According to Northwestern coach Kelly Amonte Hiller, her team’s defensive resurgence didn’t begin with Saturday’s performance against Albany.
Amonte Hiller said her team has been making strides for a long time, beginning with its 8-4 win at No. 11 Virginia and continuing in the weeks leading up to Saturday’s 18-4 win over the Great Danes.
“We’ve really been working on our communication, working on our aggressiveness,” Amonte Hiller said. “I’m really excited about the momentum the defense has been gaining. It’s been several games. I would say maybe at the start of Virginia is where we started stepping up, and we’ve really carried that performance through.”
That being said, Saturday’s defensive performance stands out as one of the team’s finest of the season, as the Wildcats tied their season-low in goals allowed against a Great Danes team that was averaging 13.56 goals on 27.3 shots per game. On Saturday, Albany recorded just four goals on nine shots, including just two in the second half.
“We have a great group of defenders out there that are leading the midfielders,” Amonte Hiller said. “Our middies coming off the bench are doing a great job of matching up against the other teams’ top middies. When you have good team effort like that, it makes all the difference.”
Albany usually relies on one of the best attacking pairs in the country, in seniors Jodi Battaglia and Taylor Frink, but NU was able to shut down the dynamic duo on Saturday.
Battaglia came in averaging three goals a game, including 13 in her last three contests, but she scored just two against the Cats. Frink entered Lakeside Field as the NCAA leader with 2.72 assists per game, but NU kept her off of the scoreboard on Saturday. With their two leading attackers held under control, the Great Danes were unable to muster a coherent offense.
A key component of NU’s defensive prowess was its ability to put pressure on Albany’s vaunted attack.
“You know our style, we tend to be aggressive anyway,” Amonte Hiller said. “We definitely wanted to put as much pressure on them to see how they would respond, take a lot of chances and see if we could come up with some caused turnovers.”
The Cats have struggled to force turnovers this season, causing just 6.95 turnovers per game, but they caused 11 Saturday.
“They’re a very athletic team, very skilled, very well-coached, and more power to them,” Battaglia said. “We obviously came out a little flat-footed. We were aware we were going to get pressured, but we just didn’t handle it as well as we thought we would be able to.”
The defense made sure it was an easy day for junior goalkeeper Brianne LoManto, who only had to make three saves to earn her 19th victory of the season. LoManto got the final 9:14 off, as she was replaced by backup senior goaltender Darby St. Clair-Barrie.
While Amonte Hiller acknowledged the symbolic nature of St. Clair-Barrie being on the field for her last game at Lakeside Field, she said the best part was how well St. Clair-Barrie and some of her senior teammates played in their last game at the stadium.
“Darby has been a great leader for us this season and some of the other seniors as well, they all got the opportunity to play today, ” Amonte Hiller said. “That’s a great thing for them to be able to go out and play in their last home game and really play well when they were in there. They were very poised. Darby brings so much to this team that goes unsaid. Its definitely a great thing to reward her.”
Ultimately, the defense is peaking at just the right time, especially as NU prepares for a NCAA semifinal matchup with North Carolina. The Cats have already played the Tar Heels once this season, on Feb. 25, and relied on great defense to defeat North Carolina 7-6. Amonte Hiller said her team will need to match that effort if it wants to make the championship game.
“They’ve got weapons all over the field from the midfield to the attack,” Amonte Hiller said. “That game was a long time ago. Both teams are very different. The one thing I would say is our defense played pretty well in that game. It’s going to take another great defensive effort.”
