May 11--For 24 minutes, this was the Northwestern women's lacrosse team that has fought a losing battle against inconsistency much of the year.
Sloppy passes. Unforced turnovers. Passive defense. Inability to free leading scorer Selena Lasota from the faceguard, ball-denial defense she has seen the second half of the season.
And a 6-3 deficit in the Wildcats' second-round NCAA playoff game against Notre Dame Sunday Lakeside Field, leading Northwestern coach Kelly Amonte Hiller to call a timeout with five minutes, 50 seconds left in the first half.
"I told them we needed to wake up and play fearless because we don't to wake up tomorrow and think about not having put it all out there," Amonte Hiller said. "The team did a great job the last 36 minutes."
Lasota, Big Ten freshman of the year, spurred the turnaround by using a pick to shake her faceguard defender, then burst through two others before scoring the first of her five goals. That began a 12-4 run that ended in a 16-11 win, sending the 8th seeded Wildcats to a quarterfinal matchup next weekend at No. 1 seed Maryland.
It was the fifth Northwestern (14-6) win over Notre Dame (11-9) in five NCAA tourney games, all in the round of 16 at Evanston.
"The biggest thing with the faceguard is you just have to stay calm," Amonte Hiller said. "You can get caught in a frustration where when you don't have the ball and you get it, you are so excited."
Lasota would beat the faceguard that way for a goal another time and also do it on a backdoor cut that started with her standing one foot inside the restraining line. Once she shook her Irish shadow, Lasota was on a full run when she took a perfect pass from Corinne Wessels and ripped it into the net.
"The first game I got denied, I kind of got frustrated, but I just adapted," Lasota said.
The five goals after four in an opening-round win over Lousiville gave Lasota 67 for the year, moving her into ninth place on the single-season scoring list of a Wildcat program seeking its 11th straight Final Four appearance. She is the highest-scoring freshman in Northwestern history.
The Wildcats also got single-game career highs from junior Kaleigh Craig (five goals) and sophomore Sheila Nesselbush (four). Their faceguard defender, walk-on freshman Ally Mueller, held Irish leading scorer Cortney Fortunato (56 goals) to no shots and just a lone assist.
