Women's Lacrosse: Cats Know Focus is Key to 4-Peat

Northwestern could rest on its laurels and grind out the regular season with three national championship in the trophy case and the potential for a fourth this season.

The No. 1 Wildcats have a difficult schedule - which has already featured seven ranked teams and three more to come in their final four games - and dominated their opponents. NU has played only two games within five goals, defeating No. 7 Georgetown 7-6 on March 28 and topping No. 10 Duke 15-11 on April 6.

Especially after its game in Durham, N.C., it could be easy to think that this team may be coasting through the season as they trailed at halftime and rallied for the victory.

But after a 16-2 dismantling of No. 8 Notre Dame at Lakeside Field on Wednesday, it is clear NU can keep its focus and drive on toward Towson, Md. and the national championship game.

"I think for this game we really focused on ourselves and doing all the little things that we know are the result of hard work - getting the ground balls and getting the draw controls - and just being aggressive," junior midfielder Hilary Bowen said. "That really helped us out overall."

The Cats undoubtedly have a lot of experience, already defending their title twice. But the way they defeated the Fighting Irish made it look like they were trying to make a statement to the lacrosse world.

NU led Notre Dame 15-0 before conceding a goal. Bowen said the Duke game made the team realize it is not going to simply show up and dominate. Every team is going to be gunning to knock off the defending champions and the team has to focus to reach every win.

But this team is experienced and knows one impressive game does not equate to a championship. The Cats have played with a target on their back for many years and they still expect to see each and every team's best when they take the field.

"A team can come off a big win and think that they rule the world and that's totally not true," Bowen said. "Every single team is going to come out at you as hard as they can. We need to realize on any day, if we don't bring our top game, we can be beaten."