ANNAPOLIS, Md., May 22 -- Losing to Duke twice during the 2005 season gave the Virginia women's lacrosse team ample motivation for their Final Four matchup against the Blue Devils. After registering a 15-13 victory against their ACC rival and earning a place in the NCAA Championship, the Cavaliers did not hide how much they enjoyed the win.
"Revenge is sweet," Virginia midfielder Kim Connors said with a smile after her team's victory over Duke.
Unfortunately for the Cavaliers, Connors' words wound up being appropriate after the title game just two days later.
A little over a year after ending Northwestern's 2004 season in the NCAA quarterfinals, the Wildcats brought their 20-game win streak into the 2005 Championship game, looking to outplay the last team to hand them a loss and bring home the school's first NCAA title since the days of World War II. Behind a five-goal performance from midfielder Kristen Kjellman and an effective ball-control offense in the second half, the Wildcats registered a 13-10 victory over the defending champs just four years after the women's lacrosse program was re-established at the varsity level at Northwestern.
"Unbelievable," an elated Kelly Amonte Hiller, Northwestern's head coach, said after the victory. "I have no words for this team. They're such an amazing group of girls and for me it's so special to be a part of this team. The reason why we're here today is because these kids are such good people, they're so coachable and they work so hard."
The contest remained neck-and-neck throughout the first half, with neither team able to get more than a one-goal lead. Cary Chasney put the Cavaliers on the board first just over a minute into the game, scoring one of her game-high six goals off a feed from attacker Amy Appelt, but Kjellman found the back of the net twice in the three minutes following Chasney's tally to put Northwestern ahead 2-1.
From that point on there would be six more ties and two more lead changes before the last minute of the half, when Virginia looked to score again before and tie the score at eight before going into the locker room. After Kjellman was whistled for an illegal screen in the Virginia zone with 16 seconds left in the half, the Cavaliers quickly moved the ball up field, with Chasney finding a streaking Kate Breslin in the Northwestern zone, who got the ball to Tyler Leachman in front of the net with only one second left on the clock. Leachman's quick release shot snuck past Northwestern goalkeeper Ashley Gershuk into the top right corner of the net, but the goal was discounted because Leachman was unable to get the shot off before time expired.
"Obviously, that's tough to deal with knowing that we could have tied the game," Appelt said of Virginia's near goal at the end of the half. "We just needed to overlook that and focus and get ready for the second half. Northwestern, though, came out and scored a couple of early goals, and it set us back further."
The momentum stayed with Northwestern after the break, as the Wildcats scored three unanswered goals to grab an 11-7 lead with just over 18 minutes remaining in the championship contest. After establishing the four-goal advantage, the Wildcats began slowing the pace of the game when they had the ball, looking to wind down the clock. The strategy paid off for the Wildcats, as Virginia's scoring chances were minimized by Northwestern's ball control offense.
"I was kind of hoping they would go to goal, they would take some shots, we would make some saves and be able to transition down," Myers said. "I think it's hard to stall for three minutes ,and they basically did it for 15."
The Cavaliers scored their first goal of the half just before the midway point, on a Chasney tally with 15:50 left, but Northwestern won back possession shortly after the ensuing faceoff and held the ball for almost three minutes in the Virginia zone before Lindsey Munday scored her first goal of the afternoon after dishing out three assists to increase the Northwestern lead back to four goals.
The Wildcats won the faceoff at the 12 minute mark after the goal and kept possession for over six minutes without taking a shot. When the Wildcats finally did fire at the Virginia goal the ball flew out of the pocket of attacker Aly Joseph's stick and past freshman goalkeeper Kendall McBrearty -
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