At the end of last spring season, we expected certain things from our teams when they showed up in 2010. Baseball would make some progress but still tread water, softball would mirror last year’s success and make it to the championship tournament and, as it has for the past five years, lacrosse would effectively steamroll its way to the NCAA trophy.
Instead, here’s what we got. Baseball is one breath away from drowning and softball is losing its grip. At least lacrosse is still going strong.
Spring sports this season are proving to be a battle of expected versus unexpected.
Expected:
With half of their season left to go, the lacrosse team is looking to replay the madness of last year. They are once again undefeated, going 11-0.
But, we saw that coming. The Wildcats haven’t lost since April 2008. That’s a 41-game winning streak.
Starting off last year with four consecutive NCAA titles under their belt, the Wildcats beat most of their opponents with scores in the double digits.
Last season also saw multiple records broken. Beating their team best in goals with 386, Northwestern also scored a new program best of 540 points.
There was no doubt that they’d be one of the top contenders in the race to defend their title in the NCAA tournament, but Northwestern demolished North Carolina in the championship game with a final score of 21-7. That chalked up their consecutive championship titles to five.
This year, Northwestern’s top-ranked attack is led by All-American seniors Katrina Dowd and Danielle Spencer who started the season with a combined 318 points. Sophomore Alexandra Frank leads the midfield trying to top her best of 63 draws. She will receive help from a slew of freshman who will try to contribute and get the Wildcats their sixth-consecutive title.
More seniors lead the defense: Maggie Bremer and Sara Harrington held opponents to an averaged 6.83 goals per game last year and are looking to trim that number.
Sophomore Brianne LoManto and junior Darby St. Clair-Barrie spent preseason training battling for the chance to be starting goalkeeper. So far, LoManto has seen the most action.
Unexpected:
Last year, the ladies of the softball team entered the season as reigning Big Ten regular season and tournament champions. Then-senior Tammy Williams was drafted by the National Professional Fastpitch leagues and named 2009 Big Ten Player of the Year — that’s after being awarded the same title the year before.
Consistency wasn’t hard to come by on their diamond, but these Wildcats also stumble their first few games. February saw a dip in their scoring, but players shined through their losses. Williams broke Northwestern’s career record for hits, previously held at 265.
In March, the Wildcats picked up their pace, winning nine games. They entered the NCAA tournament, but quickly lost their first two games and were sent home empty-handed.
At this time in 2009, the team was 25-8 and expected to be a contender in the NCAA tournament. Right now, they are 18-16, with ace pitcher Lauren Delaney struggling to control the ball.
That one was a bit of a shocker.
Baseball’s history has never been exceptionally great, but we expected them to make some progress from last year — not earn their tenth win two-thirds of the way through the season.
In the February season opener, Northwestern lost 25-2, and it has only gone downhill from there. Within the last month, the team has suffered a total of 14 losses and doesn’t seem to be heading towards a spot in the championship tournament. They are currently 10-21.
The biggest problem for the past two years has been maintaining consistency.
Last year, the start of the season saw opponents scoring into the double digits while Northwestern rarely made it above five. A prolonged losing-streak mid-season left a lot of doubt about whether the team would improve. In a series against Iowa, the Wildcats battled hard to win 4-3. The next day they turned around and lost 10-1 to the same team.
Another problem for the 2009 roster, which still remains with players this year, was keeping their leads. The final home game series against Michigan saw Northwestern with a three-point lead in the seventh-inning, but gave up 13 more runs by the bottom of the ninth. Northwestern was eliminated from contention for the Big Ten Tournament when it didn’t rank in the top six teams of the conference.
Final Expectations
For baseball and softball, this season was rocked by unexpected outcomes. Both teams are struggling to succeed, but only softball has a chance to redeem itself. Still in the running for a spot in an NCAA regional quarterfinal, softball simply needs to pull itself together. Baseball, however, has been pulled out of contention by numerous losses.
Lacrosse, on the other hand, is following its expected path. For the 2010 team, number six is pretty much in the bag.