It took a day longer than expected, but the Wildcats overcame poor weather conditions and left North Carolina with their perfect record still intact.
After downing Vanderbilt (1-2, 0-1 American Lacrosse Conference) 22-10 on Friday, Northwestern tried to play its game with North Carolina on Sunday as scheduled despite a heavy downpour and two inches of standing water on the field. The Cats could not get anything going offensively, falling behind 4-2 to the Tar Heels with 19:25 left in the first half before the game was suspended until the next day.
“The conditions of the game kind of got to us,” senior goalkeeper Morgan Lathrop said. “It was a little bit of a wakeup call, that you can’t wait 12 minutes to start playing the game.”
History did not repeat itself in Monday’s 12-7 win. NU (5-0, 1-0) grabbed a 2-0 lead ten minutes into the makeup game, which was played from the beginning in accordance with the NCCA rule that a suspended game replayed on a different day must start from scratch.
But the Tar Heels’ offense got on track during the last 20 minutes of the half, helping to cut the Cats’ advantage to 6-5.
“They spread out our defense a lot, and when we play our high-pressure defense and get stretched out, it’s tiring,” said senior midfielder Hannah Nielsen, who topped all NU scorers with three goals against UNC (3-1).
After tallying at least 11 goals by intermission and leading by nine or more in each of their first three contests, the Cats did not reach double digits at the half in either of the weekend matchups.
The team led just 9-6 against Vanderbilt in the opening period, failing to do the little things that are vital to taking control of a game – win draw controls and come up with ground balls.
Getting back to the basics helped the Cats break out for six goals during a four-minute stretch early in the second half. The ground ball edge was 11-10 in Vanderbilt’s favor in the first half, but NU led 11-4 in that category after the break.
“They were coming up with those 50-50 balls (before halftime) and we weren’t, and that’s what kept it really tight,” Lathrop said. “Right from the second-half whistle, we came up with draws, we came up with those 50-50s, and that’s what decided that game.”
Though the Cats also managed to put the game out of reach against the Tar Heels, it did not happen as quickly. UNC tied the score six minutes into the second half, the first time this season that NU has not been ahead after intermission. It might have provided the Cats with the extra spark they needed.
“I think that got their juices flowing,” coach Kelly Amonte Hiller said. “We just have to find a way to have the juices flowing all the time.”
Junior attacker Danielle Spencer scored her second goal of the game less than a minute later to put the Cats ahead for good. After that, NU tacked on the next five goals and cruised to victory.
The Cats’ defense responded well after allowing 10 goals for the first time this season against the Commodores. The Tar Heels converted only 2-of-8 free position shots and had 19 turnovers.
“The pressure the defenders put on all of the attackers on the free-position line was just a huge help,” said Lathrop, who had a season-high 11 saves against UNC. “I think it really rattled their attackers.”
NU’s offense also struggled to execute, particularly during the opening minutes of the second half when UNC came back to knot the score at six. Of the Cats’ 33 shots, only 17 were on goal.
“We were getting some nice looks inside, but a couple of our shots hit the pipe and a couple were wide,” Nielsen said.
Senior attacker Hilary Bowen also had a quiet afternoon, finishing with one goal. It was her first game this season with fewer than five scores, and it broke her streak of 11 consecutive games with a hat trick dating back to last year’s win against UNC.
The Vanderbilt game was a different story offensively. Nielsen, Spencer and Bowen each scored five goals, and 10 players found the back of the net.
Having to grind out two games over the weekend was a beneficial experience for the Cats, even though they would admittedly prefer to beat every opponent by a large margin.
“When you’re beating teams by a lot, you can only learn so much,” Nielsen said. “We drew a lot of things out of this (roadtrip) that we can improve on.”
