was arguably the finest in school history, as the entire year was dominated by standout performances by the Wildcat teams and their athletes. In all, 55 NU men and women earned all-conference, including 27 first-teamers.
Not surprisingly, the Wildcats' success was reflected in the Sports Academy Directors' Cup standings, where Northwestern finished a best-ever 29th. The Directors' Cup has been in existence since the 1993-94 athletic year.
The highlights of the year came from women's lacrosse, which in May won just Northwestern's second NCAA team title and its first in a women's sport (the other came in men's fencing in 1941), and men's swimmer Matt Grevers who won the school's first individual title since 1999 when he took first in the 100 backstroke at the NCAA Championships in March. Another national championship came from tennis players Audra Cohen and Cristelle Grier, who won the doubles title at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Fall All-America Championship.
The fall provided a harbinger of things to come for the year. The men's soccer team, under NSCAA Regional Coach of the Year Tim Lenahan, made a quantum leap into the national consciousness; the Wildcats earned their first national ranking, ended eventual national champion Indiana's Big Ten regular-season winning streak at 50, made the Big Ten Tournament final, and advanced to the second round in it first NCAA Championship appearance. Women's soccer won 10 matches, the most since 1998, and advanced to the Big Ten Tournament for the first time since 2001. Football went 5-3 to finish fourth in the Big Ten, including a stirring overtime win against Ohio State on national TV -- NU's first win over the Buckeyes in 33 years -- and a victory over nationally ranked Purdue en route to a 5-1 home record. Under first-year head coach Kelly McCollum, a Northwestern alum, the field hockey team got off to a 4-0 start and had a second-team All-America in Candice Cooper. Women's volleyball had a young squad and was unable to earn a third-straight NCAA bid, but its elder statesman, senior setter Drew Robertson, concluded a standout career by shattering the school record for career assists.
Men's swimming again dominated the landscape during the winter -- Grevers' NCAA title highlighted a season that saw the Wildcats finish fourth at Big Tens but win seven events (four individual, three relays), place eighth at NCAAs (for the second year in a row), and garner an amazing 23 All-America certificates. At the end of the year, head coach Bob Groseth was NCAA Championships Co-Coach of the Meet, and Big Ten Coach of the Year. NU also had a Big Ten champion in wrestling, as Matt Delguyd won the title at 197 lbs., and at NCAAs Jake Herbert became the Wildcats' first All-America since 2000 with a third-place finish at 174 lbs. Women's swimming had a pair of women receive All-America recognition at NCAA Championship competition (Andrea Hupman, Christy Olin), and so did women's fencing (Julia Földi, Jessica Florendo) -- in fact, Földi became NU's first four-time All-America in fencing this year.
The spring sports were dominated by the women's teams. Women's lacrosse shocked the nation by finishing 21-0 and becoming the first team outside the Eastern Time Zone to win an NCAA lacrosse title at any level. Not surprisingly, Kelly Amonte Hiller headed a bevy of postseason honors for the team with IWLCA National Coach of the Year recognition; two players also were honored at the national level, as Kristen Kjellman received the Honda Award as the national player of the year and also was named IWLCA Midfielder of the Year and Courtney Koester was the IWLCA Defender of the Year. The softball team came within a game of edging out eventual national champion Michigan for the Big Ten title, and then advanced to an NCAA Super Regional before seeing its season end. For her team's efforts, head coach Kate Drohan was named Big Ten Co-Coach of the Year, and her staff was the NFCA Mideast Region Co-Staff of the Year. Women's tennis, of course, just kept rolling -- the 'Cats swept the Big Ten regular-season and tournament titles (making it seven in a row), and once again advanced to the Round of 16 after hosting a regional for the fifth-straight year. Individually, freshman Audra Cohen advanced all the way to the NCAA Singles Championship title match and shattered the school record for wins in a year with 51, the third highest total in NCAA history. Claire Pollard was once again the Big Ten Coach of the Year. Men's tennis followed the women's lead, earning its first NCAA bid since 2002, while the women's golf team earned an NCAA regional berth for the fifth time in six years. In men's golf, Chris Wilson was an individual qualifier for the NCAA regional.
NU's athletes were also recognized for their efforts in the classroom. Three received CoSIDA All-America honors -- Jeff Backes and Luis Castillo in football, and lacrosse player Courtney Koester (women's at-large) who also was the Academic All-America of the Year in the at-large category. Four other NU student-athletes were named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District Teams in their respective sports -- Jaro Pylypczak (men's soccer), Shannon Schneeman (women's soccer), Garland Cooper (softball) and Erin Mobley (softball). At the conference level, 143 Northwestern student-athletes were Academic All-Big Ten, shattering the previous school record of 127 (2002-03).
