Northwestern University Athletics
Hunterβs Insight: Preparing for the Final Four
11/20/2024 5:10:00β―PM | Field Hockey
As No. 2 Northwestern prepares to face off against UMass on Friday with a trip to the National Championship Game on the line, Wildcat senior Lauren Hunter joined NUFH Said to look back on the team's quarterfinal win over Virginia and preview the weekend ahead.Β
She discussed watching Lauren Wadas' game-winning goal against the Cavaliers, how the team is thinking about its second game against the Minutewomen this season and what it will take for the program to win its second national championship.
An excerpt of the conversation is below, edited and condensed for clarity and brevity. To listen to the full interview, check out this week's episode of NUFH Said on Spotify or Apple.
Eric Rynston-Lobel: What was going through your mind when you saw Lauren Wadas score the game-winning overtime goal on Sunday?
Lauren Hunter: I was just so relieved. It was great to end my career and this season on Lakeside Field with a win. We had great support, the lacrosse team was there, a bunch of students were there, everybody's family. So just to see them in the stadium when we won, it was awesome. I ran over, and my mom was crying. It was really cool. A special moment that I'll never forget. But Wadas has done that numerous times, so I was really confident in her and her ability to execute that corner. I think she's done it to send us to other Final Fours, pretty similar shot, so pretty awesome to have that on Lakeside Field.
Rynston-Lobel: When you were down 1-0 to Virginia, what do you think it took for the team to dig down and find a way to win that game?
Hunter: We've been talking about it as a team. We have this next level that we can just tap into when we need to and chances like that. We really just banded together and tried to execute our corner plan but also our attack, 25s and in. We just tried to draw them out as much as possible because they were packing it. Just trying to play together, play as a team to try to score.
Rynston-Lobel: Do you take anything from the first UMass game as you prepare for Friday, knowing that they're probably a very different team than they were when you played them a couple months ago?
Hunter: Yeah we'll look to see what worked, what didn't work, what we can tune up to execute better in this game Friday. But like you said, they're a completely different team, so we'll watch more recent film on them and create a game plan to try to go out and win Friday.
Rynston-Lobel: You've been here four years, and you've gone to the Final Four all four years. Your first season, you played the most minutes of any of the other first years on the team. How has that helped you prepare for moments like the ones you're going to be in this weekend?
Hunter: It's funny looking back like, my freshman year, it was kind of a surprise to be there honestly. We had momentum, and we were rolling with that. And now this year as a senior, it's more of an expectation and a standard that we need to be here on this last weekend, so that's just great for the program and shows the growth over the last four years with the team which is awesome. I have played in four Final Fours now, so I kind of have that veteran status, and so just kind of helping out underclassmen in any way. I think that I'm pretty good at controlling the momentum of games, when we need to settle it down, when we need to play with speed. We have a lot of people like that, with the fifth years and seniors and even the juniors, they've all played in games in the Final Four, so just really relying on that experience to get the win.
