Sophomore forward Ashley Sessa sent an attacking penalty corner into the circle just over two minutes into overtime Sunday as No. 2 Northwestern stood deadlocked with Virginia 2-2.
Senior midfielder Maddie Zimmer corralled the ball with a stick-stop before graduate student midfielder Lauren Wadas took control and fired a hit that found the back of the net. Immediately after, their teammates ran over to mob the midfielders as celebrations ensued.
“I kept telling Maddie today, ‘Go a little bit right, go a little bit right, a little bit more.’ I wanted her exactly where I wanted it,” Wadas said. “I knew in my head it was going to go to the post side.”
Wadas secured a 3-2 win for the Wildcats (21-1, 8-0 Big Ten) and a trip to Ann Arbor, Michigan, for the Final Four.
It will be NU’s fourth appearance in the NCAA semifinals in as many years.
“So incredibly proud of our resilience, our relentlessness and how we just fought as a team, not just today –– all weekend, all season,” NU coach Tracey Fuchs said. “I couldn’t be more proud as a coach.”
Sunday’s contest, played at Lakeside Field on an uncharacteristically warm mid-November day, was a back-and-forth affair.
The Cavaliers’ (14-5, 6-2 ACC) backline proved a tough nut to crack for the ’Cats’ usually high-powered offense, which only logged four shots in the first half. Virginia, a defensive-minded team, utilized its strong shot-stopping core to reach the NCAA quarterfinal.
Fuchs said playing similarly-minded teams like Michigan State and Rutgers during the regular season prepared her squad for Sunday’s contest.
“That was an area early in the season that we needed to get better at,” Fuchs said. “And we really did grow and get better.”
The Cavaliers struck first in the contest after earning a penalty corner with two minutes left in the first half. Virginia’s Jans Croon found Suze Leemans, who pushed a sweep by NU’s graduate student goalkeeper Annabel Skubisz to take a 1-0 lead, which carried into halftime.
In the halftime huddle, Fuchs told her team to keep pushing for chances. The message was received.
Ninety seconds into the second half, Zimmer found graduate student back Katie Jones in the shooting circle. Jones’s centering stroke was redirected by freshman midfielder Elaine Velthuizen past Cavaliers goalkeeper Nilou Lempers, equalizing the contest.
“She just brings so much to the team, on and off the field,” Zimmer said of Velthuizen. “She’s really grown into how we play hockey here. … I think she’s starting to finally find her stride and she’s putting in those goals and, you know, there’s no better time to do it.”
With five minutes left in the third frame, Sessa readied for an attacking penalty corner as NU held a player-up advantage thanks to a Virginia green card. Sessa sent the ball into the circle before floating around the near post. Junior midfielder Greta Hinke made a stick stop and sent a sweep toward net.
Sessa, wide open at the near post, deflected the shot past Lempers and put NU up 2-1. But Virginia didn’t go down without a fight.
One minute into the fourth quarter, Virginia’s Dani Mendez-Trendler took a penalty corner. After a Cavaliers shot and ensuing save by Skubisz, Mendez-Trendler collected the rebound and fired on open goal to knot the contest at 2-2.
NU, and the sizable crowd in attendance at Lakeside Field, thought sophomore forward Olivia Bent-Cole scored the go-ahead goal with seven minutes remaining in the final period of regulation. But after an official review took a few minutes, the goal was waved off.
Sophomore back Ilse Tromp made some huge plays defensively down the stretch, and the two teams ventured to an overtime period.
The ’Cats earned two penalty corners in the overtime period. The second, and ninth attacking penalty corner overall, was Wadas’s strike.
“One of our values is relentlessness,” Wadas said. “Going into every game, knowing it’s not over until the final whistle, never nervous about being down and staying confident in our game.”
NU had a home-field advantage in its first two matches. That vanishes next week, as Michigan is hosting the Final Four and national championship.
The ’Cats will take on UMass next Friday on Phyllis Ocker Field Hockey Field, the site of NU’s 2021 national championship victory, as Ann Arbor awaits. With a win, it will face either No. 1 North Carolina or No. 4 St. Joseph’s in the national championship match on Sunday.
“Records don’t matter at this point, and every game is like a fresh start for every team,” Wadas said. “I think that our team really embodies that. And that’s why we can be successful in the postseason.”
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