Stick Season, Week Two: Growing pains, but they’re solvable

Northwestern’s loss to Boston College taught us that the ‘Cats still have plenty to improve upon.

Welcome back to Stick Season, Inside NU’s weekly lacrosse column. This week’s column will discuss Northwestern’s matches against No. 1 Boston College and Niagara from this past week. However, heavy emphasis will be placed on the former game, as I thought that match said more about the team than a 22-5 blowout victory against Niagara.

Surprisingly, I left Northwestern’s 13-9 loss to No. 1 Boston College feeling much better than I thought I would following defeat.

Yes, there’s nothing good about losing, let alone breaking a 47-match home win streak. But when I walked out of Ryan Fieldhouse last Saturday, I got a sense of clarity. Even though Northwestern didn’t perform its best, there were clear-cut issues that are very solvable for a team of this caliber.

To be clear, I did not feel this way during the entire match. When Boston College was up 6-0 after nearly 20 minutes of play, deja vu rushed over me. No, not deja vu to the other NU-BC match with an early-game 6-0 scoreline, but to the Qatar Open semifinal tennis match between Poland’s Iga Swiatek and Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko that I watched a day earlier.

Swiatek, the world No. 2, was beaten badly by the unseeded Ostapenko. The Pole played as if she lost before stepping on the court, eventually smashing her racket on the sidelines after an hour of tennis that looked more like a display of hopeless despair. I thought the Wildcats would suffer the same fate on Saturday as I saw them struggle to find openings against the Golden Eagles, letting their home win streak slip out of grasp while last season’s national title loss loomed large.

Luckily enough, that beatdown didn’t happen. Once Madison Taylor got the offense rolling with a mid-second quarter goal, Northwestern clawed back into the game slowly but surely. And while it played catch-up the whole time and missed out on a few critical fourth-quarter opportunities (more on that later), making things close still mattered for the Wildcats. It showed that they could hold their own against a team that, in my opinion, has more top-end talent and depth than them, and exposed flaws they can learn from with much of the season left to play.

The Second Option

The most glaring issue I took from the Boston College game was Northwestern’s lack of secondary and tertiary options on offense.

At this point, it’s clear that Taylor holds the keys. Despite a subpar day from the eight-meter arc, she still pulled significant weight for the ‘Cats, nabbing a hat trick and three assists. After the game, she mentioned that the ball had been sticking to one side of the field on offense — I could see it too, but also because the ball was too often a dead possession when it wasn’t in Taylor’s stick.

So this begs the question: who can support Taylor on the attack?

An early answer can be found in Emerson Bohlig. I praised her in last week’s column and will do so again because, despite being a midfielder, she’s currently ranked second among Northwestern players in goals scored. Against Boston College, she earned her second career hat trick, including goals at the end of the third and the start of the fourth respectively to cut the Golden Eagles’ lead to 10-8. It’s also becoming increasingly clear that she complements Taylor very well on the attack — while Taylor can maneuver to the goal and absorb hits on the way, Bohlig isn’t afraid to take risky shots from far out (including a phenomenal one which I discuss more below) and launch on moment’s notice.

Sometimes, Bohlig’s play may be too brash, but that’s a fixable problem. She was also quiet against Niagara, going 0-for-2, but her ability to show up in big games rather than blowouts stands out more here.

So this begs the question: Given how well she’s been scoring, is it worth a try to give Bohlig a bigger role on the attack? While her speed makes her extremely valuable in the midfield, that portion of Northwestern’s team is in better shape than its offense. It’s also worth noting that both Taylor and Izzy Scane started as midfielders as freshmen, just to be switched to the attack with great degrees of success. It’s harder to do that as a senior and an established midfielder like Bohlig, but it might be a conversation worth considering.

That being said, it can’t just be Taylor and Bohlig. Niki Miles and Riley Campbell, the two starting attackers not named Taylor, were a combined 1-for-9 on Saturday. I know that both players have experience putting up better numbers than that — if they can do so, it would go a long way for the ‘Cats.

What I Liked/Did Not Like

Now that I’ve touched upon my main point of contention, I’ll highlight a few more things I noticed against the Golden Eagles.

The biggest positive of Saturday was the draw. It was the only stat category where Northwestern beat Boston College, getting 15 draw controls to BC’s 10. Taylor, Samantha Smith and Samantha White were responsible for all of them, highlighting the strength and experience of this group for the ‘Cats. Losing the final three draws against Boston College hurt them, but winning the draw six consecutive times in the second quarter and four straight times from the end of the third to the start of the fourth was a big reason for their comeback.

On the other hand, my biggest issue with Northwestern was its poor decision-making against Boston College. In my preview for this match, I said that Northwestern needed to play smart, but that did not happen. NU went 1-for-5 in free position shots, committed two shot clock violations, didn’t pass well and took many chances from less-than-ideal angles.

The most questionable stretch of the game came with around 11 minutes left in the fourth quarter, where Northwestern wasted three possessions — a point-blank free position attempt by Taylor where she shot way too high and didn’t have a backup, a shot clock violation where the ‘Cats took too long to find a look and a turnover caused by a risky pass from Miles. Those were three wasted chances to get the game within one, allowing Boston College to put the match away.

That being said, I think it’s better to struggle early on because of bad decisions rather than just having players who aren’t good enough. These issues are solvable and come with being an inexperienced squad, which head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller alluded to postgame.

“Last year we brought back a really veteran team and Boston College had a lot of new players,” Amonte Hiller said. “When you have a lot of new players early on in the season, it’s a learning process. We have not figured out how we work best.”

Amonte Hiller was referencing Northwestern’s 14-11 win against Boston College last February. That said, Boston College turned the corner to beat Northwestern later that season in May. Teams won’t be the same in a few months compared to now. Northwestern still has time to grow and know itself better, and if done properly, it’s only up from here.

Weekly Awards

Player of the Week — Madison Taylor, Junior: It’s hard to make an argument for anyone else with the numbers Taylor put up this week. After leading all players in points against Boston College, she followed up with six goals and an assist against Niagara.

Highlight of the Week: Bohlig makes a cannon of a shot to put the ‘Cats within three. There was no hesitation, just firing straight into the goal. It looked even better in person.

What’s Next?

The Wildcats take on Colorado on Friday night before going on the road for the first time this season to face No. 4 Syracuse on Feb. 25. Not only is the latter match Delaney Sweitzer’s homecoming, but a win against the Orange would be a huge resume boost for the ‘Cats to get a top-four seed in the NCAA tournament this spring.

Stay tuned for Stick Season next week to get our thoughts on both matches!