In its final homestand of the season, the Northwestern field hockey team posted its highest scoring total of the season against a virtual unknown on Friday — but it was Saturday’s loss to its greatest rival that the Wildacts say was the better performance.
The Cats (6-11, 2-3 Big Ten) started off the weekend by dominating Indiana in a 7-0 rout. In a tougher and more even match, NU lost 1-0 to archrival Iowa on a penalty stroke.
“The Indiana game won’t improve us much besides morale,” senior goalkeeper Jess Yates said. “Iowa is a much better team and we certainly played much better against Iowa than Indiana.”
In its first year as a varsity team, Indiana looked overwhelmed as the Cats offense exploded for a season-high seven goals. NU dominated the play on the field and in the scorebook as it outshot Indiana, 19-0.
“We felt more confident with the ball when we had it and were able to attack one-on-one situations,” said freshman Suzi Sutton, who scored her first collegiate goal. “We did a better job keeping the ball offensively.”
Senior Lindsay Wright terrorized the Hoosiers by scoring three goals in the game. The Cats’ leading scorer, Nicole Smith, tallied five total points, and Lindsay Millard and Jodie Condie contributed to the offensive surge with strong penalty corner execution.
Like the offense, the NU defense played a complete game Friday as it allowed no shots, no penalty corners and no threatening situations. Despite playing the cellar-dweller of the Big Ten, the Cats appreciated the meaning of a conference win and did not want to take anything for granted.
“We had no idea what to expect as you can’t assume anything going into the match,” Yates said. “You have to go out there on fire and that’s what we did.”
The Cats eagerly awaited Iowa as both teams have a long history against one another. To make matters more interesting, Saturday’s match would be the final home match for five NU seniors.
The evenly played match featured only one breakthrough. It came in the first half when Iowa quickly advanced the ball upfield, got the ball in the circle, created a corner and subsequently took a penalty stroke. Iowa’s Tiffany Fodera converted the stroke and it proved to be the difference despite a strong performance by the Cats in the second half.
“I have saved greater penalty strokes before, but a stroke is a stroke,” Yates said. “The only way to stop the shot is to react as there’s nothing else to do.”
Despite better ball control and another strong defensive outing, the offense could not generate any corners or quality opportunities.
“One corner in the first (half), one corner in the second,” Sutton said. “We couldn’t exploit the gaps in their defense and create penalty corners. We weren’t able to create any corner or create any threatening situation. We weren’t able to sustain the ball in the circle.”
Added Yates: “We need more corners. And it is one step at a time. We’re not going to go from defending 20 corners in one game to us having 20 corners. But we’re heading in the right direction.”
The Iowa loss has no bearing on the Big Ten standings because both teams made the match to fill a gap in their schedules. So Saturday’s contest counted only as an out-of-conference match while next weekend’s rematch will be each team’s final regular season Big Ten match.
Over the course of the season, Yates and her teammates know how difficult it is to win a conference match and are confident that near misses against Iowa will only improve the team’s learning curve.
“They are a team that pushes us,” Yates said. “We’ve always played well against them in the past. It’s a great game going into the Big Ten tournament as it brings out the best in us.”
