There’s one of them in every conference.
That one team that looks bad on paper, but all of its opponents know better. The team short on talent and skill but tall on energy and effort. The team lacking offensive prowess but tough on defense and fundamentals. The team often trailing on the scoreboard but never giving up.
Usually, by the end of the season, this team hasn’t accumulated many wins but has made its opponents frustrated and tired.
The 2002 Northwestern field hockey team was all of these things, scraping and clawing its way to a respectable season.
“We’re at a certain point in a process,” NU head coach Marisa Didio said. “We know these teams are more talented than us, and we have to keep that in mind when we lose.”
NU had its share of losses, going 6-13 for the season and 1-5 in conference play.
The Wildcats also had their share of scoring trouble, managing to tally only 23 goals in 19 games.
At one point in the season, the Cats hadn’t scored for 385 consecutive minutes, more than five whole games.
These numbers alone don’t look impressive from any angle. But take a look at the Cats’ 17 opponents this year.
Ten of them were ranked in the top 20 nationally, with four teams that had been in the top five — Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, and Penn State.
But even as NU dropped game after game against these field hockey juggernauts, the Cats never backed down from the challenge.
“We’re honored to be playing these teams because we know these games make us better,” freshman forward Holly Palin said. “We’re better off in the end.”
Palin was one of two freshmen who were regular starters in Didio’s senior-heavy lineup, the other being midfielder Christine Nannicelli.
Both Palin and Nannicelli made an immediate impact with the team, combining for six goals.
The seniors, meanwhile, did their best to go toe-to-toe with some of the nation’s top teams. With NU a member of the country’s strongest conference, the odds were against the Cats from the very beginning.
Five of the seven teams in the conference were regular members of the top 20 nationally, the only exclusions being the Cats and Indiana.
NU’s lone conference win?
A 1-0 victory over the Hoosiers.
But despite the mounting losses, NU kept most of its games close. The Cats’ biggest margin of defeat was only three goals and they allowed just 11 goals in six Big Ten matches.
NU held then-No. 2 Michigan, then-No. 4 Michigan State, and then-No. 5 Penn State to a combined five goals in three games.
These three teams were used to beating up on unranked opponents like NU — sometimes by as many as nine, 10, even 11 goals.
But NU was never a doormat, giving every team that came to Lakeside Field a frustrating 70 minutes of hockey.
“We saw it all the time,” sophomore Candice Cooper said. “We always had the chance to be the spoiler — the chance to ruin things for the other team.”
Although the Cats were never able to pull off that big upset, they sent the message to the rest of the Big Ten that they were no longer good for an easy conference victory.
And though NU always stressed the importance of working as a cohesive unit, it had its share of stars.
Cooper led the team with eight goals and was among the Big Ten leaders in shots.
Senior goalkeeper Kendra Mesa started the season hurt, but returned to play through a nagging injury. She finished her final year with a 1.44 goals-against average and two shutouts.
Senior back Lindsey Millard was named second team All-Big Ten, and she also made the Big Ten All-Tournament team. She netted four goals — three of them game-winners — on only five shots.
So with the 2002 season over, and much of NU’s starting lineup departing, Didio has her work cut out for her if she wants to keep “the process” going.
“(The coaching staff) is doing its part, and we always stress playing to our principles,” Didio said. “We’re always improving, and we will only get better.”
