The Northwestern field hockey team extended its home winning streak to four with a win over Robert Morris on Sunday afternoon. The 4-0 victory puts the Wildcats over .500 for the season with a 5-4 record.
Senior forward Alexandra Quinn scored two goals to bring her team-leading season total to 10. Quinn’s fellow forward, junior Elizabeth Dobbs, scored a goal in her fourth straight game. Forward Alison Bullock registered the Cats’ other score.
Despite Quinn and Dobbs continuing their strong performances, NU head coach Kelly McCollum said beating Robert Morris (3-6) was more of a team win. She said she did not even know who scored.
“I think it was teamwork,” McCollum said. “Our team is really working hard to stick to our game plan, play our strategy, really play a possession game, opening up the field and utilizing all levels to move the ball up.”
The Cats looked dominant in the first half, keeping the ball in their opponent’s territory for the majority of the half. The Colonials did not put together an extended attack near the Cats’ goal until there were less than 15 minutes remaining in the period. And they only managed one shot on goal.
NU also held the advantage on penalty corners with 11. The Colonials only had one penalty corner in the first half, compared to the Cats’ seven.
“Our defense played great today, and I think that’s something we’ve worked on all week – not allowing that many opportunities,” Quinn said. “We call it the ‘green outside,’ which is the worst shooting angle, and we’ve really been working on keeping all of their shots in the green. I think that our backs really stepped up today and didn’t allow many opportunities for their team.”
NU finished the half with a 2-0 lead, and while Robert Morris would be more competitive on offense in the second frame with seven shots on goal, nothing they did could close the margin.
The Cats scored two more goals in the second half.
While a 4-0 win is not a blowout, Quinn said the team’s offensive performance Sunday, and throughout the season, is miles ahead of last year.
“I’m really happy that we’re scoring a lot more than we have in the past,” Quinn said. “Last year we really struggled with that, and I’m really glad to see us moving forward as a whole and getting it in the net.”
Still both Quinn and McCollum feel the team should have put more points on the board. The reason for the relative scoring drought, Quinn suggested, may have been the team’s failure to capitalize on second-chance shots.
“I think that we didn’t take as much advantage of the second opportunities as we could have,” Quinn said. “Their goalie (Shannon Bires) was really strong and she cleared the ball, but we were given some rebounds, and some of those rebounds we could have taken a little bit more advantage of.”
As for the strengths and weaknesses of Bires and other Colonials, the Cats entered the matchup with less information on their opponent than usual, having only seen them play once.
“We didn’t know much about them, so that’s something different,” Quinn said. “We usually have the teams pretty scouted out. We got to see them before we played, but they have a lot of good stick skills in the midfield, breaking out they’re pretty feisty upfield.”
