Coach Tracey Fuchs is no stranger to winning championships.
In fact, she won three Big Ten titles as an assistant coach at Michigan. She also won an NCAA Championship while playing for Connecticut during her college years. But she’s never made it that far wearing purple before.
This weekend, she has a chance to change that.
This weekend, Fuchs leads the No. 8 Wildcats (16-2, 4-1 Big Ten) to Iowa City, Iowa, on the hunt for their first regular-season conference title under Fuchs. The team hopes to improve to 5-1 in the Big Ten with a win against No. 12 Iowa (12-4, 3-1) on Sunday.
No. 5 Penn State (14-3, 4-1), also sitting at 4-1 in Big Ten play, takes on No. 14 Michigan Saturday. Regardless of that result, a win against Iowa will guarantee NU at least a split of the regular season title.
“Every game we play in the Big Ten is a huge game,” Fuchs said. “But this is going to be a battle.”
Fuchs said the rivalry between NU and Iowa has been around since the 1990s. It has fallen off in recent years, but there is little doubt each team will feel especially motivated come Sunday.
Fuchs also noted the game will be Iowa’s Senior Day. NU’s seniors already experienced the emotions of their final home match in a 6-0 win over Missouri State this past Sunday.
Seniors Chelsea Armstrong, Kaylee Pohlmeyer, Amanda Wirth, Colleen Petronchak and Shannon Disbrow make up a special group of graduates for Fuchs – who also finishes her fourth year in the program here at NU at the end of their 2012 season.
“This is the first class we’ve been together the entire four years,” Fuchs said. “We’re really seeing our long term goals coming true here.”
Those goals include and perhaps even revolve around winning the Big Ten Championship, something that is definitely in reach for the first time in recent program history.
When Fuchs first signed on to coach the Cats in 2009, the program lacked the impressive wealth of wins or consistency that has since been established.
“Basically, we knew it was going to take a few years before we could really vie for the Big Ten championship,” Fuchs said about her inaugural group. “We have that chance on Sunday.”
The Cats face off against a team that will have just finished competing against Michigan – a cause for either fatigue or momentum, depending on the result. The Cats more than familiar with the concept of momentum, as they head into this contest with an eight-game winning streak.
Fuchs believes the key to tacking on another win lies in consistency. She has praised the 2012 roster using that same attribute throughout this season, especially in terms of leadership.
“We have a ‘leaderful’ team,” she said. “It’s not one person anymore. It’s a big group of leaders.”
One such leader, Armstrong, stands out. In her senior season, Armstrong leads the nation in goals scored this season and recently surpassed the historic 100th goal of her career. The feat put her in the company of only two others in Big Ten history who have reached that mark. It also earned her Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week honors for the 14th time in her career.
Fuchs finds such performances to be constant reminders of the direction NU’s field hockey program is going in.
“We’ve rebuilt this program from the ground up,” she said.
This weekend is a chance to solidify that progress. Fuchs has seen plenty of success in her career, yet minces no words when looking forward to Sunday’s contest.
“We’ve been taking one game at a time to get to this point,” she said. “Hopefully we’ll be traveling home (Sunday) with a trophy.”
