The Michigan Wolverines have something the Northwestern field hockey team wants.

No, not their lunch money.

Last year, Michigan finished the 2002 season wearing the Big Ten regular season crown, a piece of hardware that this year’s Cats hope to show off by season’s end.

With conference play opening up today at 3 p.m. in the friendly confines of the Leonard B. Thomas Sports Complex, the No. 20 Cats (4-3) will do their best to dethrone Michigan (5-3) and take that first step toward becoming Big Ten champions.

A win will be no small task, as the Wolverines boast a No. 4 national ranking along with three All-Americans including senior April Fronzoni, a candidate for the Honda Award for the nation’s best player.

“She’s a down and dirty, gutsy player,” senior defender Suzi Sutton said.

But don’t tell that to Marisa Didio, who has her troops focused on playing team ball.

“Our strategy is to focus on us, and what we have to do. Not on the other team, or any standout players they may have,” Didio said.

Sutton agrees and laughs at the thought of devoting individual attention to Fronzoni.

“We’re not taking a special approach to defend her or anyone else,” Sutton said. “We all just have to play strong team and individual defense.”

Defense will be the Cats’ greatest weapon against the high-powered offense of Michigan, which has out-shot opponents 156-86 and outscored them 33-19. But NU will counter with a strong defense that has out-saved opponents 52-21.

While NU leads the overall series with Michigan 28-13, the Cats are currently in the midst of an 11-game losing streak to the Wolverines. Not even that drought concerns Didio though.

“We’re very focused on what needs to get done,” Didio said. “Michigan is in the bullseye. They’re our one and only target right now.”

Didio said she hopes to surprise Michigan with a different team than the one they’ve beat up on since 1997.

“We need to challenge Michigan in a way that we haven’t done in the past,” Coach Didio. “Their mindset is probably that they already have a win in the Big Ten column before even playing us.”

Going into the Big Ten season with a winning record, Didio insists NU is a team on the verge of a breakthrough game. A win against Michigan would be that breakthrough, not to mention an excellent start to Didio’s final Big Ten campaign as NU’s coach.

“We want to win every game, not only for ourselves, but for her too,” senior Katie Walshauser said.