The Northwestern field hockey team’s sticks were on fire this past weekend. Not in a dangerous, pissing off Smokey the Bear kind of way. But in a scoring nine total goals and showing their opponents no mercy kind of way.

It couldn’t have been a better weekend for the the Wildcats’ three seniors — Diane Provencher, Suzi Sutton, and Katie Walshauser — and head coach Marisa Didio, who closed out their final set of home games with a pair of wins.

“It was a really nice way to go out at home,” Sutton said. “And now we couldn’t be more ready for the Big Ten tournament.”

The first beating came Friday against Saint Louis, as NU scored early and often en route to a 7-0 victory.

All three seniors posted at least one goal in the stat sheet, while the entire team provided the Billikens with a free offensive and defensive clinic.

Before either team even got a good sweat going, sophomore Megan Small scored 2:08 into the match. Then Provencher made a slick pass to sophomore Christine Nannicelli, who lit up the Saint Louis net to put the Cats ahead 2-0.

Small had an unassisted, second goal at 27:18, before Nannicelli scored her second goal on a penalty with time running out in the first half.

If the Billikens were looking for the Cats to dial it down a notch in the second half, they were surely disappointed, as Walshauser notched the Cats’ fifth goal of the game early in teh second frame.

The Saint Louis coach, looking for some way to stop NU’s offensive onslaught, switched goalkeepers after Provencher scored on a pass from Sutton.

But handling NU’s offense was no picnic for the backup either.

With about three minutes remaining in the game, Sutton added an extra pinch of salt in the Billikens’ wounds when she scored the Cats’ final goal off a penalty corner.

The game marked the Cats highest offensive output since a 7-0 beating of Indiana in 2000.

After taking Saturday to cool off their sticks, the Cats returned to action on Sunday against Syracuse.