 Media Credit: File Photo By Matt Watras/The Daily Northwestern Senior midfielder Kristen Kjellman scored five goals and three assists in a 22-6 win over Johns Hopkins to lead No. 1 Northwestern to the championship in the inaugural American Lacrosse Conference tournament Sunday. The Wildcats outscored their two opponents 41-13 for the weekend and have not lost since the season opener Feb. 17 against then-No. 4 North Carolina. [Click to enlarge]
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By Wade AskewThe Daily Northwestern
Winning championships shouldn't be easy. But Northwestern certainly made it look that way after outscoring its opponents 41-13 en route to an American Lacrosse Conference championship.
No. 1 NU (17-1, 6-0 American Lacrosse Conference) clinched the first ever ALC tournament title Sunday, dismantling No. 8 Johns Hopkins (11-7, 3-3) 22-6. That came after defeating No. 17 Penn State 19-7 in the semifinal.
Against Penn State, sophomore Hannah Nielsen broke current-assistant coach Lindsey Munday's single-season assist record with her 55th 20 minutes into the game. She finished that game with five assists and added four more against Johns Hopkins to bring her season total to 61, which puts her second on the NCAA single-season list.
Nielsen added four goals to her four assists in the championship game, earning her tournament MVP honors. She also fueled a 10-0 run to start the game, assisting sophomore Meredith Frank on a goal just 59 seconds into the contest.
But after jumping out to a 10-0 lead, Johns Hopkins began to claw back into the game. Lauren Schwarzmann's goal with 2:03 remaining in the first half got the Blue Jays on the board and also began a 5-0 spurt that mostly took place in the second half.
It took just five minutes in the second half for the Blue Jays to cut the lead to 10-5. Johns Hopkins dominated draw controls during the run, which prompted NU coach Kelly Amonte Hiller to call a timeout and emphasize one point: win the draws.
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