Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

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Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

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Lacrosse: Danielle Spencer sets sights on sixth straight title

Year after year, new leaders have stepped up to take charge of Northwestern’s women’s lacrosse team and continue its unprecedented success-five national titles in five years.

Now it’s senior attacker Danielle Spencer’s time to shine. Spencer has contributed to the Wildcats’ last three championships and won’t accept anything less than winning one more to conclude her NU career.

“It’s all that matters to me,” Spencer said. “Northwestern, my education, I really value all that, but the reason I came here is to win a national championship-and not just one year. I want to be the best player I can be and I want our team to be the best it can be. I’m not going to be satisfied if we end up with anything less (than a national championship). I’m really not.”

That’s who Spencer is. She has a big body. She has a bigger game. She has the biggest goal.

At 6-foot-2, she’s among the tallest in the nation and the tallest player on the Cats’ roster by five inches.

Standing next to fellow senior attacker Katrina Dowd, who is 5-foot-4, Spencer’s height is further magnified. “It was everyone’s impression,” Dowd said of when she first met Spencer. “You look at her and you’re like ‘You playing the right sport? Volleyball? Basketball?’ But she went the smart route-she uses that size in a unique way that not many lacrosse players are used to.”

With 166 goals and 37 assists so far at NU, Spencer has established herself as one of the best to ever go through the lacrosse program.

Spencer put her talents on display earlier this season on the road against Syracuse, where top-ranked NU was facing its toughest challenge of the season, trailing by a score seven minutes into the second half. A loss would have ended the Cats’ bid at an undefeated season and snapped their winning streak at 34.

Spencer took it upon herself to make sure that did not happen. She tallied NU’s next three goals, putting the Cats in control 12-11. NU ultimately won the game 13-12 behind Spencer’s six scores.

Though Spencer seems like a natural at the game, she only started playing when it was forced upon her by Rich Curtis, the varsity coach at Brighton High School in New York.

“In seventh grade he even got me a stick to start playing, and I didn’t want any of it,” Spencer said. “I was playing field hockey, I was doing track and travel soccer, and just wasn’t really interested.”

When she finally agreed to give lacrosse a shot in eighth grade, Curtis assigned a freshman named Hilary Bowen to give Spencer a rundown on lacrosse fundamentals. Little did either of them know this interaction would be the start of a friendship that would last from high school to college and beyond.

And little did either of them know that would start the revolving door of star lacrosse players to lead NU to national title after national title.

THE ‘ODD COUPLE’

Spencer is among the most prolific scorers in NU history, but she has a ways to go to surpass her best friend. Bowen concluded her NU career last season with 219 goals and 80 assists, third and fifth all-time, respectively. A more important number is four-how many national championships the Cats won when Bowen was in Evanston.

In hindsight Bowen looked like a genius, since she committed to NU the summer before it won its first national championship. While Bowen was exploring all options, Spencer narrowly focused on the top teams at the time. “I remember her having on the backburner this school Northwestern,” Spencer said. “I had never even heard of Northwestern before.”As Bowen went through the recruiting process during her junior year, Spencer tagged along and observed the various schools interested in Bowen. Then one day, Kelly Amonte Hiller came to Bowen’s house, and she instantly made her choice.

One year later it was Spencer’s turn to play at NU’s summer camp and receive a house visit from Amonte Hiller. The duo had fantasized about going to college and playing lacrosse together, and with Bowen declaring NU, it seemed Spencer would surely follow suit. She picked NU without visiting any other schools but insisted Bowen was not the only factor in her choice.

“She was recruiting me without even doing it intentionally,” Spencer said. “Through Hilary, I had been learning about the school and researching it for a year. So when it came time to make my decision I already knew I wanted to go to Northwestern.”

Spencer and Bowen earned the nickname “The Odd Couple” because of the 10-inch height difference between the inseparable friends. Bowen, unlike the rest of NU, saw Spencer grow from a 5-foot-7 high school freshman into the 6-foot-2 presence she is today. During Spencer’s physical growth her friendship with Bowen also grew, with the two developing traditions and lasting memories along the way.

This season, Spencer is without the comfort of having her best friend on campus with her. She got used to playing without Bowen during the second half of last season when Bowen tore her ACL, but the off-the-field adjustment has been more challenging. The two communicate almost daily via text message and call when possible.

Spencer has filled the void Bowen left by replicating her approach to lacrosse. Taking what she learned from her mentor, Spencer has made a more concentrated effort to remain poised and confident during games, while also distributing the ball to make her teammates look good.

“She was always my idol, even though I was bigger than her,” Spencer said. “She was always someone I looked up to and someone I wanted to play like.”

Together, Spencer and Bowen may be the most accomplished pair of high school and college teammates in the history of lacrosse. Brighton is a highly successful high school lacrosse program, winning 11 sectional titles and two state championships in the past 12 years. And during their three years together in Evanston, the Cats had more national championships (three) than games lost (two).

