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Northwestern Rallies in Second for 11-7 Win over Johns Hopkins
April 16, 2010
EVANSTON, IL - The Johns Hopkins women's lacrosse team led top-ranked and five-time defending NCAA Champion Northwestern at the half, but a 6-0 Wildcats' run to open the second proved to be the difference as the Blue Jays fell 11-7 to the Wildcats on Friday night in ALC action. Hopkins slips to 8-6 on the season and 1-2 in the ALC, while Northwestern wins its 41st straight game to improve to 12-0 overall and 3-0 in the conference. Hopkins led Northwestern 3-2 at the half, but the Wildcats, who rank second in the nation with 16.36 goals per game, wouldn't be held in check for long. Coming out of the break, Northwestern opened a one-goal game with a methodical six-goal run that spanned nearly 11 minutes and saw six different players score. Alexandra Frank scored 93 seconds into the second half to tie the game at 3-3 and ignite the run. Danielle Spencer capped the run with her third of the night, off a feed from Katrina Dowd to make it an 8-3 game with 19:14 to play. The Blue Jays finally got on the board in the second stanza when sophomore Colleen McCaffrey (Mount Sinai, NY/Mount Sinai) scored the first of her two on the night more than nine minutes later. That goal snapped a scoring drought of 24:23 for Hopkins. Just over a minute later, Amanda Macaluso answered for the `Cats to push the lead back to five. Freshman Katie Duffey (Mt. Laurel, NJ/Lenape) continued her recent scoring surge, with her ninth of the season with 5:21 to play, converting a pass from sophomore Candace Rossi (Farmingdale, NY/Farmingdale). Twenty seconds later, the lead was back to five for Northwestern at 10-5 when Ali Cassera scored an unassisted goal. McCaffrey would score her second of the night and once again, cut the deficit to four, with an unassisted tally at 1:29. Shannon Smith would tack on one more for the `Cats with 43 ticks on the clock. Not to be outdone, Duffey scored with just 13 seconds remaining to account for the 11-7 final.
Hopkins got on the board first, as senior Sam Schrum (Pasadena, MD/St. Mary's) scored the first of her two first-half goals just 3:31 in but Spencer knotted the game at 1-1 more than five minutes later. Following a nearly 14-minute scoring drought for either team, freshman Monica Fischer (Baldwin, MD/Fallston) scored on a free position shot with 7:26 to play to give Hopkins a 2-1 lead. Spencer would answer again for Northwestern, tying the game with 4:41 to play. Schrum stole the lead back for the Blue Jays just 32 seconds later to give Hopkins a 3-2 lead at the half. McCaffrey, Schrum, Rossi and Duffey all had two-point games for the Blue Jays, while freshman goalie Cosette Larash (Crownsville, MD/Archbishop Spalding) made a career-high 15 saves in the cage.The 15 saves for Larash are the most by a JHU goalie since Julianne Wisner had 15 against Stanford on March 27, 2009. For the Wildcats, Spencer led the way her hat trick, while Smith was the only other player with multiple goals. Dowd, who ranked fourth in the nation with 3.40 goals per game entering the contest, was held to just one goal on the night. In the cage, Brianne LoManto made five saves to earn the win. Northwestern's 11 goals are its fewest since an 11-10 win over Virginia on April 19, 2009. Hopkins returns to action on Sunday, April 25 as the Blue Jays travel to Happy Valley to take on the Penn State Nittany Lions. Opening draw for the ALC contest is slated for 1:00 pm at Jeffrey Field. |
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