Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
9-1
California
5-5
| Team | 1 | 2 | Final F |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 5 | 3 | 8 |
| Northwestern | 12 | 10 | 22 |
Top-Ranked 'Cats Shoot Past California 22-8
4/9/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Lacrosse
April 9, 2007
Box Score
EVANSTON, Ill. -- It was just another day at the office for the top-ranked Wildcats (9-1) as they defeated the visiting California Golden Bears 22-8 Monday afternoon at the Thomas Athletic Complex in Evanston for their ninth win in a row. The Wildcats showered the Golden Bear defense with a season-high 43 shots to only 13 for Cal.
Tewaaraton Trophy winner Kristen Kjellman finished with two goals and two assists, and in the process, became just the 15th player in the history of NCAA Division I women's lacrosse to amass at least 300 career points (212 goals, 90 assists).
Sophomore Hannah Nielsen led Northwestern with eight points on five goals and three dimes. Aly Josephs and Casey Donohoe each had four goals while Meredith Frank finished with three and a game-high nine draw controls.
Kjellman wasted little time getting the Wildcats on the board with the game's first goal :30 seconds in before Cal tied it back up :31 ticks later on a goal by Madeleine Dale.
The 'Cats then hit the Golden Bears (5-5) with one of their demoralizing scoring spurts, netting the next seven goals over a 9-minute span to take an 8-1 lead.
But right when it appeared Northwestern would cruise to an easy win, Cal fought back with four-straight goals of their own -- from four different players -- to cut NU's lead to 8-5 with 14:25 left in the half.
However, two goals apiece from Josephs and Nielsen to close the half followed by early second half goals by Donohoe and Josephs gave the Wildcats an insurmountable 14-5 advantage.
A big reason the Bears were able to keep things close early was their success on the draw controls as they grabbed nine of the 18 in the first half. It was a different story in the second half as NU won 11 of the 13 and outscored Cal 10-3 in the final 30 minutes.
Morgan Lathrop (three saves) earned another win in goal to up her record to 9-1 while Hilary Lynch made nine saves for Cal.
Hilary Bowen finished with two goals and two assists while freshman Danielle Spencer added a goal and assist of her own. Also recording points were Bailey Su -- the first goal of her career -- Katrina Dowd (assist) and Lindsay North (assist).
Danni Zuralow and Madeleine Dale led Cal with three goals each.
Northwestern begins a critical weekend this Saturday with two home games, beginning at noon Saturday against No. 8 Penn State before facing No. 2 Maryland at 4 p.m. next Monday.
Other Notes: NU has now nine in a row and 25-straight home games dating to 2004 ... The Wildcats are outscoring teams 91-28 in the first half this year ... Meredith Frank has now recorded at least one point in 31-straight games -- every game of her career ... The Wildcats are 50-2 in the past two-plus seasons and 64-4 in their last 68 games ... NU is averaging 20.3 goals over the last three games while giving up just 6.0.
