By Brian ReganThe Daily Northwestern
After losing in the finals of the state championship in high school, forward Jill Putnam walked off the field to ponder her future, while midfielder Alex Quinn reveled in the spoils of victory.
Her team lost, but after playing well against a suburban Boston school, Putnam had raised her profile beyond her stomping grounds of western Massachusetts.
Within a year, she joined the K-Ban Coalition, a competitive club team, where she received passes from her former foe, Alex Quinn.
“That’s where it all started,” Putnam said. “We played all year round and had a good solid two-three years together to get to know each other.”
After spending two-and-a-half years racking up points, honors and wins, both Quinn and Putnam gave their commitments to Northwestern and both are now integral parts of the Wildcat offense.
This year Quinn was switched to forward from midfield, where she now runs the field alongside Putnam.
“We’ve played together so long that we know where each other is going to cut, or just where we are on the field,” Quinn said. “We play off of each other very, very well.”
Both are near the top of the Cats offensive leaderboards, each with four goals and in the top five in points, but sometimes the energy isn’t there for one of them.
“I can tell if she is having a bad day, ” Putnam said, “and can help give encouragement to change her mood.”
That helps not only in games, but also in practice where the similarities between themselves makes watching film redundant – they said they can just watch each other because they look so similar.
Quinn and Putnam may be close on the field, but off it they are even closer.
The two were lab partners in chemistry and were both pre-med before Quinn decided to switch her focus to economics rather than biology.
“We are very good friends and she lives right above me,” Quinn said. “We study together, but hang out more. It’s like having cousin here that I can go to for anything.”
Both were starters as freshmen and have used their skills and chemistry to produce results when it counts.
“(Quinn and Putnam) have the skills to execute what they see,” coach Kelly McCollum said. “They are strong finishers, but are different players that complement each other very well.”
Fitting together has already produced one Quinn-to-Putnam goal this season, but count on more in the future, especially now that the team is trying to put their devastating loss to Iowa last Sunday behind it.
Regardless of what happens between now and Sunday when the Cats (6-7, 1-2 Big Ten) travel to Ohio for a showdown with Ohio State (10-2, 2-1 Big Ten) and Monday when they go to Kent State (5-9), look for both Quinn and Putnam to be motivated for the game.
“We try not to worry about what has gone right or wrong during the day, ” Putnam said. “We focus that field hockey is what we love and we are out there together playing it.”
Reach Brian Regan at [email protected].
