Until last weekend, seniors Alexandra Quinn, Alison Bullock, Emily Kyle and Annie Bosslet had won only one Big Ten game in their careers.
Their final season had been defined by coming tantalizingly close to beating top opponents but ultimately falling short – losing by slim margins to top-20 teams like No. 9 Iowa, No. 10 Michigan State and No. 12 Louisville.
Saturday’s 3-1 home win against Indiana (7-10, 1-5 Big Ten) on Senior Day went a long way toward erasing those bitter memories.
“Our underclassmen did such a good job, really made us feel special,” said Quinn, who leads the Wildcats in goals and points. “It was just great, a perfect ending.”
NU (7-12, 1-5) fell behind early, as it often has this season. Indiana forward Katie Griswold scored less than five minutes into the opening period on the Hoosiers’ first shot on goal.
The goal helped bring NU back down to earth after the pregame Senior Day festivities.
“I think the first goal of the game was a little bit of a wake-up call,” coach Kelly McCollum said. “The pressure they put on themselves needed to be shaken off a little at the beginning of that game. They settled themselves out and really got going after that. I think there’s a lot of hoopla to the Senior Day. It’s great because they deserve it. But it gets people a little bit anxious.”
For just the second time this season, the Cats managed to come back to win a game in which they trailed after the first 15 minutes.
Junior midfielder Stephanie Fortson scored off the initial pass of an offensive penalty corner to tie the game at a goal apiece.
McCollum said she wanted her team to give up fewer defensive penalty corners. The Cats responded by allowing just one corner in the first half. Though NU ended up trailing 10-5 in corners for the game, the improvement was evident.
“We worked a lot on our individual defense in practice this week, just staying steadier and communicating on defense,” junior defender Stacy Uchida said. “I think we did a nice job organizing, and I think that organization helped us from open players getting shots.”
NU took the lead just more than four minutes into the second half on Quinn’s 13th goal of the season. For much of the remainder of the game, the team struggled to push the ball out of the backfield, putting the Cats’ defense to the test.
But NU never got flustered and stepped up when it mattered throughout the game.
Kyle stopped a crucial fast break late in the first half after a Hoosiers player got past the Cats’ last line of defense near midfield. NU’s defensive corner unit made a key save after Kyle came out of the cage to try to make an aggressive play on the ball.
Things seemed to go NU’s way overall, as multiple shots barely missed finding the back of the net down the stretch.
“I wouldn’t say we’ve gotten a lot of breaks this season, so today it was nice to get a few,” McCollum said.
The Cats were able to put the game away with junior forward Courtney Plaster-Strange’s goal on an offensive penalty corner with less than six minutes left in the game.
It was fitting that NU’s offensive corner unit, which has been the team’s kryptonite all season long, ended up converting on two of its five opportunities to seal the victory.
McCollum said the players had been practicing offensive corners for 30 extra minutes prior to each practice the past two weeks. The additional work paid off, as those two goals provided the difference.
“It was a real team effort,” Quinn said. “Our whole team was fighting to get tips, fighting to get hard hits in the cage, so it just felt really good to score some goals. We’ve tried everything, just plugging away at it, doing extra reps, really focusing on the little things.”
