Cross Country
With nine runners competing in the Big Ten Championships in Iowa City this past weekend, Northwestern finished in tenth place with 268 points. Sophomore Jena Pianin was the fastest Wildcat runner, finishing 22nd overall with a time of 20:42.0, a personal best by 40 seconds. Sophomore Andrea Ostenso and junior Elena Barham finished a minute after Pianin, in 48th and 52nd place respectively.
Grade: Some strong personal performances, but 10th place is 10th place. Cross country gets a C-.
Men’s Soccer
Northwestern pulled out another overtime victory for their Senior Day game against Penn State this past Sunday. Off an assist from freshman Elo Ozumba, sophomore Mike Roberge shot in a goal during the 108th minute to seal the victory 2-1. The Wildcats are now 3-1-3 in the Big Ten, good enough for third in the Big Ten standings with one more game before the Big Ten tournament.
Grade: Another win off a late game/overtime crazy goal, men’s soccer gets another A.
Field Hockey
Following a heartbreaking loss at Penn State on Friday, the No. 8 Wildcats took down non-Big 10 opponent Kent State 1-0 two days later at Lake Side Field. Northwestern’s team-leading scorer Dominique Masters nailed the games only goal off a penalty corner after both teams went scoreless for 57 minutes. Senior goalkeeper Maddy Carpenter had three saves and recorded her fourth shutout of the season.
Grade: Not the performance you’d expect from the 8th best team in the country, but a win is a win. Field hockey gets a B.
Fencing
Fencing annihilated all opponents at the NU Duals meet this past Sunday, with the team going 12-0 in their dual matchups and posting combined score of 298-26 (an average of 2.1 points per opposing team). The only team to keep the Wildcats under 20 points during their dual was Michigan, who still lost 19-8.
Grade: Seriously? 298-26? That sounds like this week’s Patriots played a middle school flag football team (obviously the defense would feel bad and let the little kids score a couple times). Fencing gets an A+.
Men’s Tennis
Two Northwestern seniors, Alex Pasareanu and Alberto Zanotti, made into to the second day of action at the Big Ten Indoor Championship. No. 15 seeded Pasareanu started his Sunday by upsetting a No. 6 seeded Purdue player, but ultimately fell in the quarterfinals to the No. 1 seed from Nebraska. Zanotti took down two opponents in the consolation bracket to finish his weekend.
Grade: One player upsets a top ten seed, only to lose in the round of eight. The other player is in the consolations but wins all of his games. I don’t know. Men’s tennis gets a B?
Women’s Tennis
The women’s tennis team was split up for two different tournaments this weekend, and found success at both of them. In Alabama for the Roberta Allison Fall Classic, a freshman team of Alex Chatt and Rheeya Doshi were the champions of their doubles bracket. At the United States Tennis Association Collegiate Clay Court Invitational a doubles team of Lok Sze Leung and Brooke Rischbieth made it to the semi-finals round of the “A” bracket before falling to a team from Florida State.
Grade: Sports teams are allowed to send their players to two different places? Weird. Either way, women’s tennis performed well and gets a B+.
Women’s Soccer
After their game was postponed to Saturday due to extreme Friday night weather, the women’s soccer team took down Minnesota 1-0 in thrilling overtime fashion. In the 106th minute, freshman Michelle Manning scored the unassisted goal that won the game. While NU is still 4-6-3 in the Big Ten, this victory sends them to the Big Ten tournament.
Grade: My heart can’t handle the stress of all these NU soccer victories in OT, women’s and men’s. Next time, just score a lot in regulation to make your fan base heart healthy. In the meantime, you get an A.
Volleyball
Plagued by errors, the Wildcats lost their Saturday match in three sets to the Michigan State Spartans. Redshirt senior Katie Dutchman led the Wildcats in scoring with a season-high 14 kills. After this loss, Northwestern is now tied for 10th place in the Big Ten with Minnesota.
Grade: Volleyball has only won one game since falling to Penn State on Oct. 8. They get an F.