May 14, 2006
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Kristen Kjellman and Sarah Albrecht tallied four goals and Meredith Frank added three as the No. 4 seed Northwestern Wildcats steamrolled the Stanford Cardinal 17-9 in its first round matchup of the 2006 NCAA Division I Women's Lacrosse Championship Sunday in Evanston.
Stanford, who is the first school west of the Mississippi River to earn a bid to the NCAA Championships, ends their season with a 12-6 overall record while NU improves to 17-1.
The Wildcats now advance to the quarterfinal round at noon CT next Saturday, May 20 when they host fifth-seeded North Carolina who defeated Maryland 9-6 earlier today. It will mark the second meeting this season between the two schools as Northwestern defeated UNC 18-10 back on April 21 in Evanston.
Northwestern, who also defeated Stanford 19-8 back on March 25 in Palo Alto, Calif., benefited from a dominating first half where they owned an 8-2 advantage on draw controls and a 17-4 shot differential. Kjellman (5) and Albrecht (4) combined for nine draw controls overall. The Wildcats showered the Cardinal defense with 34 shots on the day.
After the two teams traded goals over the first eight minutes, Northwestern gained control of the game with six straight goals and scored eight of the next nine to take a 10-3 lead with 23 minutes left in the game.
But Stanford, led by three goals each by Daphne Patterson and Megan Burker, crawled back into the game and cut the NU lead to 10-5 with consecutive goals by Michelle DeChant and Burker with 17:27 remaining.
However, Northwestern would seize control once again with -- you guessed it -- another one of its insurmountable scoring runs with another 6-0 outburst over the next 12 minutes to extend its lead to 16-5 with 4:52 left. Albrecht scored three in the final run and Kjellman two.
Northwestern's defense, led by Morgan Lathrop's eight saves, forced 20 Stanford turnovers. Laura Shane took the loss in goal, recording 13 saves.
Laura Glassanos and Aly Josephs both had two goals on the day while Hilary Bowen and Casey Donohoe both had one.
Game Notes: