After two drama-filled semifinals in Ann Arbor, we’ve got ourselves a Big Ten Championship matchup between the top two seeds in the conference tournament: Northwestern and Maryland.
Though Michigan is a talented team, Northwestern’s victory over the Wolverines on Friday did not go as smoothly as some had hoped. There are plenty of things to think about for NU’s game on Sunday against the Terrapins, especially considering the fact that Maryland is seeking revenge after falling to the Wildcats earlier
this month.
Here are Northwestern’s three keys to winning the Big Ten Championship.
1. Shooting from range
One of Northwestern’s fatal flaws in the first half of the semifinal was its inability to break through against Michigan’s defense. The problem was twofold: Not only was the Wolverines’ zone defense running like a well-oiled machine, keeping the Wildcats from pushing into the fan, but its positioning also posed a psychological barrier, making the Wildcats seem afraid to take shots from long range.
This problem has existed for a while. Northwestern is really, really good at creating offensive opportunities with its attacking unit, but that typically only comes by way of brute force — using body feints to dodge defenders and fire off shots, or finding a quick open pass to shoot from short range.
Michigan saw this weakness and took full advantage of it. By the end of the first quarter, Northwestern had marked just one shot on goal compared to Michigan’s three. Though the Wildcats improved that figure throughout the rest of the game, there’s no guarantee that Maryland won’t want to adopt similar pressing tactics, especially as its goalkeeper JJ Suriano holds the seventh-best saves per game figure in the entire NCAA.
If the ‘Cats want to make their lives easier on Sunday, they need to shoot from farther out.
2. Winning the draw
It seems simple, but the draw plays such a crucial role in Northwestern’s game that it’s almost an implicit key to victory.
After a slow start to Friday’s game , four of the ‘Cats’ 10 goals against Michigan came from winning the draw. As mentioned earlier, Northwestern does best when players can make runs into the fan rather than stand passively outside it.
Nationally, the Wildcats rank sixth in draw controls per game and eighth in draw control percentage. They have an incredibly diverse circle unit, including Madison Smith, Maddie Epke, Madison Taylor, and sometimes even Kate Ratanaproeksa, which is something Kelly Amonte Hiller mentioned early in the season as critical to the team’s future success. Clearly, the ‘Cats put a lot of weight on the draw, and it’s clear to see why it’s a necessary point of emphasis against Maryland.
3. Preparing for external factors
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Northwestern’s incident against Maryland in its April 9 matchup. In the fourth quarter of the game, Madison Smith was running next to Lauren LaPointe at midfield when she suddenly knocked LaPointe to the ground. Neither player had the ball; LaPointe had to leave the game, and Smith received no penalty.
At that point, Northwestern was down 9-8. It had staged small-scale comebacks over the course of the game, but LaPointe’s foul was the precursor to a four-goal run in the final four minutes and an eventual 11-10 win over the Terps. Though the no-call was questionable, the foul changed the game’s momentum.
Both Northwestern and Maryland will try to block out external noise from social media, but I think it’s fair to say that Maryland has a chip on its shoulder coming into this Big Ten Tournament Final. Northwestern must be ready for a hungry Terrapin team.
Overall, the Wildcats must maintain their composure. The game has the potential to induce a variety of emotions, but the ‘Cats must keep their heads down and work past every obstacle thrown at them. some nerves, but they need to keep their heads down and work past every obstacle that may come their way.
