That's how you do it.
The Northwestern women's lacrosse team (2-0), ranked third in the nation by Inside Lacrosse, started off the season on Friday with their highest-scoring game under long-time head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller (and the sixth-most by a team in one game in NCAA history) against Detroit Mercy (0-1), destroying them 30-3. The team then went on to beat No. 20 Duke 24-20 on Sunday.
Northwestern spent their first game of the season on home turf in Ryan Fieldhouse. The last time they had played Detroit Mercy was in 2018, when the ‘Cats won 21-2. On Friday senior Lindsey McKone scored the first goal just 12 seconds into the game, quickly followed 12 seconds later by Izzy Scane. In the first half, the team finished with 20 goals, with Detroit Mercy only putting up one.
The Wildcats waste no time.
— Northwestern Lax (@NULax) February 7, 2020
Kinna ⏩ McKone for the first goal of the season 12 seconds into the game!
H1 29:48 | #B1GCats 1 - DM 0 pic.twitter.com/GZbLfJgmeZ
The top goal scorers were Scane with four, and Lauren Gilbert, Dylan Amonte, and Jill Girardi all with three. Many others contributed to the high scoring game, showing how well the team works together and how spread out their talent is. With an impressive defense, goalies Julie Krupnik and Madison Doucette had save percentages of .8 and .5, respectively. Overall, the team was well-balanced and hard to get through, evidenced by how Northwestern game ended up being the sixth-highest scoring game in NCAA history.
On Sunday the ‘Cats faced the Blue Devils in Durham, and achieved another milestone by scoring the most points against Duke under Amonte Hiller. Liza Elder scored the first goal 30 seconds into the game, and the team went on an 8-0 run until Duke finally scored. The two teams went back-to-back with scores, with the ‘Cats retaining the lead throughout the entire game.
H1 29:29| Liza Elder coming in hot to get the game started with the assist from McKone 🔥
— Northwestern Lax (@NULax) February 9, 2020
NU 1 - 0 DU pic.twitter.com/SWUrmKqHQJ
Both McKone and Scane scored five goals in the game, and Gilbert and Megan Kinna closely followed with four each. The Wildcats kept a safe lead throughout the game until the last five minutes when the Blue Devils had a 6-0 run and went from lagging 24-14 to 24-20 to close the game.
Northwestern will next play against No. 7 Notre Dame (1-0) at home on Feb. 14, where fans can expect a closely-matched game.