Men’s Soccer
In a heartbreaking loss at Lakeside Field, the No. 16 Wildcats fell to No. 2 Indiana in the first round of the Big Ten tournament. After the second 10-minute overtime period, the game went into a 6-round penalty shootout that finished with a final tally of 5-4 in Indiana’s favor.
Grade: While a loss is a loss, the team fought hard the entirety of this very close game against a very good opponent. This gets them a B.
Field Hockey
By beating No. 2 Maryland 3-1 this past Sunday, the Northwestern field hockey team won its first Big Ten tournament title in school history. Three different NU players scored goals, and goalie Maddy Carpenter had five saves. During their campaign for the trophy, the No. 10 Wildcats beat three consecutive ranked teams. With its tournament win, Northwestern earns an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Grade: Champions equals A+.
Women’s Tennis
The Wildcats hosted the Wildcat Fall Duals this weekend, winning 25 of their 38 singles and doubles matches against players from Yale, DePaul, Furman and Princeton. While blowing out Princeton 5-0 on Friday, the ‘Cats went struggled against players from Yale and DePaul. No. 123 ranked Northwestern junior Alicia Barnett went undefeated over the weekend.
Grade: Many Wildcats were one win or loss around .500 for the weekend. That sounds pretty average, so women’s tennis gets a pretty average grade. C+.
Volleyball
Three days after a thrilling upset of No. 9 Illinois in Evanston, Northwestern volleyball fell to the Illini in four sets in Champaign. Symone Abbott and Kayla Morin led the Wildcats in scoring with 13 and 10 kills, respectively. Over the course of the match, NU racked up an abysmal 34 errors.
Grade: Errors on errors is one of the main problems this Northwestern team faces every match. In the only set the team won, they had four errors. In each of the other three, they had 10. Sloppy play against a team they just beat gets volleyball another D.
Men’s and Women’s Swimming
At the Kentucky Quad Dual, Northwestern men’s swim and dive team went 2-1, beating Kentucky and Southern Illinois by more than 40 points, but lost to Missouri 221-127. Junior Jordan Wilimovsky won the 400-yard IM, and both the 500 and 1,000-yard freestyle events. NU also won the 200-yard medley and 400-yard freestyle relay.
At the same event, the women’s team lost to Missouri and Kentucky, but beat Southern Illinois 257-96.
Freshman Mary Warren won the 50-yard freestyle in a time of 23.35, and sophomore Lauren Abruzzo finished first in the 1000-yard free after beating freshman teammate Sydney Modeas by four seconds. Like the men, the women’s 400-yard free relay squad placed first.
Grade: Life’s constants seem to be death, taxes and Jordan Wilimovsky winning distance free events. Missouri is a tough team to beat, so men’s swimming gets a B. As for the women, going 1-2 earns them a C.