Northwestern University Athletics
Season Recap: Quinn, Kyle Leave Stamp on Northwestern
12/18/2008 12:00:00β―AM | Field Hockey
Dec. 18, 2008
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Powered by the efforts of five remarkable seniors, Northwestern completed the 2008 season with a 7-13 overall record and a 1-5 record in the Big Ten. Northwestern provided fans at Lakeside Field with a host of highlight reel plays and memorable performances in their five home victories.
Two Wildcat players distinguished themselves statistically throughout their senior campaigns. Alexandra Quinn (Watertown, Mass./Watertown) posted the most prolific scoring season of her career with a team-best 14 goals and 33 points on her way to first-team All-Big Ten accolades. Quinn's scoring prowess landed her in a tie for 14th all-time at NU with 74 career points.
Anchoring NU's defense for the third season in a row was goalkeeper Emily Kyle (San Francisco, Calif./San Francisco University H.S.). Kyle racked up 139 saves in 2008, which led the Big Ten and ranked as the sixth-highest single season total in school history. For her career, Kyle compiled exactly 400 saves, fourth all-time in program history.
Northwestern also featured a number of younger players who emerged as reliable scorers and permanent fixtures in the starting lineup.
Junior Elizabeth Dobbs (Wellesley, Mass./St. Ignatius (San Francisco)) finished second on the team with nine goals on 28 shots and enjoyed a stretch of four straight games with a goal in September. On Oct. 4 vs. Missouri State, Dobbs started her first game of the year and scored NU's first two goals in the opening eight minutes of a 5-3 Wildcats win.
Sophomore Sarah Marcincin (Bethlehem, Pa./Blair Academy) also established herself as the team's leading defender, starting all 20 games at center back while contributing on NU's offensive penalty corner unit, scoring one goal and adding two assists.
After a pair of season-opening losses at Northeastern and Boston University, NU returned to Lakeside Field and began a three-game winning streak during which it outscored its opponents by a 14-1 margin. Quinn scored four goals in two games against Miami (Ohio) and Sacred Heart to earn Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week honors for the first time in her career. Kyle also was named the conference's Defensive Player of the Week for her role in Northwestern's first shutout victory since Oct. 9, 2005, an 8-0 drubbing of the Pioneers.
Two weeks later, NU improved to 4-0 at Lakeside Field with a 6-1 defeat of Saint Louis, a game in which Quinn sparked Northwestern's attack to the tune of two goals and three assists to once again earn Big Ten Player of the Week recognition.
Beginning Sept. 13 vs. American, the 'Cats played teams ranked in the nation's top 20 in eight of their next 13 contests, including run-ins with three of the four schools that would eventually reach the NCAA Final Four (Iowa, Maryland and Wake Forest).
One of NU's best performances of the year came on Oct. 26 at No. 11 Louisville. Playing against her hometown team, junior Courtney Plaster-Strange (Louisville, Ky./Kentucky Country Day) scored once in each half and Dobbs added a goal to give the 'Cats a 3-2 advantage. That remained the score until Louisville pushed across the equalizer with just three minutes to play in regulation. Sudden victory overtime lasted for nearly 13 minutes, with Kyle making four of her season-high-tying 12 saves in the extra session, but the Cardinals managed a goal by Nicole Youman to end the overtime thriller.
In the Big Ten regular season finale at home vs. Indiana, NU came out determined to send its seniors off with a victory. After the Hoosiers scored an early goal, Northwestern responded with a penalty corner goal by junior Stephanie Fortson (Lehighton, Pa./Lehighton) to knot the score before Quinn and Plaster managed second-half tallies to lift NU to a 3-1 win and the No. 6 seed in the Big Ten tournament.
Northwestern took on second-seeded Michigan State in Bloomington, Ind., with thoughts of an upset, especially after senior Annie Bosslet (Granite City, Ill./Villa Duchesne) tied the game at one in the first half. But the Spartans rattled off three goals in a four-minute span just before halftime to put the game away. Quinn, who after the season earned second-team NFHCA All-West region accolades, scored on a penalty stroke in the second half to make the final score 4-2.
Next season, Northwestern returns a squad featuring seven players who started the majority of its games in 2008 as well as senior Jill Putnam (Greenfield, Mass./Greenfield). Putnam, who has scored 18 goals in her career at NU, sat out this season due to a knee injury. She is one of seven Wildcats aiming to provide Northwestern with the kind of stellar senior leadership it thrived on in 2008.
