The script hasn’t gone quite as Northwestern coach Tim Lenahan expected, but with the Wildcats poised to make a run at the postseason, he said his team is right where he wants it to be with five games left in the regular season.
“It’s not going to be the season where we’re ranked No. 1 in the country, like maybe we had hoped,” Lenahan said. “We had thought earlier that this was a year where we could get into the top five. But we’re where we need to be with a veteran team heading down the stretch.”
After outplaying No. 6 Indiana Sunday, the Cats have the tools to make a second consecutive trip to the NCAA tournament – unless the early season woes reappear.
With all 11 starters returning to a team that had reached its first NCAA tournament in the program’s history, the preseason expectations were high for Northwestern this year.
The Cats had received their first preseason national ranking, and junior midfielder Gerardo Alvarez was named to the watch list for the Hermann Trophy, which is given to the nation’s top player.
But after a disheartening trip to Las Vegas in early September, the picture wasn’t so rosy for the Cats.
In the FILA Invitational in Las Vegas, California-Santa Barbara crushed NU 6-1, and days later, the Cats fell 2-1 to Nevada-Las Vegas to drop to 2-2.
The losses weren’t the only concern, as the injury bug hit NU.
With Alvarez already limited by knee pain, junior goalkeeper Justin Pines and junior midfielder Will Nicholas were lost for the season with season-ending knee surgeries.
After the games in Las Vegas, senior captain Brad Napper said he and other captains called for a players-only meeting to assess the situation.
“As bad as that weekend was for us, the meeting was really good,” Napper said. “From what went on in that meeting, I felt like we were ready to leave that behind us. And we were aware of what we needed to do play better.”
The Cats regrouped and responded the following weekend with a 1-0 win against Northern Illinois and a 2-1 victory against Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.
Beginning with the win against Northern Illinois, NU is 5-2-1 and have moved into the hunt for an NCAA tournament bid. And most importantly the Cats have regained the swagger that led them to a postseason bid last year.
“We’ve overcome a lot of adversity,” Lenahan said. “We’ve had a lot of injuries. We had a game that was stolen from us in Las Vegas because of a questionable call. We lost our best player for most of the year. We lost our starting goalie and our starting center midfielder. But here we are, right where we were last year.”
The Cats enter the home stretch with momentum after an impressive week.
NU dominated Loyola-Chicago Wednesday, routing the Ramblers 4-0, and the Cats followed it up with the tie against Indiana.
With just five games left in the season, each game builds in importance as selection day for the NCAA tournament gets closer. NU can’t afford any lapses during the next three weeks, with four out of five games on the road.
Sophomore midfielder David Roth said the Cats feel confident as they enter the final stretch of games.
“Every game is important from here on out,” Roth said. “These games will define our season.”
Reach Scott Duncan at [email protected].
Forwards B: NU is not quite the high-flying team that it was a year ago, but Brad North has found the back of the net six times to lead the Cats. Although the Cats couldn’t break through with the game-winning goal against Indiana, North gave the Hoosiers’ defense fits in Sunday’s game.
Midfielders – B+ This unit suffered with injuries, but juniors Daniel Chille and Gerardo Alvarez are back in the lineup and have two goals each. Junior John Carlstedt has provided a spark in the middle, and sophomore David Roth continues to pump out assists from the left side.
Defenders – B+ California-Santa Barbara put in six goals and Penn State had four, but besides those two slip-ups this group has been solid. It’s the most veteran group with five seniors, including defensive midfielder Jaro Pylypczak. They have held everything together in front of two inexperienced goalkeepers.
Goalkeepers – B Last year’s starter, junior Justin Pines, is out for the year, leaving freshman Misha Rosenthal and sophomore Will Briley to take his place. Both have had their growing pains, but they have come up big in some big games (Briley against Michigan State and Rosenthal against Northern Illinois).
Coaching – A- The disappointment with not being ranked nationally shows just how far this program has come under Tim Lenahan. Considering the injuries, Lenahan has done a great job putting this team in a position to make its second straight NCAA tournament.
