Midfielder Jeanette Lorme found herself with plenty of space against Valparaiso (5-3-0) on Tuesday. Lorme and the rest of the Wildcats’ midfielders used this space stay on the attack for most of the match.
“We were trying to combine (with the forwards) more offensively,” she said, “Keep it in their half.”
The result was a 2-0 victory for Northwestern (7-1-0), with Lorme assisting on both of the Cats’ goals.
The first strike came in the 23rd minute, when Lorme saw the Crusaders’ goalkeeper off the line and chipped a ball over her head. The ball glanced off the keeper’s hand, then off the crossbar.
“(The goalie) was running backwards and I knew she wasn’t going to be able to catch it,” forward Tabitha Lowey said. “I figured it was either going out of bounds or going to be a goal anyway. I was running at it and everyone was just standing there waiting for it to go out.”
Lowey nodded the ball into the left corner of the net to give the Cats the lead.
Lorme, who received the ball just outside of the 18-yard box, said she was shooting for the goal, rather than the assist. But her second assist was more conventional.
After dribbling in from the right side, Lorme crossed a ball on the ground to midfielder Jenny Dunn. With one touch, Dunn tucked it into the lower left corner.
The Cats, who only scored six first-half goals in their first seven games and none in their last two, scored two Tuesday.
It was 35 minutes into the game and the Crusaders were already finished.
NU maintained the pressure in the second half, keeping Valparaiso out of their half and continuing to bear down on the Crusaders’ goal.
“We basically dominated on the offense,” Lowey said.
Unlike NU’s previous match against Central Michigan, when the Cats allowed 11 second-half shots after only one in the first, Valparaiso managed only three second-half shots after four in the first half.
It was the first time in six games the number of shots taken on the Cats went down in the second half.
“We weren’t getting pressure on the ball early enough,” coach Jenny Haigh said of the first half. “At half-time, we talked about things we could do to get organized quicker. When we lost the ball (in the second half) we did a good job getting tight pressure on the ball, which allowed us to win it back sooner and get on the attack more.”
Tuesday’s win extended the Cats’ winning streak to six games, giving them momentum going into Friday’s Big Ten opener at Illinois.
While NU sees the need for improvement in its performance before the conference season, but few can pinpoint what tangible areas need the most work.
“Putting us up at 7-1 is a great way to go into Big Tens,” she said. “We realize we have to have more intensity when we play against the big teams.”
She shrugged and trailed off.
“We have a lot of confidence, but – you know-“
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