During Sunday’s ALC final, one Northwestern supporter had some advice for the Purple and White.
“Just play your game!” she yelled.
It may not have been the most profound statement in human history. But the fan got it exactly right.
Playing their game is how the Wildcats have built the NCAA’s most powerful dynasty. It’s how they’ve won three straight national championships.
And it’s why Vanderbilt never had a chance.
NU pasted the Commodores 14-3, humbling the nation’s eighth-ranked team and claiming its sixth straight ALC crown. It was the Cats’ 42nd straight home victory.
But it’s not just that they won. It’s how they won.
NU’s dismantling of Vanderbilt deserved its own Bill Belichick game tape. It was like watching the Spurs play ball, or Flavor Flav keep house.
The Commodores came into the final looking to speed up the game and keep NU from setting up its offense.
For 20 minutes, the strategy worked; only a series of bruising runs to net by sophomore Danielle Spencer kept the Cats ahead 4-2 in the early going. Then NU imposed its will on Vanderbilt.
The game plan was simple: Hold the ball on offense, keep possession in the Commodores’ zone, and win the all-important draw controls.
Executing that strategy against one of the nation’s top teams should have been difficult. But for NU, it was all too easy.
In the last 42:32 of the game, the champs outscored the Commodores 10-1. They won 13 of 19 draw controls, keeping possession and pressuring Vanderbilt. And they were patient with the ball, passing up good looks for better ones and converting on 14 of 21 shots.
As Flavor would say: “Wooooowwwww!!!!”
Leading the offensive charge was a Nielsen (Hannah, not Brigitte). The junior had two goals and five assists as the catalyst of the NU attack, repeatedly finding the cutters from behind the net for an easy score.
No one in Cats’ history has set up her teammates better than Nielsen. With her third assist of the game, she passed Lindsey Munday to become the team’s all-time assist leader, finishing the game with 131.
And she still has more than a season left in his career – 200 assists, anyone?
It was more than just Nielsen, though. After a lackluster performance in the semifinals against Penn State, the 6-foot-1 Spencer simply ran through the Commodores in the first half, posting a hat trick in the first 20 minutes before leaving with a hip injury. Junior Hilary Bowen dominated the second half, finishing with four goals and an assist. And defender Christie Finch led an NU defense that held the Commodores scoreless over the final 33 minutes.
Kelly Amonte Hiller’s squad dominated every facet of the game, sealing the win early in the second half and outclassing Vanderbilt on both sides of the field. The thrashing sent a powerful message to anyone who thought the NU dynasty would crumble after last week’s loss to Penn:
We’re gonna play our game. Good luck stopping us.
Sports editor Jake Simpson is a Medill junior. He can be reached at [email protected]
