EVANSTON, Ill. — Despite chilly conditions, No. 1 Northwestern stayed hot and picked up its 10th win in a row with a 19-8 victory over No. 8 Penn State Saturday afternoon in Evanston. The win moves NU to 10-1 and 2-0 in the ALC while Penn State, playing its third top-5 opponent in as many games, dips to 8-5 and 0-2 in the league.

Sophomores Hilary Bowen and Meredith Frank each scored four goals while classmate Hannah Nielsen recorded a career-high five assists for the Wildcats who take on No. 2 Maryland (13-1) at 4 p.m. on Monday in Evanston.

The first 30 minutes told the story as NU simply dominated, outshooting Penn State 28-10 en route to a 13-4 halftime advantage. The Wildcats won 12 of the 18 draws and committed only three first-half turnovers to PSU's nine.

Penn State hung tough, however, and found themselves down by only two after an unassisted goal by Karen Long with 12:19 left. But Bowen's third goal of the game just under a minute later sparked an 8-0 run by Northwestern to end the half—three of those goals coming off the stick of Frank.

The second half was more of the same as Bowen and Kristin McCandlish scored the first two goals of the half to put the game out of reach at 15-4.

Aly Josephs, Casey Donohoe and Danielle Spencer each scored two goals while Kristen Kjellman (1g, 1a, 3dc), Nielsen (1g, 5a), Katrina Dowd, McCandlish and Lindsay North all added one goal.

Maria Valderas, Kerry Shea and Long each scored two goals for Penn State. The Wildcat defense held Jessi Lieb, Penn State's leading scorer coming into today, scoreless.

Morgan Lathrop picked up the win in goal for NU once again, making six saves. PSU's Cammie Jurkowsky made 10 saves for the Nittany Lions in the loss.

Other Notes: NU has now nine in a row and 26-straight home games dating to 2004 … Nielsen now has 34 assists on the season, good for third on NU's all-time single-season list … The Wildcats are outscoring teams 104-29 in the first half this year … Meredith Frank has now recorded at least one point in 32-straight games — every game of her career … The Wildcats are 51-2 in the past two-plus seasons and 65-4 in their last 69 games … NU is averaging 20.0 goals over the last three games while giving up just 6.5.

2007-04-14