Oct. 4, 2009
Box Score
EVANSTON, Ill. -- No. 17 Northwestern opened the offensive floodgates against Atlantic-10 opponent Saint Louis on Sunday, breaking 23-year-old records for goals in a single game and largest margin of victory in downing the Billikens 12-1. Senior Courtney Plaster-Strange notched a hat trick in the win while three Wildcats scored the first goals of their respective careers.
NU's 12 tallies topped the previous single-game record of 11 set on Sept. 21, 1986, against Northern Illinois, the same game in which the school's record for margin of victory (nine) had been set.
With the victory, Northwestern (10-4) also reached the 10-win plateau for the first time since the 1995 campaign when the 'Cats finished 13-6.
With less than 12 minutes gone by in the first half, two different NU players had already notched a pair of goals to put the Wildcats in the driver's seat with a 4-0 lead. Plaster-Strange scored first for NU when Kendra Sirak sent in a pass from outside the arc that Plaster-Strange controlled and lined up from 10 yards out, picking out an opening on the left side of the cage. Plaster-Strange struck again four minutes later when she collected a loose ball and again managed to beat SLU goalkeeper Katherine Deem for the goal.
It was then Elizabeth Dobbs' turn to net consecutive goals, doing so first with a perfect deflection off a well-executed penalty corner hit from Chelsea Armstrong and then with a backhand shot in the arc off another feed from Armstrong.
Armstrong managed to get in the scoring column at the 31-minute mark after a feed from outside the circle by Stacy Uchida following a broken penalty corner play. The goal and two assists for Armstrong raised her season point total to 50, giving her sole possession of second place on NU's all-time single-season scoring list. Only Lisa Griswold's 1983 total of 64 points eclipses Armstrong's 2009 sum.
Minutes before the halftime break, junior back Zoe Almquist scored for the first time in her career on a penalty stroke to give the Wildcats a 7-0 cushion entering the break.
After Plaster-Strange completed her hat trick with 1:53 gone in the second half, junior Olivia Standa got on the receiving end of a cross by Kaylee Pohlmeyer and finished in traffic in front of the cage for her first career goal. Marnie Robbins became the 12th Northwestern player to score a goal this season when she swept a loose ball past Deem in the cage with 23 minutes remaining to give NU a 10-0 advantage.
Deem, who faced a barrage of 33 Northwestern shots, made 16 saves in a losing effort.
Nicole Kent scored on a breakaway in the 57th minute to get the Billikens on the board but goals in the final 10 minutes by Sirak and Regan Mooney were enough to help NU to its record-breaking totals in the lopsided win.
Northwestern must now prepare to play its third game in five days when it hosts California at Lakeside Field Tuesday at 2 p.m.