Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

32° Evanston, IL
Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

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Rivals to battle for regular-season title

Softball

This weekend No. 19 Northwestern will play in perhaps its most important series in more than a decade.

When the Wildcats visit Ann Arbor, Mich., on Saturday and Sunday, they will have a chance to clinch the regular season Big Ten title — and home field advantage for the Big Ten tournament — for the first time since 1987.

And just in case that’s not enough motivation for the team, the Cats will be playing their biggest rival: Michigan.

It isn’t just that Michigan is the No. 1 team in the nation. It isn’t even because the Wolverines beat the Cats on a game-winning home run in extra innings last year. Much of the competition stems from one thing: a bond between friends on both teams.

Michigan and Northwestern have a number of connections that make the rivalry much more intense.

Coach Kate Drohan said that members of the Michigan coaching staff are close friends with both her and assistant coach Caryl Drohan.

“But we’ve only talked to (them) once in the last six weeks,” Drohan said laughing. “When the first pitch is thrown, everything changes.”

Last year Michigan junior Tiffany Haas, a high school teammate of NU junior Jamie Dotson and senior Erin Mobley, hit the game-winning home run for the Wolverines in the eighth inning of the second game of a doubleheader at Sharon J. Drysdale field.

Dotson said the games with Michigan are battles for bragging rights for the California natives.

“I think you have to play with a little extra competitiveness, and it’s a lot more fun kicking the crap out of your friends,” Mobley said. “We’re nice about it, we’ll tease them on the field and say hi, but when game time comes we play hard.”

Though the friendships elevate the level of the rivalry, the enmity originally brewed from intense games between the two teams.

In addition to the game-winning home run hit by Haas to beat NU last year, sophomore Garland Cooper started that series off by hitting a grand slam to upset Michigan in the first game of the doubleheader. The year before that, NU and Michigan went to extra innings in both regular season games (the Cats lost both), but in the Big Ten tournament NU eliminated Michigan.

“I think it’s always payback with Michigan,” Mobley said. “We’ve had a rivalry with them since freshman year, so anytime we beat them it feels really, really good. We try to take it one game at a time, but this game has always been in our heads this season, and I think we’re so fired up.”

Dotson also said that the fact that many NU players were recruited by Michigan can add extra motivation to the games.

“We know what kind of program we want to build and our kind of style of play, and of course you want to win,” Dotson said. “You want to beat them and show them why you came here.”

So with just one win against the No.1 team in the nation standing between the Cats and a Big Ten title, NU players say they’re more ready to play than ever before.

They just cant agree on whether there’s more pressure than usual.

“I don’t think so because they have to beat us twice, and all we have to do is go out there in the first game and beat them,” Mobley said. “So I think the pressure’s on them.”

Dotson disagreed, prompting Mobley to laugh.

“I think there’s more pressure,” Dotson said. “It would be a lot easier if we beat Michigan State and then we could just go out for fun, but now it’s serious money and we’ll get on the field and there’s only one thing to do and that’s win.”

Reach Paul Tenorio at [email protected].

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Rivals to battle for regular-season title