Things looked good for the Wildcats going into overtime at home. Having stormed back from a 3-0 deficit to tie the game and with all the impending momentum on their side, all Northwestern needed to do was score first.
But one yellow card and 13 minutes later, Providence handed the Cats a disappointing 4-3 loss Sunday - the team's eighth in their past 10 matches.
Despite the loss, coach Kelly McCollum said she felt the Cats took some major steps in the right direction.
"For our team to come out and really play tenaciously and battle was something we've been looking for out of this group," McCollum said. "When you have a couple losses in a row you have to dig deep to find that."
Providence (9-5, 1-1 Big East), a non-conference opponent, came out putting pressure on the Cats (3-8, 0-3 Big Ten). Midway through the first half, NU found itself in a 2-0 hole with its defense scrambling. The Cats could not muster much offense in the first as the team got its first shot at goal with only three minutes to play in the half. The Friars then increased their lead with an early goal in the second.
"We didn't come out as strongly as we normally do in the first five minutes and we put ourselves in the position where we would have to battle back," junior Alison Bullock said.
And battle back they did. After junior forward Jill Putnam was sent off with a yellow card, the Cats offense finally showed signs of life. Sophomore forward Courtney Plaster-Strange snuck a pass into Bullock who scored her fifth goal of the season.
"After halftime we all knew we had to come back, it was just a matter of who would do it," Bullock said. "It was definitely a spark for our team."
Plaster-Strange continued her best game of the season thus far, scoring her team's second goal off an assist from senior midfielder Cassie Miller forcing Providence to call a timeout. Nevertheless, Plaster-Strange would pick up right where she left off putting the tying shot into the back of the net.
Unable to get the win in regulation, the confident Cats went into overtime. In their last overtime game, senior back Amanda Care put a shot into the net after just 23 seconds. This time they found themselves a woman short after Miller was sent off the field with a yellow card. The Cats held on briefly, but eventually the winning ball snuck into the cage for Providence.
"Mentally, it [being a man down] really fired my team up even more, but they just got a step on us and took advantage of it," McCollum said.
With a resurging offense finally putting points on the board, the Cats need to focus on starting games as well as they finish them especially against tough Big Ten opponents like fifth ranked Iowa (11-2, 2-1), who NU played Friday as a precursor to their nail biter against Providence on Sunday.
The Cats fell to the Hawkeyes, 5-1, for their third Big Ten loss in a row. Still, there were signs of progress.
Plaster-Strange energized the offense by scoring the team's lone goal and their first goal against a Big Ten opponent this season. Goalkeeper Katie Lynch got her first career start and continued to show promise in the cage setting a conference mark for saves in a single game.
"Katie Lynch had a great first half against Penn State last week so it was her cage to keep," McCollum said.
With a talented goalkeeper and an offense that's finally finishing, the Cats are ready to build on this weekend's improvements.
"We scored on some corners and those are improvement areas that we haven't seen before and we're starting to see them now," McCollum said. "We may be down but we're not out."
After a short West Coast road swing, the Cats return to Evanston against Ohio State with a chance to show they're still alive and very much a threat in the Big Ten.
"We can't go out there with nerves," Plaster-Strange said. "We just got to go out there and play like we know we can."
Reach Marcelino Benito at marcelino-jr@northwestern.edu.
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