Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern Reclaims No. 1 Ranking
5/2/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Lacrosse
May 2, 2006
EVANSTON, Ill.-- The defending NCAA champs are back where they belong: atop the national rankings.
The Northwestern lacrosse team (15-1, 4-0 ALC) has reclaimed the No. 1 spot in this week's IWLCA and Bounce Entertainment/Inside Lacrosse Top 20 polls after winning its last five games in convincing fashion and clinching its third straight ALC title and a trip to the NCAA Tournament.
The Wildcats, ranked No. 1 for a majority of the season, dropped from the top spot back on April 7 when they had their 31-game win streak snapped at Duke--a loss which came during a grueling six-game, five week long road trip that totaled more than 10,000 miles. All told, 11 of NU's 17 regular-season games have been away from home where the Wildcats have won 17 in a row dating to 2004.
Since that game, the nation's top-scoring team (16.7 goals per game) has outscored its last five opponents by a combined score of 89-38-an average of more than 10 goals per game. They defeated No. 18 Penn State 19-9 on Easter Sunday on the road before dominating No. 5 UNC and No. 8 Johns Hopkins 18-10 and 17-5, respectively, in the span of three days. Then, after clinching at least a share of its third straight ALC crown with a 16-4 win at Ohio State, the Wildcats defeated Denver 19-10 last Sunday.
The Wildcats boast six players with 22 or more goals on the year who make up 82 percent of NU's scoring, two of which are Tewaaraton Award finalists. Kristen Kjellman leads with 58 goals, Aly Josephs is second with 41 while Lindsay Munday is third with 40 goals and team-best 43 assists. Laura Glassanos and Sarah Albrecht and Meredith Frank round out the top scorers with 36, 24 and 22 goals, respectively.
Northwestern is 49-2 in its last 51 regular-season games. They play host to Vanderbilt at 4 p.m. CT this Friday in Evanston in the regular-season finale.
