Lightning lit up the sky over Philadelphia Sunday night, but it also lit up Franklin Field in the form of the women's lacrosse National Championship game between No. 1 Northwestern and No. 3 Virginia.
When the Cavaliers scored four straight second-half goals to close a 11-7 deficit to 12-11, the stadium was electric. Everyone sensed another improbable comeback by Virginia, which had scored ten straight goals to beat Duke just two days earlier.
But great teams have a way of collecting themselves and turning momentum around. And Northwestern - arguably the first great women's lacrosse team of the new millenium - did exactly that by holding on for a 15-13 win and its third consecutive national title.
"We're just so excited; this is something we've wanted all year long," Northwestern coach Kelly Amonte-Hiller said. "This senior class wanted it more than ever."
"You always hope that it won't get to that point," Wildcats senior Kristen Kjellman said about the comeback. "But we knew what we had to do."
Goals from Meredith Frank and Hilary Bowen helped Northwestern stop the bleeding, but what really neutralized the Cavaliers' momentum was Amonte-Hiller's decision to have Hannah Nielsen and Bowen alternate keeping the ball behind Virginia's net.
Northwestern stacked its players outside the goal, while nobody challenged Nielsen or Bowen. With the score 14-13 late in the second half, nothing happened on the field.
"That was a great delay on their part, to put one really dominant player behind," Virginia coach Julie Myers said. "We knew what they were doing, but the risk of going back" was too great, she explained.
Amonte-Hiller said the decision to hold the ball so late with only a slim lead was easy.
"They were scoring at will," she said. "I just wanted to take a little bit of air out of the ball and slow things down."
At the beginning of the game, it looked like Virginia's momentum from their incredible comeback against Duke on Friday would overcome the skill of Northwestern. Megan O'Malley and Ashley McCulloch both scored within two minutes of the opening whistle.
But as Penn found out in its 12-2 drubbing at the hands of Northwestern, when the 'Cats score, they do it in bunches.
Seven straight goals put them firmly in the driver's seat, and Northwestern went into halftime leading 11-6. Bowen netted four of those goals while freshman Katrina Dowd had an unexpected outburst, scoring two of her three goals on the night in that first half.
Dowd admitted to being very nervous before the game, but credited her performance to the support of her teammates.
"The upperclassmen gave me the confidence to do it," she said. "They said, 'Don't be scared. Don't be shy.'"
With star upperclassmen like Kristen Kjellman and Hilary Bowen graduating, the Wildcats will need her confidence if they hope to continue the dynasty they've started.
