On a foggy Saturday at Lakeside Field, No. 2 Northwestern sent a crystal clear message to No. 5 Duke: You can’t win if you don’t get the ball.
The Wildcats dominated draw controls 14-2 in the first half of their 18-8 NCAA quarterfinal victory over the Blue Devils. That advantage in the first period was nearly identical to the scoring discrepancy, as NU had a 13-2 lead heading into intermission.
Even for the Cats, who are adamant about their emphasis on the draw, the 14-2 ratio is the best in a half all season. Senior attacker Danielle Spencer, who takes most of the draws for NU, said it was a team effort to scoop up every loose ball off the faceoff.
“In the first half, we were successful because we were going in twos and threes for these ground balls on the draws, we were boxing out, and we were just relentless,” Spencer said. “We weren’t giving up until we had the ball in our stick safely. That’s what gave us success.”
Spencer had four draw controls in the game, and the remaining 14 were distributed evenly across the NU attackers and midfielders. Eight other players registered a draw control, with sophomore Alex Frank, who also stepped into the circle a few times, leading the way with three.
Spencer usually has a size advantage when she faces off with her counterpart from the other team. Against Duke, she only had a couple inches on sophomore Kat Thomas. Duke coach Kerstin Kimel called Thomas “pretty darn good” at draw controls, but NU just played better.
Like the Cats, the Blue Devils tried to get the entire team involved in the scrum on draw controls, hoping to come away with possession. Unfortunately for Duke, NU had the same idea, and often maintained possession long enough to force the Blue Devils into penalties.
“Spencer is really good at winning it to herself, and when she wins it to herself, she wins it to her backside, and the only way to get it is to go over her back, which is a foul,” Thomas said. “So as a team, we made a goal to crash to ball. Maybe the first draw we started to crash to ball, but after that we started to steer away from that.”
Without possession, Duke played on the defensive throughout most of the first half, resulting in a tired defense. Meanwhile, NU’s offense gave its defense an opportunity to remain fresh. It showed, as sophomore goalie Brianne LoManto allowed two goals while gathering five saves in the opening period.
LoManto credited the entire team for her strong performance: the defense for forcing the Blue Devils into tough shots, the coaches for the gameplan, and the offense for capitalizing on her stops.
“The defense really executed our gameplan-some of the shots they were giving were really low-angled, so it was making it easier for me to make the save,” LoManto said. “And if I was able to make a save, then they would capitalize on that and bring it down to the other end of the field. So it wasn’t for nothing, we were able to execute.”
With NU winning every draw, Duke’s defense was put in a tough spot and got trapped in a cycle of giving up consecutive goals due to fatigue. Kimel said the team was caught off-guard by the Cats immediate outburst, and needed to recoup at intermission.
“Especially on their home field, you’re going to get Northwestern’s very best shot, and they came out all guns firing today, and we got caught on our heels really quick,” Kimel said. “Our defense has struggled at times, but to go down 10-0 out of the gate was a tough pill to swallow at halftime.”
