After one of the most exciting and unpredictable years in the history of Northwestern sports, The Daily is counting down the top five games from 2009-10. Every day this week we’ll recap a different game, ending with the top contest of the year Friday.You could see the bitter disappointment in the players’ faces as they walked off Lakeside Field on April 18. No. 1 Northwestern had been stunned by No. 2 North Carolina, as the Tar Heels won, 18-16, shattering the Wildcats’ streaks of 41 consecutive wins and 58 victories in a row at home.
The loss marked the low point in NU’s season-senior attacker Danielle Spencer said at the time, “It sucks, and I know we can do better than this.” The missed opportunity ultimately cost the Cats a chance at the top seed in the NCAA tournament.
Should NU win twice this weekend and again reach the pinnacle of success, claiming its sixth straight National Championship, it may look back on when the team hit rock bottom as the turning point to make it to the top.
“I don’t necessarily think you have to lose to be able to be a good team, but we’ve lost now so we have to learn from it,” coach Kelly Amonte Hiller said following the April 18 loss. “We have to start working harder and being able to do the things we need to do to come up with those plays. That has not been the trend in our practice setting.”
Fast forward to Saturday’s win over Duke, and Amonte Hiller’s opinion was flipped on its head. As the Cats prepare for a rematch with the Tar Heels at the end of the week, the work ethic from her team since the loss has proven the young squad is committed to winning.
“We’ve gotten better and better, and that’s been a struggle for us throughout the year,” Amonte Hiller said. “My frustration is we weren’t getting better, and after our loss, the switch clicked and people on the team really committed to getting better and since then we’ve gotten better every single game. Right now we’ve got a lot of confidence, we’re in a good position to step onto the field and do what we can potential-wise.”
Sophomore goalie Brianne LoManto allowed 18 goals in the first meeting between NU and North Carolina-the most given up by an NU team coached by Amonte Hiller. She said following Saturday’s win the defense is playing at its highest level of the season, holding Duke to eight goals, as opposed to the 14 scores it gave up in the regular season.
LoManto said she is excited to get a second chance at the Tar Heels’ offense. Spencer is equally as excited to improve upon her first meeting with North Carolina, when she did not score.
“We were riding the wave at that point and we thought that we could get by with being good,” Spencer said Saturday. “Because up to that point in the season, that’s all we had really been in our games. We’d been good and we were able to beat some teams, but if you play good against North Carolina, you’re not going to win.”
After the North Carolina loss, senior attacker Katrina Dowd, who poured in seven goals in the losing effort, said, “We have to let this fuel us, and we can’t forget this easily.”
Now the Cats are packing their bags for Towson, Md., and need to sustain that drive for one more weekend. If NU can cruise through the final four like it has the previous five seasons, the Cats can look back and thank the Tar Heels for providing the spark they needed to jumpstart their quest for a sixth national title.
