Northwestern dropped both games on its weekend road trip to Michigan in heartbreaking fashion, losing to No. 12 Michigan 4-3 in overtime on Friday and No. 7 Michigan State 2-1 on Sunday.
NU (10-6, 2-1 Big Ten) played against the Spartans (12-4, 1-3 Big Ten) without sophomore forward Chelsea Armstrong, the team leader in points and goals. Coach Tracey Fuchs said Armstrong sustained an injury at the end of Friday’s game, but she’ll be ready to play next week.
“We had a lot of people step up without Chelsea today, ” Fuchs said. “We hung in there with a top-10 team without the Big Ten’s leading scorer and a team leader.”
On Friday, the Wildcats and Wolverines (10-5, 4-0) traded goals in the first five minutes of play, as senior forward Marnie Robbins scored three minutes into the game. Michigan quickly evened the score a minute later as forward Rachael Mack scored her first of three goals of the day.
“We knew we needed to pull it together and score again,” Robbins said.
Mack scored her second goal 20 minutes later, but Robbins was up to the task, deflecting home a shot by freshman forward Nikki Parsley four minutes later to tie the game. Paige Laytos added the third Michigan goal with 20 minutes to play, but Robbins sent the game to overtime with her career-high third goal of the game, becoming the second NU player to score a hat trick this season.
Eleven minutes into the extra session, Mack scored her third goal off a loose rebound, sewing up the game for Michigan.
Michigan bombarded sophomore goalie Amanda Wirth with 20 shots in the game, including 10 in the first half, though only nine shots made it on goal. NU had nine shots the entire game with seven on goal.
The Cats moved on to East Lansing on Sunday to face Michigan State, but the game did not count in the Big Ten standings because teams are allowed only six in-conference matchups. The Spartans’ visit to Evanston on Halloween for NU’s regular season finale will be the teams’ official Big Ten game.
Once again, the Cats had their hearts broken as midfielder Amanda Huck deflected a cross from forward Jantine Steinmetz over Wirth’s shoulder with two minutes left in regulation, giving the Spartans a 2-1 victory.
NU started the game strong and took a 1-0 lead on a goal by junior midfielder Kaylee Pohlmeyer, her second of the season. The goal came off a rebound from NU’s only penalty corner of the half.
The Cats had the lead at the half, but could not muster much on offense, putting up only two shots in the first half compared to Michigan State’s eight first-half shots.
“Michigan State forced us to play a lot of defense, but we capitalized on our opportunity in the circle,” Pohlmeyer said.
The Spartans tied it up seven minutes into the half on a goal by midfielder Kristen Henn, who deflected a Steinmetz cross past Wirth. Fuchs pulled Wirth for an extra attacker after the Spartans took the lead, but the added offense fell short for the Cats.
Up next for NU is a trip next Sunday to Iowa City to face the Hawkeyes, who are winless in four Big Ten contests and 3-10 on the season overall.
