Duke had the same strategy as other teams No. 1 Northwestern has faced this season-take away the Wildcats’ typical attackers.
NU’s midfielders made No. 5 Duke pay.
Brooke Matthews had a career-high five goals, and sophomores Alexandra Frank and Jessica Russo contributed three and two scores, respectively, to propel NU (9-0) to a 19-14 win over Duke (9-3) on Saturday.
The 10 goals from the trio of midfielders were much needed, as the Blue Devils refused to leave senior attackers Katrina Dowd and Danielle Spencer. Dowd still scored four goals and had a pair of assists, while Spencer chipped in two goals.
“We’ve got extremely talented younger players at midfielder,” Spencer said. “We told some of our less-experienced players, ‘Hey, if they’re not going to slide off of us and give you opportunities, you have to capitalize on those and go to goal.'”
After battling to a 3-3 tie in the middle of the first half, the Cats found the back of the net in a hurry, rattling off six goals in less than six minutes to take a 9-3 lead.
But just like the game against Syracuse, NU allowed Duke back into the contest in the closing minutes of the first half. The Blue Devils scored six of the remaining goals in the period-all by different players.
“Our gameplan (on defense) was solid, we just didn’t execute it as well as we should have,” Matthews said. “They had some other people scoring, but for the most part it was their top players.”
Heading into the contest, freshman defender Taylor Thornton said the Cats’ were planning on shutting down Duke’s Sarah Bullard, Christie Kaestner and Lindsay Gilbride. Yet the trio combined for eight of the Blue Devils’ 14 goals, including four by Gilbride.
“They did a great job and were able to really come up with some great plays,” coach Kelly Amonte Hiller said of the three Duke players. “(Defense) is an area we’re looking to focus in on and tighten up. You don’t want their best players having five, seven points each.”
NU and Duke traded goals to start the second half. Then the Cats went on two separate runs the Blue Devils could not match. With about 25 minutes remaining and NU clinging to a narrow 11-10 lead, Russo scored and sparked a 4-0 run to give the Cats a cushion. Duke burried a goal, but another 4-0 run-this time prompted by Matthews with 13 minutes to go-put NU in control, 19-11.
Still, the Cats allowed the Blue Devils to score the final three tallies of the game. Amonte Hiller has repeated the need to consistently play well, especially with the lead, and with NU’s easing up toward the end of each half, the Cats are still looking to improve.
“We need to make sure we’re focused the whole time, keeping up our energy and intensity at all times and making sure we don’t have those lapses to play a full 60 minutes,” Matthews said.
Matthews took advantage of Duke’s resilience to leave NU’s top scorers, especially on fastbreaks. She is one of the fastest players on the team, and said she looked to push it out of transition when the opportunity presented itself.
Though Matthews was highly efficient-connecting on five of her six shot attempts-Spencer said the team needs to take better care of the ball, both in terms of turnovers and getting the best looks on goal.
“We have to do a better job on offense of recognizing when we can go for shots and look to score and when we should possess the ball and give our defense a rest,” Spencer said. “This game was a good learning experience.”
Spencer also cited draw controls as a factor in allowing the Blue Devils back into the game. NU recovered 20 draw controls while Duke picked up 14. Not a bad ratio, but one that could be improved, especially if the Cats want to avoid late-half runs by their opponents.
“We were doing pretty well on the draw, and as soon as we started losing the draw, Duke started scoring goals,” Spencer said. “Great teams are going to be able to score goals, and it’s a matter of winning those 50-50 balls on ground balls and the draw controls.”
NU may have topped the fifth-ranked team in the nation, but the path does not get easier. Up next is a grueling weekend in the Keystone State against No. 6 Pennsylvania and No. 16 Penn State.
There the Cats hope they can finally find the elusive complete game of “Northwestern lacrosse.”
“We had moments where we were great and moments where we were not so good,” Spencer said. “That’s been the pattern so far in our games, and we’re getting better. But we still have yet to have a full 60 minutes of lacrosse. Down the road we can’t let that happen.”[email protected]
