If first impressions were everything, Hannah Nielsen would be trying to lead another team to a national championship right now. Thankfully for Nielsen and Northwestern, coach Kelly Amonte Hiller doesn’t hold grudges.
During the 2005 World Cup of lacrosse, Nielsen was representing her home country of Australia, trying to capture the gold medal by knocking off Team USA.
The star of that team was Amonte Hiller, and Nielsen was supposed to make it as difficult as possible for her to win the draw. One time, Nielsen made it a little too difficult.
“My job was to be on the circle and just crash her in the center draw when she drew the ball to herself,” Nielsen said. “I did my job and kind of went about it too aggressively and knocked her on the head and got a yellow card.”
At the time, Amonte Hiller was in the preliminary stages of recruiting Nielsen. The two had been in contact by e-mail, but until the World Cup, they had never met.
“I only knew of Kelly as one of the best players who had ever played lacrosse,” said Nielsen, the youngest player on the Australian team. “I was pretty nervous to even play against her in the first place.”
Nielsen did not think about the ramifications of bashing her potential coach on the head – her main objective was not to impress Amonte Hiller, but to beat her. Nielsen and her fellow comrades eventually did so by a score of 14-7, and the incident ended up having no effect on the recruiting process. While other players chide Nielsen about her first encounter with Amonte Hiller, the two still have not spoken about it.
Four years later, Nielsen has the Wildcats on track to win their fifth straight national title under Amonte Hiller’s guidance, with a quarterfinals game against Princeton looming this Saturday.
Nielsen came to NU as a midfielder, but Amonte Hiller converted her into an attacker after one year. Since then, Nielsen has scored 50-plus goals and dished out 60 or more helpers every season, proving to be one of the nation’s best scorers in addition to setting multiple assist records.
One of the downsides of the switch is Nielsen does not get to show off her defensive skills as often.
“She’s actually one of our better defenders,” Amonte Hiller said. “She doesn’t play defense that much but she has that talent as well. She’s really multi-dimensional.”
In her four years in Evanston, Nielsen said she believes she has completely changed as a player. In addition to her position, she has revamped her shooting and dodging techniques, and learned to be a leader.
Nielsen also has helped her teammates in their development. Junior attacker Danielle Spencer has blossomed into a top threat under Nielsen’s guidance.
“She’s just been an absolute mentor for me,” Spencer said. “She’s always been willing to work with me and she’s helped me improve my game all over the field.”
Perhaps most importantly are the lessons Nielsen has learned off the field. She has become more self-reliant because her parents live on a different continent.
“Everything I have to deal with over here, I have to handle myself,” Nielsen said. “I’ve just learnt so much about dealing with everyday struggles of being frustrated with lacrosse, frustrated with anything. I think I’m a more independent person from being over here.”
When they can, Nielsen’s parents fly to the United States to watch their daughter play.
“I love it when they get to come out, even though it’s only for a few weeks,” Nielsen said. “I’m just glad that they can see some of the games rather than watching it on a little computer screen at two in the morning.”
Nielsen’s mom has been in the stands for each of the past three national championship games, but her dad has yet to see one. Because both of Nielsen’s parents are scheduled to be here until the end of May, that might change this year if the Cats can continue their winning ways.
It would be a special way to wrap up a special career.
“I felt bad for my dad,” Nielsen said. “He had to go home around playoff time every year since I started. I’d love to be able to win again this year so he’d be able to witness it. But obviously we’re a long way from that yet.”
