Nov. 28, 2001

EVANSTON, Ill. - For the Northwestern women's soccer team, the recipe for success in 2001 contained one simple ingredient.

Goals.

In an astonishing case of feast or famine, the Wildcats went 8-0-1 when they scored this fall. The flip side, of course, was that the team suffered long droughts-in all, the 'Cats were shut out 10 times on the season and lost all of those outings.

The season got off to a positive start, as the Wildcats defeated Utah State behind goals from seniors Enyo Dzata (Eugene, Ore./South) and Katie Hertz (Orland Park, Ill./Carl Sandburg). Three days later, NU pushed seventh-ranked Washington to overtime before dropping a 1-0 decision.

Unfortunately, that loss would bring the first offensive stoppage of the season. The next weekend, the Wildcats hosted St. Mary's (Calif.) and Brigham Young and fell in shutout fashion to both, 3-0 to the Gaels and 1-0 to the Cougars. Both of those teams would eventually go on to be nationally ranked and play in the NCAA Tournament.

It would be 11 days before NU played again, and the return to play brought a reversal of fortunes. The 'Cats opened the Big Ten season in dramatic fashion, tying Indiana on Friday, 1-1, and then nipping Purdue, 2-1, when Kasé McCoy (Medina, Ohio/Medina) converted a free kick from 25 yards out with just two seconds left in regulation. Though the Wildcats opened the Big Ten campaign with Indiana, it would be the Hoosiers that they would keep their eye on as the conference season wound down.

NU could not parlay those first two decisions into immediate conference success. The next weekend brought a trip to the Great Lakes State, which began with a 2-0 loss to Michigan. It would be the last time NU gave up more than one goal the rest of the regular season, though that staggering stat did not add W's to the ledger at first. Instead, the Wildcats dropped three straight 1-0 decisions, to Michigan State, Illinois and Iowa.

Drama was again the order of the day after that, though, as Hertz ended NU's scoreless drought with a final-minute goal to tie up Minnesota. Just 1:35 into overtime, freshman Carolyn Hack (Downers Grove, Ill./North) gave the Wildcats a 2-1 win. Two days later, the team went out of conference but gained another important decision, defeating UW-Milwaukee 2-1 and ending the Panthers' nine-match win streak.

Another Big Ten trip yielded two more 1-0 losses, this time to Ohio State and first-place Penn State. However, the loss to the Nittany Lions provided the springboard to one final push.

Five days later, the women took the field with plenty of incentive on a chilly evening in Madison, Wis. A win over the Badgers, coupled with an Indiana loss to Purdue, would catapult the 'Cats past the Hoosiers and into the eight-team Big Ten Tournament. In a dramatic scene, NU withstood a furious Wisconsin offensive surge in the second half, then put a sudden end to the contest in the first minute of overtime when Ashleigh Garmon (Oxnard, Calif./Buena) finished a cross by McCoy for a 1-0 win. Mere minutes later, Indiana-Purdue ended as a 1-0 Boilermaker win, and Northwestern was in the Big Ten Tourney for the first time since 1998.

NU seemed to enjoy the taste of its first shutout of 2001, because the Wildcats proceeded to go out and blank three more opponents to close the regular season-Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne (6-0), Northern Illinois (2-0) and Loyola-Chicago (3-0).

In the first round of the Big Ten Tournament, Northwestern drew the unfortunate task of facing top seed Penn State. The Nittany Lions, ranked seventh in the nation at the time, dropped the Wildcats 3-0 en route to winning the tournament title.

The Wildcats lost on the first day of the tournament, but good news came later that evening at the tournament banquet when sophomore Molly Greene (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) was named first team All-Big Ten and Hertz was named second team All-Big Ten. Hertz led the team in scoring with 10 points (4g, 2a), and finished her career tied with Dionna Latimer for third on NU's all-time list with 19 goals and fourth with 48 points.

Garmon came on strong in the second half of the season, finishing with four goals and nine points to tie McCoy for second on the team. In all, 10 different players scored for the Wildcats in 2001.

At the other end, Greene anchored a stingy defense and was aided by freshman Lindsey Veris (Manhattan Beach, Calif./Mira Costa) in the middle and senior Katie Kovatch (Glen Ellyn, Ill./Glenbard West) and Kelli Wilson (Fayetteville, Ark./Fayetteville) on the wings. In the goal, Susie McCreery (Glenview, Ill./Glenbrook South) made the most of her opportunity. After sitting behind Erin Ekeberg for three years, including last year as a redshirt, McCreery played all but 19 minutes in the cage in 2001 and put together a 1.04 goals-against average, the second-best average in school history.