May 5, 2005
NU-Ohio State Box Score in PDF Format
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EVANSTON, Ill. - It was an historic day at the Thomas Athletic Complex, as the Northwestern women's lacrosse team capped a perfect regular season with an 18-5 win over Ohio State Thursday afternoon.
The win -- which was aired live on College Sports Television, the first game to be broadcast from that field -- allowed Northwestern to finish the regular season with a 17-0 mark, including 6-0 in the American Lacrosse Conference. The Wildcats clinched the outright ALC title after sharing it last year with Vanderbilt.
In the process, the Wildcats broke their own ALC record for conference goals scored in a season (98), and also shattered the mark for fewest conference goals allowed (28; the previous record of 39 was set in 2003 by Penn State).
Ohio State (5-10, 3-3 ALC) actually got on the board first in this contest, when Ashley Evans finished off an unassisted effort 6:56 into the contest. It marked just the third time Northwestern allowed the first goal in a game this season.
That lead held for nearly four minutes. Once NU got going, though, the Buckeyes were helpless to stop the onslaught.
Aly Josephs leveled things with a free-position goal at the 10:11 mark, starting the Wildcats on a staggering 13-goal run that bridged into the second half.
Sarah Albrecht was involved in NU's second and third goals, scoring an unassisted tally and then feeding Courtney Flynn. Josephs scored her second on a Kristen Kjellman feed, and then Kjellman notched two in a row on assists from Laura Glassanos and Josephs.
Lindsey Munday, NU's leading scorer, got on the board after that with help from Albrecht, then Kjellman benefited from an Albrecht feed to make the score 8-1. Josephs' third, Glassanos' first (from Munday), and Munday's second ended the first-half scoring, and the 'Cats led at the break 11-1.
Glassanos finished an Albrecht feed -- Albrecht's fourth assist of the day -- just 50 seconds into the second half, and then Albrecht scored from Kjellman less than two minutes later to make the score 13-1.
Ohio State finally stopped the run when Kelly Kremer scored at 4:40, and then 3:10 went by before OSU's Regina Oliver scored an unassisted goal to make the score 13-3. However, Munday notched a free-position goal, finished a feed from Kjellman, and fed Josephs for a goal -- all in a three-minute span -- to push NU's lead back up to 16-3.
Munday and Lynda McCandlish rounded out NU's scoring, before Ohio State's Kelyn Laws and Ashley Evans scored in the game's final two minutes to settle the score.
Ashley Gersuk and Abby Bangser again split time in goal, with Gersuk making four saves in 42 minutes and Bangser stopping three OSU shots in 18 minutes. At the other end, Kim Hastings started the game strong and had 11 saves in the first half en route to 12 in the game. Joy DeMarco filled in for the last 15 minutes.
Northwestern will now find out its NCAA Tournament fate Sunday night, when the selection show is aired on CSTV around 8 p.m. Central.
#1 NORTHWESTERN 18, OHIO STATE 5
Score by Half
Ohio State (5-10, 3-3 ALC) 1 4 -- 5
#1 Northwestern (17-0, 6-0 ALC) 11 7 -- 18
Goals
NU: Munday 5, Josephs 4, Kjellman 3, Albrecht 2, Glassanos 2, Flynn, McCandlish.
Ohio State: Evans 2, Kremer, Oliver, Laws.
Assists
NU: Albrecht 4, Kjellman 3, Josephs 2, Munday 2, Glassanos.
Ohio State: Williams.
Goalkeeper Saves
NU: Gersuk 4 (42:00), Bangser 3 (18:00)
Ohio State: Hastings 12 (46:00), DeMarco 0 (14:00)
Shots: NU 30, Ohio State 17
Free-Position Goals/Attempts: NU 1/2, Ohio State 0/1
Ground Balls: NU 24, Ohio State 20
Caused Turnovers: NU 14, Ohio State 7
Draw Controls: NU 16, Ohio State 9
Fouls: Ohio State 11, NU 10