The Wildcats were off to their best start in school history last season when they entered the belly of the beast – Bill Armstrong Stadium in Bloomington, Ind.
No team had beaten Indiana at home in three years, and no Big Ten team came out with a win in nine years.
Meanwhile, Northwestern was winless in the Big Ten regular season since 1999 and had never beaten the then-No.3 Hoosiers.
But on Oct. 17 of last year, NU defied the odds, broke all the streaks and shutout the eventual national champions, 1-0.
The Cats were no longer an also-ran in the Big Ten. They had arrived.
This year’s Cats (7-4-0, 1-2-0) look to recreate a bit of last year’s magic, when they welcome No. 8 Indiana (7-1-3, 1-1-1) to Evanston on Sunday.
“Indiana is the program by which all programs are measured,” NU coach Tim Lenahan said. “It was obviously a momentous win and the start of something after that.”
After the win against the Hoosiers, NU closed the regular season with four wins in five games. The Cats rode the wave of momentum into the Big Ten tournament finals and earned the school’s first berth to the NCAA tournament.
The win against Indiana meant a little more than others for junior midfielder John Carlstedt, an Indianapolis native. He assisted on junior forward Brad North’s game-winning goal.
“Growing up, everything was about (Indiana),” Carlstedt said. “Indiana soccer is a big deal in the state. So when I went home for the summer, people didn’t ask, ‘How did you do in the Big Ten or NCAA tournament?’ They asked, ‘How did you do against Indiana?’
“It felt good that I could say we beat them.”
The Cats are out to prove Sunday that the victory last season wasn’t a fluke.
NU is coming off its best offensive performance of the season. The Cats found the back of the net four times in Wednesday’s game against Loyola-Chicago.
But Lenahan said the Cats can’t get into a shootout with Indiana, emphasizing his team needs to keep the Hoosiers off the scoreboard as they did in their last matchup.
“They have great attacking players but have probably had the best defense in college soccer,” Lenahan said. “It’ll be tough to win a 4-3 game. But we’re going to play them straight up like last year. We’re not going to pack it in.”
Indiana enters the weekend on a three-game winning streak. The Hoosiers have the best goals against average in the nation, giving up 0.43 goals per game and posting eight shutouts so far this season. The offense ranks ninth in the country with 2.55 scores per match.
Despite the impressive rankings and storied historical dominance, Carlstedt said the Cats have a mental edge some teams lack when playing Indiana.
“We have the confidence that we beat them before,” Carlstedt said. “Not too many teams can say that. We know what it takes to win.”
Similar to his performance against Indiana last year, Carlstedt said he hopes to have a hand in the outcome of the game.
“I’ll do whatever helps the team, it doesn’t matter,” Carlstedt said. “But I’d love to score a goal and have that on my friends.”
Reach Scott Duncan at [email protected].
