Time of possession isn’t an official statistic in women’s lacrosse, but if it were, Northwestern would have dominated the category Thursday at Lakeside Field.

The Wildcats (9-3, 3-1 ALC) controlled the ball, and the lead, for most of their game against the Vanderbilt Commodores (4-9, 1-3) and cruised to a 15-9 victory.

“Any time you get a win against an ALC team, it’s great,” coach Kelly Amonte Hiller said. “We know that (Vanderbilt) is a very good team, and any given day they can be a great threat, so we’re excited about the win.”

NU began the game in typical fashion, holding the ball for nearly five minutes in a methodical offensive possession. It concluded when senior midfielder Kat DeRonda buried a free position shot behind Vanderbilt goalkeeper Maddie Kratz for the opening scorer.

The match went back and forth for the next 15 minutes, with the Cats’ aggressive defense consistently thwarting Commodores possessions, despite ceding a couple of goals.

In the final eight minutes of the first half, NU picked up its pace and piled on five goals from four different players to take an 8-4 lead into halftime. Indicative of their controlling offense, the Cats had 17 first half shots to the Commodores’ five.

The second half proceeded much like the first, with NU continuing to light up the scoreboard while milking the clock down to the final buzzer.

In what was an unusually productive day for the offense, the Cats netted a hat trick of hat tricks, with DeRonda tallying four scores and senior attacker Alyssa Leonard and sophomore midfielder Kaleigh Craig each recording three.

DeRonda now has 11 goals in her last three games, pushing her season total to a career-high 22.

“She’s focused,” Amonte Hiller said. “She’s starting to play smart and play focused and utilize her strengths and play off of the other players and their strengths.”

Much of the team’s offensive success came from a varied pace, with the Cats occasionally breaking from their metered cadence to slash to the net for a quick score.

“You can tell when the defense has had a long run back,” senior midfielder Kate Macdonald said. “It just depends on how long we’ve had the ball on defense and if our midfielders need a break.”

Amonte Hiller, on the other hand, stressed the tactics of such an approach.

“We have to play smart and wear teams down,” she said, “And we have to start that with possession and winning draw controls and then take advantage of the opportunities we have.”

In goal, star junior Bridget Bianco had little work to do behind the Cats’ stifling defense, making six saves.

NU has now beaten Vanderbilt in every meeting between the teams since 2005. With the Cats exiting the American Lacrosse Conference next season and joining the newly forming Big Ten women’s lacrosse conference, this may be the last time the two teams play for quite a while.

There are two games left on the regular season schedule for NU at Lakeside Field — against No. 13 John Hopkins on Sunday and No. 4 Florida on April 19 — before the much anticipated season finale against USC at Wrigley Field.

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