Morgan Lathrop made 10 saves in goal last weekend at UNC.Morgan Lathrop made 10 saves in goal last weekend at UNC.

No. 3 Northwestern Looks to Rebound At Vanderbilt

Feb. 23, 2007

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The Game
Third-ranked Northwestern opens American Lacrosse Conference play at 1 p.m. CT this Sunday against Vanderbilt at the Vanderbilt Lacrosse Complex in Nashville, Tenn. Northwestern is attempting to get back on the winning track after suffering a 9-8 double-overtime loss at No. 4 North Carolina last Saturday. Vanderbilt enters the game 1-0 after an 18-5 win over Albany in its opener.

This will be the second of three-straight road games to open the season -- all against ranked teams. After Vandy, NU travels to face No. 8 Notre Dame -- a 2006 NCAA finalist -- in South Bend, Ind., March 1. NU, the two-time defending NCAA Champions, are playing 11 ranked teams out of 16 games this regular-season.

Wildcats, Kjellman Garner Preseason ALC, All-America Honors
In a vote of the league's five head coaches, Northwestern, the two-time defending national champions, has been picked to win its fourth ALC title in a row. Kristen Kjellman, the two-time ALC Player of the Year, also has been selected as the preseason Player of the Year. Kjellman is joined on the team by Aly Josephs, Lindsay Finocchiaro, and Meredith Frank. All four student-athletes also were named preseason All-Americans by insidelacrosse.com; Kjellman, Josephs and Finocchiaro were placed on the first-team while Frank was a third-team designee. Finocchiaro was on the All-Conference team in 2006, while Frank was the ALC Rookie of the Year last year and was named to the All-ALC second-team along with Josephs.

Four Named to Tewaaraton Watch List
The same four Wildcats that were named Preseason All-Americans by InsideLacrosse had their names added to the 2007 Preseason Tewaaraton Trophy Watch list. Among them are last year's Tewaaraton winner Kristen Kjellman along with Aly Josephs, Lindsay Finocchiaro and Meredith Frank. The four for the Wildcats is the most of any team. The list of players are considered early season indicators of who to watch as the 2007 lacrosse season begins. This list will be voted upon by coaches and narrowed as the season progresses, ultimately reaching a final list of five women who constitute the award's finalists. Kjellman returns as the odds-on favorite to win the award in 2007. She will attempt to become the first player, male or female, to win the award in consecutive seasons. One of the quickest attackers in the country, Josephs, a 2006 Third-Team All-American, is back after scoring 55 goals last season and was the only Wildcat to score at least one goal in all 21 games in 2006. Frank, the 2006 ALC Rookie of the Year, led Northwestern with five game-winning goals last season and finished fifth on the team with 75 points (32 g, 19 a) as a freshman. Finocchiaro was a second-team All-American last season from her defender position. In 2005 she was the womenslacrosse.com Unsung Hero of the Year. She helped anchor a defense that allowed just 7.9 goals per game, seventh-best in the nation in 2006.

Last Time Out
Top-ranked Northwestern suffered a heartbreaking 9-8 loss in double overtime at No. 4 North Carolina Saturday afternoon. Sophomore Hannah Nielsen led the Wildcats with four points on two goals and two assists. Classmate Morgan Lathrop made 10 saves in goal. After both teams went scoreless through the first overtime, UNC notched the game-winner when Christina Juras scored on an unassisted goal with 2:52 left. Both teams struggled to find the back of the net in the final 13 minutes of regulation. UNC tied the game at 7-7 on a Jess Allen goal before Nielsen found Tewaaraton Trophy winner Kristen Kjellman who scored with 10:49 left and put NU out in front once again. But right when it looked like Northwestern would come away with the narrow victory, UNC's Erica LaGrow tied the game on an unassisted goal with 1:02 left on the clock to force overtime. The loss marked the first time since returning to varsity status in 2002 that the Wildcats lost their season opener. Nielsen led NU with seven shots, followed by Bowen and Kjellman who had six and five, respectively. Northwestern took 25 shots in the first two periods, but did not attempt a shot in either overtime period. Northwestern seeks to rebound next Sunday when it travels to No. 19 Vanderbilt.

Scouting Vanderbilt
The Commodores are led this season by Preseason All-ALC selections Sasha Cielak and Margie Curran. Vanderbilt opened its season on Monday with an 18-5 home win over Albany where Margie Curran and Cara Giordano each scored four goals followed by Kendall Thrift with three. It was never a game as VU scored the first 10 goals of the game and led 13-1 at the half. Vandy is led by Cathy Swezey who is in her ninth season as head coach.

The Series
Vanderbilt leads the all-time series with Northwestern 3-2, though it has been the Wildcats winning the last two, including last year's 14-9 victory in Evanston in the regular-season finale.
2006--W, 14-9 at Evanston
2005--W, 18-8 at Nashville
2004--L, 10-9 OT at Evanston
2003--L, 15-8 at Nashville
2002--L, 13-7 at Evanston

Noting Northwestern

  • Northwestern is 41-2 over the past two-plus seasons and 55-4 in its last 59 games.
  • NU has won 20-straight home games dating to 2004. They are two wins shy of tying the NCAA record of 22.
  • This year NU entered the season ranked No. 1 in virtually every preseason poll, including the IWLCA, Inside Lacrosse and Lacrosse Magazine polls.
  • The Wildcats return their top two goal scorers and nearly 62 percent of their scoring from a year ago, including last year's Tewaaraton Trophy Winner Kristen Kjellman who led the nation's top scoring team with 72 goals. Senior attacker and fellow All-American Aly Josephs also returns after scoring 55 goals. Making life even more miserable for opposing defenses will be last year's ALC Rookie of the Year Meredith Frank (32g, 19a) and sophomores Hilary Bowen (22g, 13a), Hannah Nielsen (14g, 9a) along with a talented crop of newcomers.
  • Last season Northwestern became the first team in school history to win back-to-back NCAA team titles. In 2005, just its fourth year back as a varsity team, NU became the first Wildcat squad to win an NCAA team title since 1941. They also became the first team outside of the Eastern Time Zone to win an NCAA lacrosse title, male or female, at any level.
  • Northwestern shattered school records for goals (333), assists (165) and points (498) in a season in 2006 and also set the record for goals per game average (15.8). They fell just short of breaking the all-time NCAA record which is 16.1.
  • With 72 goals last season, Kjellman was just the second Wildcat in program history to score 70 or more goals in a season and the first in the modern era. She also is just the second Wildcat in program history to record at least 50 goals three-straight years. She is the first to accomplish that feat since Kathleen Kochmansky did it from 1982-84.
  • The 2006 senior class left Northwestern as the winningest class in program history, compiling 64 wins over the last four seasons. This year's senior class enters the 2007 season with 56 wins under their belts.

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