The Northwestern field hockey team ran into two great offensive machines and returned to Evanston with two losses after playing arguably its best match of the season Friday and its worst match Sunday.
The Wildcats had a one-goal lead over No. 5 Michigan (14-1, 4-0 Big Ten) but the Big Ten’s best offense and leading scorer rallied to hand the Cats a 2-1 overtime loss.
Instead of building on the near-upset, though, the Cats admitedly had a bad day in a 6-1 loss against a prolific Kent State team looking for national respect.
“Our kids prepared for Kent State to turn the corner,” NU coach Marisa Didio said. “It was just a bad game for us. We have to acknowledge it, don’t hide from it and move on.”
Heading into the weekend all the attention centered around the Cats’ (4-9, 1-2) matchup against the reigning Big Ten champions. NU had success against top-ranked conference opponents in overtime wins against Michigan State and an overtime loss to Ohio State.
Once again, the Cats were forced on the defensive early and often as the Wolverines pelted goalie Jessica Yates with 30 shots in the game. Yates finished with 11 saves — her highest total since 12 against No. 10 Virginia on Sept. 8. The Cats broke through before halftime on a Lindsay Wright goal and were on the verge of a win that would give the team instant national recognition.
But NU couldn’t fend off the high-powered attack or contain the Big Ten’s leading scorer, Wolverines senior Kelli Gannon, for the entire game. Gannon scored the game-tying goal in the second half and then converted on a penalty corner in overtime to thwart the Cats’ upset bid.
Michigan collected 19 penalty corners to NU’s five, but despite the lopsided statistics Didio said her team played even with Michigan throughout the game.
“Against Ohio State, we were in the phase of hanging around and waiting to catch a break,” Didio said. “Michigan is a stronger team overall in terms of personnel and we were able to make them think twice. We took a step in the right direction.”
Sophomore defender Diane Provenchar reiterated that NU was proud of its performance but disappointed with the loss. Provenchar said the Cats need to improve their ball possession to take pressure off their defense and create more offense than they did Friday, when Michigan goalie Molly Maloney had to make only one save.
NU was eager to build on its promising Friday performance, but on Sunday the team was blitzed by a high-powered Kent State attack that featured six international players. All six goals were scored by players hailing from either the Netherlands or Scotland.
Known for its abundant offense, Kent State (11-3) has scored at least five goals in a whopping seven games. The Cats had few scoring chances and although they were not upset with the effort on the field, the result is clearly not satisfactory.
The Cats tied the game 1-1 on Provenchar’s goal midway through the first half, but then Didio watched as Kent State elevated its game. Els Brouwer penetrated for an individual goal 26 seconds later, frustrating the Cats and spurring on the Golden Flashes, who quickly put the game out of reach. Didio said Brouwer’s quick goal was the turning point in the game as NU lost its momentum in less than a minute.
“(The goal) rattled us. Kent grew in the mach and we just did not have a good match from that point in time,” Didio said.
Provenchar said the Cats need to make better decisions on dead-ball situations and exploit more one-on-one matchups. Penalty corners again proved to be significant — NU had only three of the top-rate scoring opportunities compared with Kent State’s 17.
“We need to reduce the corners and get the ball out of the (defensive) circle,” Provenchar said. “It has to change for us to be successful.”
After the up-and-down road trip, the Cats’ spirits remained high as Didio continues to look at the bigger picture — the state of the program — and prepare for the next Big Ten match against No. 6 Penn State on Friday.
Despite being on the defensive in most of its matches, the Cats have learned to adapt and compete against their top-ranked opponents. Didio is comfortable with the Cats’ counter-attack style, and says the players’ trust in the system and gameplan will continue to put them in a position to win.
“We have a very demanding schedule and we’re not at the point where we’ll control these matches,” Didio said. “We had one bad day and that just can’t happen. We need to learn the most from it because we still need to turn some corners.”
