Massachusetts coach Alexis Venechanos knew she would have to pull out all the stops to have a chance of beating the top team in the nation.
Despite faceguarding leading scorers Hannah Nielsen and Hilary Bowen throughout the game, her squad had been walloped at home earlier in the season by Northwestern.
From the first whistle, Venechanos tried to throw the Wildcats off their game by sending senior Meghan Reddy out to take the opening draw with a wooden stick.
“We wanted to do something they had never seen before,” Venechanos said “I didn’t know where the ball was going to go, but I also know they didn’t know where the ball was going. In the past, even though we knew where it was going, we couldn’t stop them.”
The Minutewomen (11-8) had a few chances at loose balls at the start, but ultimately the risk did not pay off. NU cruised into the NCAA quarterfinals with a 23-6 victory, paced by junior attacker Katrina Dowd’s career-high seven goals.
By the end of the regular season, the Cats’ brutal schedule seemed like it was starting to take its toll. NU (20-0) played seven games in 21 days starting on April 12 – with six of those contests coming against ranked teams. Not once did the Cats score 20 goals during that stretch after doing so eight times in their first 12 games.
Having seven days after the American Lacrosse Conference tournament final to recharge for the Minutewomen proved to be beneficial. NU’s last weeklong break was following its win over California in which Bowen tore her left ACL.
“This is the first time in a while we had a full week to practice and prepare, which was a real advantage for us,” coach Kelly Amonte Hiller said. “We wanted to amp up our transition a little bit, get that quickness back.”
The Cats showcased their quick-strike ability, scoring less than half of a minute into the game and four times during an 85-second stretch shortly thereafter to take a 5-1 lead.
The edge could have been even bigger if Massachusetts goalie Katie Florence had not come up with four tough high stops on shots from point-blank range. The freshman finished her first NCAA tournament game with 15 saves, four more than she had against NU in March.
“She played great,” Dowd said. “It’s a good lesson that you can’t let a goalie get hot in the first couple of minutes, or else we’re going to be dealing with that the whole game.”
Once the Cats adjusted and started putting away their shots down low, they were able to run away from the Minutewomen. Eight straight goals in the middle of the half gave NU a 14-3 advantage, which became a 16-5 lead at intermission.
Massachusetts demonstrated an ability to score when it had the ball, beating senior goalie Morgan Lathrop on five of eight shots on goal before the break. The problem was obtaining possession: The Minutewomen lost eight of the first nine draws, and controlled about a quarter of them for the game.
“It started with the draw,” Venechanos said. “We knew going into the game the draw was going to be huge, and we couldn’t get the ball from the beginning. When you’re playing catch-up against a team that’s talented, it takes a lot of energy.”
Venechanos’ team was overwhelmed by NU’s wealth of offensive options. Senior All-Atlantic 10 first-team defender Jackie Rosenzweig faceguarded junior attacker Danielle Spencer throughout the contest, holding her to no goals and one assist.
But other players stepped up instead. Senior midfielder Mary Kate Casey had a hat trick in the first half alone, surpassing her previous single-game mark of two goals. Ten different players scored for the Cats, whose first 28 shots were all on goal in an impressive display of accuracy.
“Even without Hilary Bowen, they have a lot of threats,” Rosenzweig said. “Even shutting down one, we’ve got to shut down six other people. It’s tough.”
Amonte Hiller also got a little creative against her former assistant. Late in the first half, she called in a play with Nielsen behind the net that bunched the other attackers on the left side of the net, like an isolation play in basketball.
Freshman defender Lacey Vigmostad sprinted from outside the offensive zone on the right, reached up for Nielsen’s pass, and fired it into the back of the net for her second goal of the season.
“If people are going to faceguard us, like with Danielle today, we were ready for anything,” Amonte Hiller said. “I was pleased how well the girls made the adjustments – we sent the message in, and they really executed well.”
