Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Missouri State
Fast Start Springs Wildcats to 8-0 Win Over Bears
9/18/2009 12:00:00β―AM | Field Hockey
Sept. 18, 2009
Box Score
EVANSTON, Ill. -- No. 18 Northwestern received penalty corner goals by Kaylee Pohlmeyer and Elizabeth Dobbs less than five minutes into the game and never looked back, downing Missouri State 8-0 Friday afternoon at Lakeside Field. Five different Wildcats contributed goals on the day with Courtney Plaster-Strange leading all scorers and setting career highs with three goals and seven points.
Northwestern improves to 7-2 on the season entering Sunday's showdown with St. Joseph's while the Bears fall to 2-5 with the loss. Less than halfway through the 2009 campaign, NU has equaled its win total for the entire 2008 season.
The margin of victory was the largest by a Northwestern team since an 8-0 defeat of Sacred Heart on Sept. 7, 2008. Of Northwestern's 13 shots on the afternoon, eight found the back of the cage.
NU jumped on Missouri State early when Pohlmeyer found herself in perfect position to deflect in a hit off the stick of Chelsea Armstrong in the third minute. Less than two minutes later, Dobbs replicated Pohlmeyer's formula for success, tipping in a shot by Plaster-Strange to give Northwestern a 2-0 lead and force a Missouri State timeout.
Missouri State regained its composure and held its fair share of possession until the 21st minute, when Plaster-Strange got in the goals column after a good run into the offensive end by Armstrong forced a save off the glove of Steph Anderson. The ball popped up in the air and Plaster-Strange batted it out of midair with the back of her stick to score her second goal of the season.
Armstrong later upped her NCAA-leading goal total to 13 with a rocket from the top of the arc off a penalty corner initiated by Sarah Marcincin and Stacy Uchida. The goal gave Northwestern a 4-0 lead at the half, an advantage it expanded soon after the break when Marcincin finished a pass from Armstrong at the left post of the cage off yet another penalty corner.
Missouri State had its chances to get on the board in the second half, particularly off a breakaway counterattack following a Northwestern penalty corner. But NU sophomore Jaimie Orrico sprinted all the way back to Northwestern's defending arc and poked the ball away from the MSU attacker to help preserve the Wildcat shutout.
Plaster-Strange was then the beneficiary of feeds down near the goalline on two occasions, first in the 41st minute when Armstrong dribbled to the endline around two defenders before laying it off to Plaster-Strange for the easy goal. The next came 15 minutes later when junior Kendra Sirak created a scoring chance in the arc and found an open Plaster-Strange waiting to hammer it home, capping off her first career hat trick.
Regan Mooney wrapped up the scoring for the 'Cats with her goal in the 63rd minute off the fourth assist of the game by Armstrong.
The Wildcats are back on the turf at Lakeside Field Sunday when they host St. Joseph's at noon.
