Northwestern University Athletics
Murphy's Mark: NCAA Postseason Action in Full Swing
5/14/2007 12:00:00 AM | General
May 14, 2007
Home NCAA Events
There will be many NCAA banners hanging in Evanston this week, as we will host NCAA softball and lacrosse events throughout the weekend. Our softball team received great news yesterday when the NCAA softball committee awarded us with the second seed overall (our highest seed ever). Although we didn't win the Big Ten championship (we lost 2-1 to Ohio State in the championship game), we had a great season and the committee was very impressed with the strength of our schedule and the success we had in the tournament last year. This high seed is a tribute to head coach Kate Drohan and the masterful job she has done in leading our program. We will host a four-team regional this weekend. The other teams in the regional are Wright State, Illinois State and Notre Dame. We play Wright State at 2:30 p.m. on Friday.
Our women's lacrosse team beat Holy Cross 19-7 on Sunday in an NCAA first round game. We play Syracuse on Saturday at 1 p.m. at home in a quarterfinal match. The winner advances to the National semifinals and finals the next weekend in Philadelphia. It should be an exciting game on Saturday. Syracuse gave us one of our toughest games this year -- we won 10-7 in April.
I encourage all of our fans to come out and support our softball and lacrosse teams at home this weekend. It should be an exciting weekend of NCAA championship play.
Women's Tennis
Our women's tennis team hosted an NCAA Regional last weekend. With victories over Western Michigan and Indiana, we will move on to Athens, Ga., to the NCAA round of 16. This is the fourth consecutive year we have made it to the round of 16. We will play UCLA on Friday. It should be a hard-fought match, as UCLA will look to avenge a loss to us in February. After the team championship, Georgia Rose and Samantha Murray will compete in the NCAA individuals championships, and Georgia and Alexis Prousis will compete in the NCAA doubles championships.
Men's Golf
Our men's golf team also will be competing in an NCAA championship this weekend. They will play in the NCAA Central Regional in Sugar Grove, Ill., just outside Aurora. They will be looking to match last year's performance at the Regional (we finished second) and hope to advance to the NCAA championships.