That string of dominance all started when a high school freshman was told to convert an eighth-grade soccer player into a lacrosse player in a gymnasium basement.

“It’s one thing to be successful in high school. It’s one thing to be successful in college. But to be able to do all that with your best friend by your side at the same time is just an unbelievable experience,” Bowen said. “It’s something I’ll remember forever, and it’s something I’m sure we’ll reminisce about forever. Because it’s hard to top the story we’ve had together.”

SIZE DOES MATTER

Spencer’s story seems perfect on the surface, but she suffered several setbacks in getting to where she is today. She considers growing to 6-foot-2 both a blessing and a curse. As a 5-foot-7 high school player she stuck to the midfield, yet once she shot up in height she was permanently assigned to the attack.

Her rapid growth caused more problems than just switching positions. At the end of her senior year in high school, Spencer suffered an avulsion fracture, which put her on crutches for two weeks and then impeded her from working out for two additional months. The injury is common in young athletes who are still growing, since their strong muscles are pulling on not fully formed bones.

This left Spencer at a disadvantage heading into her freshman year at NU. Bowen referred to Spencer at that time as a “string bean.” Former teammate Hannah Nielsen described her as “tall and lanky.” Spencer remembered scoring at will at the high school level, then coming to NU and everyone being faster and more physical than her.

“Every time I got the ball, Christy Finch checked the ball out of my stick-every time,” Spencer said, referring to the former standout NU defender. “I hadn’t really been lifting weights, I hadn’t played at that level. The change for me my freshman year was huge.”

After spending the first several games on the bench, Spencer knew she was not where she wanted to be. She persevered on the field and pushed herself to earn play
ing time. Sure enough, by season’s end she constantly found her way into games, including all six NCAA tournament contests.

Through her experience as Spencer’s teammate and now as an assistant coach at Penn State, Nielsen appreciates how much more difficult Spencer is to defend as a senior than the days when she could not hold onto the ball.

“She’s developed into such a strong and athletic player,” Nielsen said. “Since her freshman year, she’s learned a ton. She’s soaked up all that Kelly has taught her and has improved her game and taken it to the next level.”

Spencer’s height and strength are only part of what make her a tough player to defend. If defenders try to step in and take a charge, she uses her quick first step and cutting ability. Dowd said having Spencer slashing and putting her stick above the rest makes it easy to pinpoint passes and set up easy scores.

Sounds like the type of player every team would want. Yet with a low supply, only the top programs can get tall athletes. Amonte Hiller knows that first-hand. The tallest player on the 2006 roster-the year after the Cats won their first National Championship-was 5-foot-10.

“When I first got the job here at Northwestern that was the trend: to get all big kids,” Amonte Hiller said. “But we changed that a little bit with having a lot of speed and smaller kids when we won in 2005.”

Fast-forward to the 2010 team. The freshman class features 5-foot-9 Taylor Thornton, 5-foot-9 Alexa deLyra and 5-foot-8 Ali Cassera. Win five national championships, and a program can get the players it wants. Spencer sees the sport potentially evolving into a game of taller players, especially as it becomes a race among the elite teams to keep up with each other.

If lacrosse does turn into a size-based game, Spencer will be the prototype other teams look to emulate. At NU she harnessed her strength and speed to complement her size, making her what Bowen descriped “unstoppable” and “a force to be reckoned with.”

For Amonte Hiller though, physical size is not the primary factor she looks for when recruiting. She has had success with players barely taller than five feet, and said what those players lack in height, they make up in effort.

Of course, a combination of the two doesn’t hurt.

“For me, it’s not about their size, it’s about the size of their heart,” Amonte Hiller said. “Danielle, she has both. She has a really big heart and she’s a big girl. She’s really a winning combination.”

WINNING IS THE ONLY THING

Spencer is not shy about expressing her desire to win and be the best. That’s why she instantly thinks back to NU’s last loss-at Penn in 2008-as when she finally understood what it took to be a part of the Cats’ winning tradition.

In the week leading up to the contest, Amonte Hiller told the attackers to shoot the ball low since the Penn goalie was strong at defending high shots. “And I remember my one shot when we were losing, my one opportunity to make a difference in the game, I shot it high right into her stick,” Spencer said. “After that game I didn’t change much physically, but I did just in the way I thought about practices, everything we do outside of practice, the team and the coaching staff.”

It’s hard for Spencer not to let her passion show. Bowen calls her “the most intense” lacrosse player she has ever met, and Nielsen’s simply said Spencer “wants to be a winner.”

It is more than just striving to win for Spencer-especially now that she is a senior. It is her opportunity to claim her place in NU history with Nielsen and Bowen. It is her chance to prove she can lead the Cats to another championship. It is the only way she can satisfy her competitive spirit to be the best.

She has come to embody one of Vince Lombardi’s most famous quotes: “Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.”[email protected]

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Lacrosse: Danielle Spencer sets sights on sixth straight title