By Brian ReganThe Daily Northwestern

After losing its regular season finale to No. 16 Michigan on Sunday, Northwestern got a little help from Ohio State for seeding in the Big Ten tournament this weekend.

With Ohio State beating Michigan State, the Wildcats and the Spartans both finished the season with 1-5 records in the conference, with the Cats (7-11) winning the tiebreaker and earning the sixth seed.

“Is it a good place to be? I don’t know,” coach Kelly McCollum said, “but it is the place we are in.”

The Cats’ 3-1 loss to Michigan (11-8, 4-2 Big Ten) had a silver lining. The squad got a look at the Wolverines’ facilities less than a week before the Big Ten tournament returns there Thursday.

The team said they hope their play this weekend is similar to last weekend against Michigan.

“We played well against them. It was a tight and competitive game, more so than the score showed,” McCollum said. “It was deadlocked 1-1 until (the 63rd minute). I think that shows what kind of form we are in as a team going into the Big Ten tournament.”

The Cats’ lone goal came from forward Alex Quinn, who scored just before halftime. Quinn took a share of the regular season goal lead at six with fellow sophomore forward Jill Putnam.

“We played so, so well, finally in this game everything came through,” Quinn said. “We were very excited about the steps we took and how we improved in so many areas.”

Playing for the full 70 minutes is something the team has focused on all season and that has been its downfall its last two outings against Iowa and Michigan.

In those two games, the Cats have surrendered three goals within seven minutes of the final horn, while not scoring any.

“A lot of times the score doesn’t reflect the tempo of the game,” Quinn said. “We always stress being aware of clock all at all time, because it kills you in a game when you play so hard and you give up a late goal.”

The Cats upped their offensive output to register more shots on goal than the Wolverines, but were unable to capitalize on their chances.

Michigan made 60 percent of their shots on goal, compared to 14 percent for the Cats.

NU has made a habit allowing early goals this season, such as one to Michigan in the first four minutes, forcing the team to play catch-up.

“Every game is a come-from-behind,” Kyle said. “It makes us play that much harder, especially on defense, to make (sure) nothing (goes) in.”

When the early goal went in, the Cats were motivated to equalize, but it will be hard to keep the defense’s morale high if their season ends on a late-game deflection.

“It’s frustrating because no matter what, I can’t score,” Kyle said. “I have to put complete faith in my team that they want it as much as I do.”

Reach Brian Regan at [email protected].