After having a few days to let the dust settle following the Big Ten tournament, Northwestern can look back on what was a solid effort of a season.
While the team will most likely not return to the NCAA tournament, the Wildcats nicely assembled four new players into their roster. With great chemistry and solid leadership from senior captain Adam Schaechterle, NU’s 2006 campaign should be looked at as a success, but also a disappointment from the team’s biggest critic, coach Paul Torricelli.
“I’m disappointed that our goal was to put this team into the tournament, and we couldn’t quite get there,” Torricelli said.
The Cats finished the season 12-11 overall and 6-6 in the Big Ten, giving the Cats their first winning record since 2004.
After beating Michigan State in the preliminary round of the last weekend’s conference tournament, the Cats fell to second-seeded Illinois.
“Illinois was at a different level than when we played them two weeks ago,” Torricelli said. “We got whipped and they are a top-10 program and there is no shame in that. No surprise there.”
Entering the home stretch of the season in late March, the Cats had the opportunity to run off a string of victories before their eventual collision with conference powerhouses, Illinois and 2006 Big Ten Champion Ohio State, who defeated the Illini 4-2 to end Illinois’ four-year dominance in the conference tournament.
Unfortunately for the Cats, some ill-timed mental mistakes and injuries hurt their chances to get a bid to the national tournament, especially in their last few matches.
“I thought we fought hard,” junior Matt Christian said, “but it was the end of the year and I think our team was too impeded by injuries to beat Illinois.
Injuries, such as Christian’s own “phantom arm injury,” according to Torricelli, or junior Christian Tempke’s shoulder injury were not the only causes of the team’s inability to upset the conference’s top teams.
In the team’s first match after finals and a rained-out Spring Break, the Cats fell to a Penn State team they should have beaten.
“We would all agree that it was our one subpar performance of the year,” Torricelli said. “It was the only time we weren’t mentally in the match the way we should be, but we bounced back in a great effort to upset Indiana the next day.”
Torricelli’s optimism on the little things most likely helped the team get through some of its many weekend match splits that led to the team finishing at .500, and being unable to beat the top-four teams in the conference.
On the bright side for the Cats, the team returns six of its top seven players for next season and at the tournament, Tempke was named Second-Team All-Big Ten.
“It’s a really big honor for him and we are all very happy he won it,” said junior Willy Lock. “He won a lot of great matches this year and he really deserves it.”
Torricelli’s team will be led by three seniors next year and should be in the position to challenge the conference’s top teams, with a strong core of young, but experienced players.
“I don’t like to use the term ‘rebuilding year’ because it sounds like an excuse,” Torricelli said. “But if we can get Matt and Christian healthy, we should be very good next year.”
Reach Brian Regan at [email protected].
