Once No. 2 Northwestern found out it would be facing No. 3 North Carolina in the NCAA semifinals, two “B” words started coming to mind.
Coach Kelly Amonte Hiller sounded like a general as she said she was preparing her team for “battle.” That preparation involves working hard on the little things in the heat of the moment, such as coming up with ground balls and draw controls.
Senior attacker Danielle Spencer, on the other hand, called the rematch with the Tar Heels a “blessing” for the Wildcats. She said the players hoped they would get another shot at the only opponent to defeat them this season.
NU’s chance comes tonight, when it takes on North Carolina in Towson, Md., with a trip to the National Championship on the line. The trip marks the sixth-straight final four appearance for the Cats.
And this year’s team is hoping it can win another championship for NU like the five squads before them.
“Each year is different and each team is different in the way they mature,” Amonte Hiller said. “This team has really done a great job in the last month in maturing, getting better and getting themselves ready for this moment.”
Slightly more than one month ago, NU lost at home to North Carolina, snapping a 41-game winning streak and 58 straight victories in Evanston. That defeat prompted Amonte Hiller to switch around the Cats’ lineup, by inserting freshmen Erin Fitzgerald and Amanda Macaluso into starting roles.
Playing in their first NCAA tournament, Fitzgerald and Macaluso look more like veterans. Macaluso notched a hat trick against No. 5 Duke, while Fitzgerald scored four against the Blue Devils and three in the first round matchup with No. 14 Notre Dame.
“Erin Fitzgerald has really blossomed,” Amonte Hiller said. “She’s been an unbelievable example for the other players on our team in terms of hard work and dedication and what it takes to be the best.”
The freshmen’s play has supplemented the output of NU’s traditional three attackers. Spencer, senior attacker Katrina Dowd and sophomore attacker Shannon Smith scored 11 combined goals against Notre Dame and 10 in the win over Duke.
Dowd torched the Tar Heels during the regular season, pouring in seven of the Cats’ 16 goals. Meanwhile, North Carolina held Smith to two scores and did not allow Spencer to find the back of the net at all during the contest.
With the shakeup to the starting lineup, Amonte Hiller said her team is gelling both on offense and defense. Spencer said the team is currently playing its best lacrosse of the season but still has room to grow.
“We’re peaking at the right time and we’re improving daily,” Spencer said. “We have another opportunity to do even better than we did against Duke. That’s the challenge we’ve set for ourselves and the goal that we have.”
If tonight’s NCAA semifinal is anything like last year’s, it will go down as an instant classic. The 2009 NU squad defeated Pennsylvania 13-12 in double overtime in last season’s final four match behind Meredith Frank’s game-winning goal in the second overtime period and Dowd’s game-tying, over-the-shoulder diving score with less than one second left in the first overtime.
Though this year’s squad generally avoids comparing itself to its predecessors, Dowd also used a third “B” word to describe how she wants to finish her NU career-as the “best.”
“It’s been the legacy of all the seniors I’ve played with, from freshman year to now, that they’ve left with this trophy,” Dowd said. “I don’t want to be any different. They’re who I modeled myself after and who taught me most of the stuff I know. I know our senior class is no different-this was what we’ve been looking at all year, to make it to the final four and get the job done.” [email protected]
