When the final whistle blew Saturday, the Northwestern lacrosse players left the field holding their heads high. They had just suffered a 13-7 loss to No. 10 Vanderbilt, but for the Wildcats (5-10, 2-4 American Lacrosse Conference), this season was about more than just the final scores.
In its first season as a varsity sport since 1991, NU, coached by lacrosse legend Kelly Amonte Hiller, overcame a slow start and defied the ALC coaches’ odds to finish fourth in the conference. In preseason voting, the coaches of the league’s seven teams picked the Cats to finish last.
An NU player also received individual recognition, as freshman Kate Darmody landed a spot on the 12-member All-ALC team.
NU’s success is especially commendable because the conference also featured three ranked teams in No. 12 Ohio State, No. 15 Penn State and No. 18 Johns Hopkins.
With a 19-player roster that consisted of four sophomores and 15 freshmen, the Cats started the season a few lengths behind their counterparts. Adding insult to inexperience, two of the sophomores, Courtney and Ashley Koester, were walk-ons who had never played lacrosse. Every opponent on the Cats’ schedule boasted a well-rounded team with more experienced players.
Oh, and half of NU’s opponents were also nationally acclaimed.
On paper, NU seemed like an easy victory to its opposition. But on the field, it was a different story.
The team was strong in a way that couldn’t be calculated. While the team was young, most of the players began at an equal playing level. There wasn’t any one standout for the Cats, but rather a group in which each player fed off the others.
“We all started fresh together and are helping each other make the transition to playing college lacrosse,” freshman Sarah Walsh said earlier in the season.
The Cats began the year on a high note, defeating Marist 15-2 on March 8. In that contest, the three players who would eventually become the Cats’ leading scorers – Angela McMahon, Sarah Albrecht and the astute Courtney Koester – made their presence known, combining to score 10 goals.
But in the subsequent games, the Cats fell into a cycle that marred them in the middle of the season: inconsistency.
NU faltered two days later against Richmond. Perhaps blinded by the sense of security gained from defeating Marist, the Cats were down 11-3 at halftime. NU managed to pull itself together and played a better second half, but the margin was too large, and the Cats lost 13-6.
“We need to work on consistency,” freshman Marit Spekman said at the time. “We have spurts of great play, and we know that the other teams’ skill level isn’t that far above ours, but we are always waiting for that wake-up call in the first half before we can really play.”
The up-and-down pattern developed after the loss to Richmond. From then on the Cats started each game playing below their potential, until they fell behind by a significant margin. NU would then break out of the funk and answer back.
Despite its slow starts, when NU finally began to play well, it exceeded expectations. In its March 26 contest against then-No. 16 Johns Hopkins, the Cats trailed 7-0 at the half but battled back, only to lose 11-7.
Still, NU couldn’t put together a solid game. A March 30 win over Sacred Heart gave the Cats a glimpse of what would result from consistent play, but it seemed the collegiate inexperience was surpassing NU’s talent level.
The Cats suffered three more crushing defeats before something clicked on April 12. Before a home crowd, NU played aggressively and maintained a lead from start to finish, defeating Ohio 9-8.
The seemingly awakened Cats began climbing up the ALC standings with wins over Duquesne and Davidson before ending the season with three losses.
But if there was anything the Cats took from the season, it was to ignore the numbers. Late-season losses to Penn State and Vanderbilt were completely different from NU’s early defeats. It was as if a new team was playing in the NU uniforms.
“The difference from the beginning of the season is that (now) if we get a couple of goals down, we know we can get them (back),” Courtney Koester said after the Penn State game.
Next year, the Cats will return to the field a year older, a year wiser and hungrier to prove themselves. After the shaky start and recovery this year, NU has nowhere to go but up – especially with the guarantee that every player on the roster has at least two more years to improve.
