A struggling Big Ten field hockey team assembles a well-regarded coaching staff and in a period of about four years surges from the bottom of the conference to the top five in the nation.
That is the outline of the rebuilding project that has been completed at Michigan and, perhaps, is underway at Northwestern.
The Wildcats, who went winless in the conference last year, travel to Ann Arbor, Mich., for today’s match against the reigning Big Ten champions and No. 5 Wolverines (12-1, 3-0 Big Ten). The Cats will stay in Ann Arbor for Sunday’s match against Kent (9-3).
Despite NU (4-7, 1-1) and Michigan being at opposite ends of the spectrum, the Cats are anxious to take the field and excited to be the underdog and possibly upend the nationally recognized Wolverines.
“As soon as you walk on the field, we are equal (to Michigan) and it doesn’t matter about last year’s record,” freshman midfielder Suzi Sutton said. “In field hockey, any team can win on a given day just because of the nature of the game,
because it is all about how you react to the given mistakes on the field.”
NU lost to top-10 teams Wake Forest and Virginia earlier in the year, but since the team’s rough start, NU has defeated Michigan State and lost to Ohio State in overtime.
The Spartans and Buckeyes, both top-20 teams, were favored to defeat the Cats handily. But NU converted two penalty corners against the Spartans to seal the 3-2 overtime victory.
NU coach Marisa Didio described the team’s strategy in its matches against high-profile Big Ten opponents as, “Keep hanging around, hanging around and catch a break at the end.”
Sutton said it is important for everyone to stick to the game plan to achieve their basic goals, which always revolve around capitalizing on the pivotal penalty corner situations.
But to accomplish those objectives and get winning results, NU will have to do it on the road. There are more factors that apply to road trips besides the home crowd. There is the travel, of course, which means the team is sequestered from Thursday morning through Sunday evening.
“I like being on the road because there is good time to prepare,” Didio said. “The hard thing is each trip you make is a trip as the average is about eight hours on the road.”
On Thursday, the Cats left Evanston to concentrate on facing the experienced and athletic Wolverines. Michigan won all three head-to-head matchups last year by a combined score of 11-4.
Michigan, 11 months removed from the NCAA championship match, returns a loaded squad that has methodically defeated its opponents. For their performances last week, Wolverines Kelli Gannon and Catherine Foreman were named Big Ten co-Offensive Player of the Week and Defensive Player of the Week, respectively.
Didio and her players acknowledge that rebuilding in the Big Ten is a slow and sometimes painful process, but sophomore midfielder Lindsey Millard has seen small steps forward since Didio’s arrival.
“Last year, we had a lot of heart and desire, but didn’t have the direction we needed,” Millard said. “Coach Didio has showed us that we can win in the Big Ten.”
In 1994, Didio — in the last year of her first coaching stint at NU — coached the Big Ten champions while Michigan was in the lower tier of the conference. On Friday, Didio will have the chance to see the rebuilt Michigan program up close.
Didio said an upset over Michigan would help return NU to the national spotlight.
“We have to build our reputation now,” Didio said. “I don’t want the easy fix. I like the process and if it takes us six years, then that’s fine, as long as it is done right.”
