Northwestern University Athletics
Trackin' Jill
10/18/2008 12:00:00β―AM | Field Hockey
Oct. 18, 2008
Saturday, Oct. 18 -- Hello again everyone! It has been quite a busy two weeks. The last time that I talked to you we were headed to Iowa to take on the Hawkeyes and Missouri State. We knew that this was going to be a tough weekend for us, being on the road and facing Iowa who was ranked fourth in the nation at the time. But we also knew that if we went at them playing OUR game, and going at them with all-out fight and effort, we could put out a win. We started the game in what we call our "fall away" press. It is a press that is mostly focused on packing all our numbers further down the field and into a smaller space so that the opponent does not have any options. This press combined with our relentless fight allowed us to keep the score to 2-0. This is a team that scores on average about six goals a game. Thanks to the stellar performance of our goalie, Emily Kyle, who had 18 shots on her, we were able to keep them to just two goals. I believe this was a great game for the 'Cats, but we were not ok with settling for a "good job" or a "you should be proud, they're a great team." We came back on Sunday ready to win, which is exactly what we did. The Bears were not ready for us and we took control.
As for last weekend, we were finally back on our own turf preparing to hunt down the Michigan State Spartans and the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. State would be our first game on Friday afternoon. I was interested to see how this game was going to go because it was our first home game with classes on the same day. Because we are on the quarter system we did not start school until much later than most of our opponents.
We played an awesome game on Friday against State. They were playing great, probably the most aggressive that I have ever seen them play. Because of that, we were losing by only one at halftime. We knew we could come out with a win here. We fought so hard the whole game. They managed to get one more to fall on an unlucky play for us, and we could not put another one in. It ended up as our first loss at home, but was not a game that we were feeling badly about. It was a hard fought match on both sides. Now the game on Sunday was a bit of a different feeling afterward. We played a really tough second half but unfortunately we did not play that way in the first half and Wake, ranked second in the nation, took advantage of us being off of our game. We were tied 2-2 in the second half, so it just shows that if we are performing at our peak level we can compete with anyone.
Aside from field hockey we all are right in the middle of midterms right now. For some that means hours of studying and three hour tests, and for others like me, it's not much different than the rest of the quarter. Coach McCollum gave us two days off last week, which was a very nice treat, and we were able to celebrate Emily's 22nd and Quinny's 21st birthdays this week. Other than that we are all hard at work on and off the field hockey field. We have been preparing all week for our upcoming match Sunday against the Nittany Lions of Penn State. It's our second to last home game down by the lake so if you are around be sure to come down and cheer us on. It will be a great game!
Thanks for all of your support ALWAYS and I will talk to you soon! GO 'CATS! ~ Jill
