Northwestern University Athletics
2007 Schedule Announced for Back-to-Back National Champs
10/12/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Lacrosse
Oct. 12, 2006
2007 Schedule
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern University, home of the back-to-back NCAA national champs, Thursday announced its 2007 women's lacrosse schedule. This year's slate features 10 regular-season home dates, which include matches against top tier teams such as Pennsylvania, Duke and Maryland among many others. The season ends with the inaugural American Lacrosse Conference (ALC) Tournament May 3-4 & 6 in Baltimore, hosted by Johns Hopkins University.
This year's NCAA finals will be played at the University of Pennsylvania's Franklin Field in Philadelphia May 25 & 27. First round and quarterfinal dates are May 13 & 19, respectively, at campus sites.
"We're really excited about our upcoming season," head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller said. "We feel we have a great team and we are looking forward to the challenges our schedule presents to us. I'm really looking forward to maturing as a team this off-season and having another successful season in 2007."
The first regular-season match takes place Saturday, Feb. 17 when the Wildcats take on North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C., a team the Wildcats defeated in the NCAA quarterfinals last season. Three more road games follow against Vanderbilt, Notre Dame (a 2006 NCAA final participant) and Ohio before the home opener Friday, March 9 against Pennsylvania.
Amonte Hiller will then square off against her protégé and former assistant coach Alexis Venechanos when Northwestern travels to Yorktown, N.Y., to face UMass in a neutral site game on March 23. The game will have special meaning for both teams as all proceeds from the match will go to benefit Jaclyn Murphy and the Friends of Jaclyn Foundation which was created to raise public awareness regarding pediatric brain tumors. Murphy, Northwestern's biggest fan, has been an inspiration to the Wildcats over the past two championship seasons.
Two days later the Wildcats make a return trip to the very place they won their second straight national title last May when they face Boston University on March 25 at BU's Nickerson Field.
A much welcomed six-game homestand follows, beginning March 30 against Syracuse. A rematch of last year's NCAA semifinal against Duke (April 7) and a match with Amonte Hiller's alma mater Maryland (April 16) highlight the homestand. In all, nine of NU's final 10 regular-season matches will take place at home along the shores of Lake Michigan.
The final road game of the season takes place against Johns Hopkins on Friday, April 20 in Baltimore before NU closes out the season with three straight home games against Rutgers, Ohio State and Hofstra.
Last spring Northwestern became the first team in school history to repeat as NCAA national champions while senior-to-be Kristen Kjellman took home the Tewaaraton Award as the nation's top player, the first athlete, male or female, to win the award from a non-East Coast school.
This year the Wildcats return nine starters from last year's championship team that led the nation in scoring (15.7) and finished seventh in scoring defense (7.95).
