No. 1 Northwestern Escapes Carrier Dome With 13-11 Win

Friday, March 31

Carrier Dome

7:00 p.m.

Syracuse University

Northwestern

Kristin Brady secured a career-high eight draw controls against the Wildcats.

No. 1 Northwestern Escapes Carrier Dome With 13-11 Win

3/31/2006 10:03:50 PM | Women's Lacrosse

Box Score

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Freshman Kathryn Rowan (Delmar, N.Y.) and junior Gaddy Fortune (Long Branch, N.J.) combined for eight points as the No. 13 Orange lost to top-ranked and defending national champion Northwestern on March 31 in front of a season-high crowd of 830 at the Carrier Dome. Sophomore Kristin Brady (Binghamton, N.Y.) secured a career-high eight draw controls for the Orange.

Fortune recorded her fifth hat trick of the season with three goals while adding an assist. Rowan had a pair of goals and assists. Graduate student Caitlyn Dragon (Jackson, N.J.), senior Melody Agnew (Winchester, Mass.) and sophomore Bridget Looney (Silver Springs, Md.) all had two points in the losing effort. Senior Jen Kasel (Mountain Lakes, N.J.) stopped nine shots in goal.

Coming into the game, the Wildcats dominated draw controls against its opponents by 137-91. SU came in losing in that category, 107-97. Brady excelled against her counterpart, recording eight draw controls of her own while the Orange totaled 15 to Northwestern’s 11.

The Wildcats, who improved to 9-0 and extended its winning streak to 30 games, totaled 41 ground balls to Syracuse’s 23. The two-goal win was the lowest margin of victory for Northwestern since it beat No. 9 Princeton, 8-6, on May 15, 2005. It was only the second time this season that they allowed more than 10 goals. The Wildcats came in with the second-best scoring margin in the nation with an average of 10.38.

The two teams traded goals all the way to 3-3 with 17:05 to go in the first half. After Hilary Bowen tied the game, 3-3, with a goal, SU scored the next two to take its largest lead of the game, 5-3, with 7:38 remaining in the half. The Wildcats quickly responded with three goals of their own to take a 6-5 lead, with 1:38 to go. Kristen Kjellman added another goal with 22 seconds left to put Northwestern up two. On the next draw, Sarah Albrecht took control for the Wildcats with 15 seconds left, she found Meredith Frank, who then dished to Laura Glassanos who put another shot in the back of the net with 10 seconds left. Northwestern took an 8-5 lead into the break.

Junior Shari Appollon (Freeport, N.Y.) opened the scoring in the second half with her second goal of the season when classmate Melissa Pearsall (Cortland, N.Y.) assisted on a goal to pull SU within two, 8-6. The teams then traded goals as the Wildcats banked two more, and then Fortune and Rowan both connected on shots to make the score 10-8 Northwestern with 17:04 remaining in the game. The Wildcat offense sparked again with three-straight goals to expand its cushion to 13-8, its largest lead of the game, with 10:54 on the clock. The Orange offense fought back as Fortune tallied two more goals to cut the advantage to 13-10 with 2:34 to go, but SU only scored once more, a Dragon tally with 56 seconds left.

For the Wildcats (9-0), Lindsey Munday had two goals and two assists. Kjellman and Aly Josephs both posted three goals and Bowen added two more.

Syracuse (7-3) is back in action on Saturday, April 8, when it travels to Loyola for a BIG EAST clash.