During No. 19 Northwestern’s victory over Yale in September, the team found an unlikely hero.
Sophomore Kaylee Pohlmeyer scored the first goal of her career to clinch the win for the Wildcats in the sudden-death overtime period, to sink the Bulldogs.
Throughout the season, Pohlmeyer has proven that the goal was not a fluke. The midfielder is NU’s fourth-leading scorer, having found the back of the net seven times this year.
“She’s really an offensive powerhouse,” senior forward Courtney Plaster-Strange said. “She’s really strong over the ball. She keeps going after the ball, and she doesn’t stop until it’s in the cage.”
Pohlmeyer has had more opportunities to score this year after she changed positions in the offseason. The former defensive fullback now spends the majority of her time as a midfielder.
Depending on the opponent and the situation, Pohlmeyer rotates between center midfielder and outside midfielder.
“When I’m playing center mid, I am definitely thinking more defensively,” Pohlmeyer said. “But when I’m playing left mid or right mid, I feel like I have an offensive mindset. We all want to score goals. We want to get the ball up there and keep it up there, so we have gotten a lot more opportunities to score.”
Pohlmeyer’s versatility has been an asset for the Cats. If NU (12-5, 1-3 Big Ten) is ahead and needs to protect its lead, she gives the team a shutdown defender it can put on the other team’s best offensive player.
Pohlmeyer earned the nickname “Bulldog” because of her aggressive approach – an approach that is helping the team’s midfield defense.
“Her strength is definitely her ability to break the play up one way or another,” coach Tracey Fuchs said. “We call her ‘Bulldog,’ because she runs through anything. She goes hard after every ball, and she’s our best defending midfielder, so if there’s a team that has a strong midfielder, we’ll usually match her up against them to try to eliminate that player from the game as well.”
And if the Cats are behind and need a goal, Pohlmeyer can help lead the attack from the outside. With two games remaining on its regular season schedule, NU is six goals away from breaking the school record for goals scored in a single season, and Pohlmeyer’s emergence has been a big part of the team’s success.
The team will look to continue its offensive firepower today against Iowa. NU hasn’t beaten Iowa (5-8, 2-3) since 2004.
The Hawkeyes have had trouble finding the back of the net recently, scoring one goal in their past three games. But Iowa is coming off a victory over Penn State, which is the only conference team NU has beaten this season.
This weekend’s contest will be important in determining seeding for the Big Ten Tournament. With a win, NU would jump over Iowa in the conference standings and secure itself a better seed.
After a 2-1 loss to Indiana on Saturday, NU will be trying to build momentum for a run in the conference tournament. To do that, the team will need to focus on playing its style of field hockey.
“Against Indiana, we fell into a little bit of trouble,” Pohlmeyer said. “We played such an offensive game, but we weren’t getting the ball inside the circle enough. As long as we’re playing our game and sticking to our game plan, then I think we should win this one.”
