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The Daily Northwestern
Achieving success is the same in most sports — don’t allow your opponent any opportunities, and be sure to capitalize on your own.
In the Northwestern field hockey team’s final non-conference game, it did just that, outshooting St. Louis 18-3 in a 5-0 victory Sept. 20 in Muncie, Ind.
The victory was just a continuation of the roller coaster season that the Cats (4-4) have endured so far.
After opening the season with a closely contested 3-1 loss to No. 1 Maryland, NU won three of its next four matches, including a 3-0 shutout of Southwest Missouri State and a 4-3 shootout victory over Providence.
But the Cats lost steam after beating Providence, dropping a heartbreaker to No. 17 Boston College, 1-0. NU lost, despite holding the Eagles to two shots on goal.
Looking to rebound a few days later against Ball State, the Cats came out sluggish and were sunk when the Cardinals scored the go-ahead goal late in the game to claim a 2-1 victory.
“It is really frustrating because we played so much better than our record indicates,” sophomore midfielder Candice Cooper said. “We have improved tremendously from last year.”
Against St. Louis, the Cats turned in their strongest performance of the year, scoring a season-high five goals.
“It’s just one game out of eight that we’ve had so far,” NU head coach Marisa Didio said. “But the most important thing was how we prepared ourselves for the match — getting into the winning mind-set. We were relentless.”
Cooper, who was named this week’s Big Ten Player of the Week, led the way for the Cats in the win, recording a hat trick and an assist.
“She’s very talented and powerful, with a winner’s mentality,” Didio said. “She takes it upon herself to do the job.”
But Cooper wasn’t the only NU player with an impressive line in the box score.
Freshman goalkeeper Kelly Augustine recorded her second collegiate shutout, although she had to stop just one shot.
“The ball was at the other end of the field the entire time, so I didn’t really have to do much,” Augustine said. “Our offense was just awesome, and the defense kept the ball out of the 25-yard box. A shutout is always a team effort.”
Didio said she is impressed with the first-year goalie’s development this season.
“Augustine has handled herself very maturely and has really stepped it up,” Didio said. “She started things off by going up against some of the top teams in the country. She’s just handled the early pressure tremendously well.”
The rest of the NU defense made short work of the St. Louis attacks, limiting the team to three shots and two penalty corners.
Didio attributed the strong defensive play to two seniors, Lindsey Millard and Juli Fomenko.
“Our defense has been tremendous and has done really well in preventing chances from happening,” Didio said. “A big part of that is the work of those two girls. They have been rock solid all year.”
Also shining for the Cats was junior Suzi Sutton, who collected two assists and now leads the team with five.
“Sutton is like our quarterback out there,” Didio said. “She is asked to do a lot out there and has provided the kind of leadership we need. She also plays hard and consistently.”
