A small crowd filled the turf field near Lakeside Field on Friday afternoon. The turf pales in comparison to the renovated stadium a few steps away. The stadium that hosts a national championship lacrosse team and a nationally-ranked men’s soccer team play on it in the first year of its existence.

The lone varsity tenant on the turf field has not performed to the standard set by their neighbors.

But maybe senior scoring machine Alexandra Quinn can change all that.

Northwestern’s field hockey team has gone 8-37 the last three seasons with just one conference victory. The Wildcats have not won two conference victories in a season since 2000.

That did not matter Friday and Sunday.

Quinn and her teammates charged through Saint Louis and Robert Morris by a combined score of 10-1 this weekend. The senior added four goals to her team-leading 10 in nine games in the two contests.

The teams the Cats played this weekend are not going to be competing for a national championship and NU lost to No. 3 Maryland 10-1 on Sept. 14.

But people are looking for hope this time of year in every nook and cranny they can find it.

And whether it is in a political candidate promising change, a fresh start at college or prayers for a certain team to finally make a trip to the World Series – those beleaguered Tampa Bay Rays fans can breathe easier now that their prayers have been answered.

And hope might be found for NU sports in the start of a new school year.

All of a sudden, the football team is 4-0 for the first time since 1962. Sure, it did not look pretty Saturday afternoon, but when was the last time you could say the defense was waiting for the offense to produce with this team?

C.J. Bachér has had his issues at quarterback since taking the reins in the middle of the 2006 season, but who can forget his school-record 520 passing yards and five touchdowns in a 48-41 overtime victory at Michigan State?

If he can be that quarterback again, the Cats become a scary team.

All of a sudden, the women’s basketball team has high expectations with the hiring of 500-game winner Joe McKeown last spring. And he is working his hardest on campus to change a culture of losing.

McKeown and the women’s basketball players were urging freshman at Friday’s men’s soccer game to watch that transformation by attending games in the winter.

All of a sudden, some believe the men’s basketball team can turn the corner with a strong – and tall (yes, tall) – recruiting class.

We all saw Kevin Coble drop 37 points against a talented Indiana team last year. Add some of those new big bodies walking around campus, and who knows?

Hope is most needed for teams that seem to have none. And the field hockey program might be the neediest.

Quinn had a hand in seven of the Cats’ 10 goals this weekend. She leads the Big Ten in scoring and was named the Big Ten Player of the Week for the second time this season.

Her team may come crashing back down to Earth when NU travels to Ann Arbor, Mich. to face No. 19 Michigan and No. 20 California. And a 5-4 record impresses no one.

But then again, even .500 is an improved season – and maybe a step toward returning the program to its glory days of the 1980s when the team reached the national semifinals three times.

Is that too much to think?

Probably.

Is this the right time to believe anything is possible?

Why not?

Sports editor Philip Rossman-Reich is a Medill junior. He advises you to stretch your fingers before e-mailing him at [email protected].