Northwestern University Athletics
Murphy's Mark: Spring Teams Enjoying Tremendous Success
5/23/2006 12:00:00 AM | General
May 23, 2006
NCAA Success
Our spring teams had another tremendous weekend, with numerous teams advancing in NCAA tournament play. Needless to say, it's an exciting time for Northwestern Athletics!
Our women's lacrosse team beat North Carolina on Saturday 17-6 to advance to the national semifinals for the second straight year. The game against North Carolina was very close for the first half (we trailed 5-3 late in the first half), but we went on a 14-1 run to close out the game. We play Duke on Friday evening in Boston in the national semifinals. It should be a great matchup. Duke is the top seed, and beat us 16-10 earlier this year. Duke is the only team to defeat us in the last two years and we hope to avenge that loss. Since many of our players and coaches, including head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller and All-American Kristen Kjellman, are from the Boston area, the game will be a special homecoming for a number of people.
For the third straight weekend, we will be hosting a softball tournament. We hosted the Big Ten Tournament for the first time on the weekend of May 12-14. Many in the conference were concerned that we would not be able to host a quality tournament due to our facility limitations (ie., no lights, limited seating). Despite less-than-ideal weather, we ran a first-class tournament, and the NCAA took notice, selecting us to host a Regional and awarding us with a No. 4 seed. Senior Associate AD Steve Green, who served as the tournament manager, deserves special credit for his role in running a great tournament under difficult circumstances. We won the Regional this past weekend with an exciting, come-from-behind win over Notre Dame on Sunday. We host UMass this weekend in a Super Regional. This series is a best two-out-of-three series, with the first game at 3 p.m. on Friday. The teams will play again on Saturday, and will play a third game (immediately following the second game) if needed. The winner will advance to the College World Series the following weekend.
Congratulations to head coach Kate Drohan and her team on a great season so far, and best of luck as they try to secure our first World Series berth since 1986.
Our women's tennis team also had an exciting run in the NCAA tournament. We beat No. 6 seed Georgia Tech in the round of 16 to advance to the quarterfinals for the first time in head coach Claire Pollard's tenure here. In the quarterfinals, we faced No. 3-ranked USC, and gave them all they could handle before losing 4-3.
The men's golf team is playing its best golf at the right time. After winning the Big Ten Championship three weeks ago, the team had another great performance at the NCAA Central Regional Championships this weekend, finishing second out of 27teams. The team advances to the NCAA Finals in two weeks.
Although they are not yet in NCAA play, our baseball team has played very well in Big Ten play. We were at the top of the conference most of the season, and gained the No. 2 seed in the tournament (and a first-round bye), our best seed ever in head coach Paul Stevens' tenure. The team heads to Ann Arbor this weekend for the Big Ten Tournament and hopes to earn our first-ever bid to the NCAA tournament.
Hazing
With the great success of our spring teams, Northwestern athletics has been in the news quite a bit recently. Last week, we were also in the news for non-athletic reasons, as BadJocks.com released photos of out women's soccer team from a team party held last August. This situation is a great example of how our lives have changed with the internet, digital cameras and personal web sites.
Last Sunday night, I was at home relaxing when I decided to check my e-mail. I received an e-mail from Bob Reno of BadJocks.com stating that he had photos of our women's soccer team engaged in a hazing ritual, and that he wanted my comments. He said he would post the pictures on his web site the next morning at 6:30 am. This was the first I had heard anything about hazing involving our women's soccer team, and within 12 hours I was dealing with a breaking national news story.
Unfortunately, hazing has long been a part of athletics. Because of this, many of the rituals are deeply ingrained and it can be difficult to change behavior. Most athletic departments have periodic programs about the dangers of hazing for their student-athletes. Since Colgate and Vermont were in the same hockey league, I was very familiar with the hazing scandal at Vermont during my time working at Colgate. I have used this experience in talking with our student-athletes here about the dangers of hazing and the significant negative impact it can have on a team, athletic department and school. The challenge in dealing with hazing is that many of the rituals (ie. making first-year student-athletes carry the equipment) seem harmless and are often under the guise of building team unity. At its worst, though, hazing can be extremely degrading to individuals, can rip apart a team and can present significant safety risks, especially when drinking is involved.
Northwestern has a strong policy against hazing, and we will continue to enforce this policy diligently. Last fall, we had incidents involving hazing with our men's swimming team and our "Willies," the individuals who play the part of "Willie the Wildcat." The Division of Student Affairs investigated both incidents, determined that hazing had occurred, and we then applied penalties in both cases. We released a statement about these two situations last week because the media had found out about these incidents. I do think it is important to deal with these situations quickly and decisively, and to apply appropriate sanctions that will help ensure that hazing will not occur again.
Since the present situation with the women's soccer team is so public, we certainly have the attention of all of our student-athletes. We have a great opportunity to eliminate hazing on our teams. I am excited about working with our student-athletes (especially captains), coaches and administrators to establish policies that will make Northwestern a leader nationally in addressing hazing.
