Northwestern women's la crosse team take fifth straight championship

There was Hilary Bowen, the ball in her stick, the clock winding down and the nine other seniors on her team positioned around her.

She couldn't have asked for a better way to go out.

The Northwestern senior, one of the best lacrosse players in school history, helped the top-ranked Wildcats win their fifth straight national championship last weekend and remembers trying to take special note of the way their 21-7 rout of North Carolina in the title game played out.

It was an image she wanted burned in her memory forever.

"We've got five seniors who start, but the fact that we got such a big lead, it gave us the opportunity at the end to have all the seniors on the field at once and that was an incredible feeling," said Bowen, a native of upstate New York who lives in a house with seven other seniors from the team. "That's probably happened only once or twice before so that was a really special moment."

It capped off an era at Northwestern that was filled with special moments, courtesy the senior class, who won four national titles, amassed an 84-3 career record and put together one undefeated season, this year's 23-0 masterpiece.

"It's just so surreal that our class won every year that we were here," Bowen said. "There were certain points during the game where I just tried to hold on to that feeling of being out there and being a part of it. When the clock was winding down, seeing all of us seniors on the field together, that final time, it just really meant a lot."

And to think that Bowen could have missed out on the entire thing.

The idea is unbearable to her, which is why she pushed herself harder than she ever has over the last two months.

Bowen tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee during a game against California in early April. Since the injury was isolated to that area, doctors told her there was a chance she could come back by the end of the season, even without surgery.

If she was able to strengthen the rest of the surrounding ligaments and muscles enough, they told her she might be able to function somewhat normally despite still having a torn ACL.

"They told me about 1 in 10 people are able to do it," said Bowen, who returned in time to play in the final three games of the season. "I was like, 'OK, I'm just going to rehab really hard then.'

"To know you could hurt yourself even more is kind of scary because 10 years down the road you might need a replacement knee or something like that. But this is my senior year, there's really no more lacrosse after this and I didn't want to miss what I knew would be another unbelievable experience."

Turns out, Bowen didn't just go along for the ride. She played a big part in Northwestern's victory over the third-ranked Tar Heels.

She scored a game-high 5 goals, running her career total to 219 goals, third-best in program history.

Speaking of history, the Wildcats are just the second program in NCAA history to win five national titles in a row. Maryland captured seven straight titles between 1995 and 2001.

Can Northwestern eclipse that mark and become the most dominant program in the history of women's college lacrosse?

"I think the program is well on its way there," Bowen said. "I can say that now because I'm not on the team anymore and I can't jinx anything.

"I have no doubt that they can come back and do it again next year. They lose a lot of seniors, but I don't even really think that matters. We've lost a lot of seniors before. I just think that if you work hard and believe you can do it, you can be very successful."

Ring masters: Every year, Northwestern's seniors have had a say on the design of team's national championship ring.

This senior class is thinking big.

"All of our other rings are rings you can actually wear," Bowen said. "All the seniors were saying that this year we should get a huge ring, like one of those big ol' football rings."

National treasure: For the second year in a row, Northwestern senior Hannah Nielsen won the prestigious Tewaaraton Trophy, which honors the national player of the year in women's college lacrosse.

Nielsen, a native of Australia who will play for her country in the World Cup this summer, is Northwestern's all-time leader in points (398) and assists (224). She owns the NCAA Division I records for assists in a single game (10), season (83 in 2009) and career.

"Hannah and I worked together on attack and played back there together since we were sophomores," Bowen said. "She's one of my favorite players to play with and to watch."

pbabcock@dailyherald.com