April 23, 2006
EVANSTON, Ill.- Kristen Kjellman recorded four goals and one assist and was one of 10 Wildcat players to score as No. 2 Northwestern used an 8-0 scoring run in the first half to pull away from ALC-rival and eighth-ranked Johns Hopkins, 17-5, today in front of a nationally-televised audience on CSTV.
Kjellman recorded her 12th hat trick of the season and has now scored 50 or more goals three-consecutive seasons. She is the first Wildcat to accomplish that feat since Kathleen Kochmansky did it from 1982-84.
The win puts Northwestern (13-1, 3-0) in the driver's seat atop the ALC standings with two weeks remaining in the regular season.
After the game, Northwestern's Department of Athletics along with Director of Athletics Mark Murphy honored last year's national championship team and presented the 2005 squad with their championship rings.
The 'Cats showcased to the nation this weekend that they are a team reborn and that the loss to No. 1 Duke back on April 7 is a distant memory. Facing two top 10 teams in the span of three days, the Wildcats came out and simply dominated No. 5 North Carolina on Friday and No. 8 Johns Hopkins this afternoon-defeating both teams by a combined score of 35-15.
"We treated this weekend like a final four," head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller said after the game. "We said that we had to win on Friday in order to get to Sunday and today was our `championship' game. We knew this game was very important in the conference standings. Johns Hopkins is a great team with great players and we knew we had to contain their greatest player, Mary Key, in order to be successful and I think we did a good job with that today."
NU's defense held Key, who came in leading the nation in points per game (6.4), to zero goals and two assists.
The Blue Jays (10-2, 3-1) drew first blood when Alex Nolan assisted on a Meagan Voight goal just 51 seconds into the game to put JHU up 1-0.
It was all Northwestern from there.
Just like Friday when the 'Cats used a 9-0 run to pull away from UNC, the Wildcats used another 9-0 run over the next 30 minutes to seize control. Kjellman scored three goals during the decisive run along with two each from freshmen Meredith Frank and Hannah Nielsen.
The Blue Jays would show life, however, scoring three-straight goals, two coming from Annie Wagner, to cut the lead to 9-4 with 24:08 left. But the deficit would be too much to overcome as the Wildcats scored the game's next six goals to put the game out of reach.
Aly Josephs and Sarah Albrecht each scored two goals while Hilary Bowen, Laura Glassanos, Kristen Boege and Jenny Bush all had one. Lindsey Munday also had one goal and finished with a game-high four assists, her seventh game with three or more this season. Bowen led the 'Cats with five draw controls while Albrecht had four.
The Wildcats are back in action this Friday when they take on Ohio State in Columbus, Ohio. Game time is 6 p.m. CT.
Game Notes: Northwestern won its 16th straight game at home ... With four goals, Kjellman has now recorded 50 or more goals for the third straight season ... After being held to a season-low 10 goals at Duke on April 7, the Wildcats have averaged 18.0 goals over their last three games ... NU is 47-2 in its last 49 regular-season games ... NU has now won three in a row over Johns Hopkins and lead the all-time series 3-2.