It was the details that hampered the Northwestern women’s soccer team in 2002.
“We need to get a little bit better in a whole lot of areas,” NU head coach Jenny Haigh said. “But we don’t have one massive thing.”
The Wildcats ended their season with records of 4-9-5 overall and 2-6-2 in Big Ten play, leaving NU 10th in the conference.
The Cats failed to make a second straight appearance at the Big Ten tournament — which the top eight conference teams attend — but still they made strides this season, sophomore defender Kristina Gilkey said.
“We’re a better team than we were last year,” Gilkey said. “Most people would get frustrated with our record, but we stayed with every team we played.”
NU had six matches go into overtime, tying five and losing one, and lost five other contests by one goal.
“We all knew our potential, we knew every one of those games we could’ve won,” freshman forward Julie Lipinski said. “No team totally blew us away. We just couldn’t pull through that extra goal or that extra save. We were always right there.”
And right there in the other team’s face — NU led the conference in fouls, a statistic Haigh likes.
“Games where we didn’t have a lot of fouls tended to be games (in which) we were flat,” she said. “It was just a good measure to see if we were checked in.”
The Cats also went in a positive direction on offense this year, scoring one more goal than last year in one less game.
“(Scoring) was something we definitely focused on getting better at,” Haigh said. “We had more athleticism on the field and possessed the ball a little bit better.”
But NU’s defense wasn’t up to par, allowing 10 more goals than last season despite having a defensive unit that remained almost entirely intact from 2001.
Aileen Guiney, who will return as a fifth-year senior next season, attributed the Cats’ defensive letdowns to her team’s chronic slow starts during the middle games on the schedule.
The only two starters the Cats lose to graduation come from the back: defender Kelli Wilson and goalkeeper Susie McCreery.
NU expected big things at the start of the season with a returning defensive core and new talent on the attack.
As always, the freshman class benefited from NU’s late start to classes.
“It’s a real luxury for us because there’s not too many distractions around,” Haigh said. “We can just focus on soccer and get a lot of stuff done, while other schools don’t have that opportunity.”
The personalities of this year’s freshmen made for an even smoother transition.
“This class integrated better than any other class since I’ve been here,” Guiney said. “They’re all really social and got along right away. Extroverted doesn’t even fit for that group.”
But the seven freshmen did go through some adjustments.
“It was very demanding and tiring (compared to high school),” Lipinski said. “All of our lovely fitness drills, … but that’s what you have to do as a team.”
All the work apparently paid off heading into Big Ten play. The Cats’ season began well, going 2-2-1 in their pre-conference schedule.
The Big Ten preparation included a 0-0 tie against then-No. 23 Utah and losses to then-No. 19 Kentucky and then-No. 24 Brigham Young.
The high level of pre-conference competition prepared the Cats for the tough Big Ten season, Haigh said.
“There was nothing shocking or surprising about (the Big Ten’s) level of competition after that,” she said.
Despite the momentum of its early success, NU struggled once conference play began.
“They experienced a new level of consistent intensity, in that every single, solitary Big Ten game was a challenge,” Haigh said.
Added Lipinski: “(The Big Ten) is a much faster pace, and also there’s some especially big girls. I wasn’t used to playing against such solid, big girls.”
NU went 1-4 in its first five conference matches, with the lone win coming on a shutout by sophomore goalkeeper Annie Helm, beating Iowa 1-0. She garnered six straight starts in goal after battling for the position with McCreery throughout the year. McCreery returned to start the Cats’ final five games.
The Cats experienced marginal success in the last five conference contests, going 1-2-2. The Cats added a 2-1 victory over Minnesota and forced ties with Michigan State and Indiana.
But NU was eliminated from the Big Ten playoff picture following a 2-0 loss to Michigan in its final conference match.
And so the Cats used their final three non-conference matches to begin building for next year when NU will return nine starters.
“This year’s team was kind of young because a lot of freshmen played,” Gilkey said. “Next year they’re going to come back and be even stronger. We’re just going to keep building and building and building.”
