Put your notes away, kids — it’s quiz time. Only one question, but you couldn’t stay in all weekend studying for this one. Lucky for you, it’s multiple choice:
Which Northwestern spring sports team boasts a former NCAA champion coach, an 11-game winning streak and a top-10 national ranking?
A. Women’s tennis
B. Women’s lacrosse
C. The club running team
D. All of the above
If you answered “A”, you better hope you can make it up on the final. The women’s tennis team has some competition for the best athletic program at NU — lacrosse. In only its third season after a nine-year hiatus, the first-place lacrosse team has a 12-1 record and No. 6 national ranking.
The similarities between tennis and lacrosse don’t end with their shared status as one of a handful of successful NU teams. Both teams owe their success in large part to their similar head coaches — tennis’ Claire Pollard and lacrosse’s Kelly Amonte Hiller.
Pollard won an NCAA doubles title at Mississippi State, and Amonte Hiller might be the most decorated women’s lacrosse player ever. A four-time All-American at Maryland, she won NCAA Championships and national Player of the Year honors in 1995 and 1996, then added two world titles as a member of the U.S. National Team.
“I only lost three games in college,” Amonte Hiller said, “so I don’t deal with losing very well.”
Until sore knees kept her off the field two years ago, Amonte Hiller used to scrimmage with NU players — and she was “by far” the best player on the field, junior Sarah Albrecht said.
And like Pollard’s success recruiting in England, Amonte Hiller has brought in nine players from her homestate of Massachusetts. Sports Illustrated ranked Amonte Hiller 21st on its list of Massachusetts Greatest Sports Figures of the 20th Century in 2000. I’m hoping to make the 21st century list, once I get my tryout with the Red Sox.
Amonte Hiller’s reputation and relationships on the East Coast helped her tap a breeding ground for lacrosse talent. She recruited the best athletes available, confident she could coach them into the best players.
She has. Albrecht, sophomore Laura Glassanos and freshman Kristen Kjellman, all from the Boston area, have been the gems of Amonte Hiller’s three recruiting classes. And each class has been better as more athletes leave Beantown behind to pahk their cahs in Evanston for the chance to win under Amonte Hiller.
“Coming from so far away, it’s good to know there are people here from the same place,” Kjellman said. “I thought I would miss home a lot more, actually.”
NU actually had a pretty successful program in the mid-80s under coach Cindy Timchal, who in an ironic twist went on to coach Amonte Hiller at Maryland. But much has changed since then. Once one of the only programs in the Midwest, NU has benefited from lacrosse’s manifest destiny to be played across the country — East Coast, West Coast and all fields in between.
Amonte Hiller coached the Cats club team in 2001 while she worked on recruiting her first class. Now juniors, those lucky 13 in the original class gelled into a close-knit unit. They came in together, struggled as freshmen and sophomores together, and now have excelled together.
If you’re starting to notice a theme here, it’s no surprise that a reason for the Cats’ closeness is Amonte Hiller. The coach knows there’s a time to work hard, to be serious —
