March 31, 2006
Box Score
EVANSTON, Ill. - Kristen Kjellman (Jr., Westwood, Mass./Westwood) and Aly Josephs (Jr., Reiterstown, Md./Franklin) each tallied three goals and Lindsey Munday (Sr., Mountain Lakes, N.J./Mountain Lakes) added two goals and two assists as the top-ranked Wildcats held off a feisty, 13th-ranked Syracuse Orange squad 13-11 tonight at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.Y. The win improves NU to 9-0 on the year while SU drops to 7-3.
It was a back and forth affair in the first period as both teams traded punches for the first 30 minutes. The wild first half saw four ties and four lead changes. Syracuse kept the pressure on Northwestern by winning the draw controls by a count of 9-5 in the first half.
Sarah Albrecht (Sr., Braintree, Mass./Thayer Academy) got NU on the board quickly with an unassisted goal 1:25 into the game before Kathryn Rowen tied the game at the 27:07 mark. From there Munday put NU back up on a free-position goal before SU's Bridget Looney scored back-to-back goals to give the Orange a 3-2 lead with 21:05 left in the first.
Hilary Bowen (Fr., Rochester, N.Y./Brighton) stopped the bleeding with another free-position goal three minutes later to tie the game for the third time. Syracuse kept the Wildcat offense at bay over the next 13 minutes and in the process, picked up two goals to take a 5-3 lead with 7:38 remaining the half.
But as we've come to expect this season, these Wildcats thrive with adversity staring them in the face.
When the 'Cats trailed 4-0 at No. 9 Maryland in the season opener, NU responded with seven unanswered goals and never looked back. Then again against No. 14 Notre Dame earlier this month, the Wildcats trailed by four with seven minutes remaining in the first half before reeling off a 13-1 run to put the Irish away.
This time would be no different.
Despite being held to just three goals over the first 25 minutes, NU found the spark it needed when Kristen Boege's (Jr., Huntington, N.Y./Huntington) free-position goal ignited a 5-0 run over the final 4:18 of the half to give NU an 8-5 lead at the break. The run also featured one goal by Josephs and Laura Glassanos (Sr., Hingham, Mass./Thayer Academy) and two from Kjellman.
Syracuse never got closer than two goals the rest of the way. Second half goals by Josephs, Munday, Bowen and Kjellman gave NU a 13-8 cushion with 10:54 left. From there NU's defense held the Orange scoreless over the next six minutes. Syracuse would get three late goals in the final four minutes, but it wasn't enough as the Wildcats won their 30th straight game dating to the start of the 2005 season.
Morgan Lathrop (Briarcliff, N.Y./The Hackley School) improved her record to 8-0 with six saves while Jen Kasel took the loss for Syracuse.
Northwestern now travels to face Connecticut at Noon CT Sunday in Storrs, Conn.