Northwestern continued to prove that teams outside the Northeast can dominate women’s lacrosse when the Wildcats won their fourth consecutive championship May 25, beating Penn, 10-6, at Johnny Unitas Stadium in Towson, Maryland.

“This is an incredible feeling, winning a fourth straight championship,” said Wildcats coach Kelly Amonte-Hiller. “Penn gave us an incredible game. They are very well-coached and it was quite a challenge to beat them.”

Northwestern, which finished the season 21-1, retaliated for the lone blemish on its record – the Quakers won the two teams’ previous matchup, 11-7, a month ago. Monte-Hiller said the team used the earlier defeat as motivation in the championship game.

The Wildcats were led to victory by juniors Hannah Nielsen and Hilary Bowen, who both scored three goals. Bowen, named the championship’s most outstanding player, tied the tournament record with 17 goals in four games.

Penn scored the first goal of the game, but Northwestern netted four unanswered scores and never lost the lead again. Late in the first half with the score 5-2, goalkeeper Morgan Lathrop saved a free shot attempt by the Quakers’ Rachel Manson, deflecting the shot just as time expired.

“We knew that Penn never gives up, and they were coming at us hard late in the half,” Lathrop said. “I was really focused on stopping them to keep them from getting any momentum going into halftime … I just really focused on that one shot.”

The Quakers came out of the locker room after half time on a mission, scoring the first goal of the second half. But Northwestern answered with three consecutive goals, including senior Christy Finch’s first score since February 17.

Finch, who won a championship each of her four seasons as a Wildcat, said the 2008 title was sweetest.

“I just love this team and how we played together all year,” she said. “It feels great to be able to go out on top.”

Despite a seemingly insurmountable gap, Penn swung the momentum in its favor, scoring three unanswered goals to make the score 8-6. But the Quakers could not contain Nielsen, who found the net twice more in the second half to complete her hat trick and make the score 10-6.

The loss was the first for Penn (17-2) since March 9.

“We are just really happy that we had a fabulous season. I have a great group of young girls that worked hard all year to get us to this point, and I am proud of them,” said Penn coach Karin Brower. “They fought the entire game and worked their hearts out. I have to give a lot of credit to Northwestern. Winning four national championships is incredible.”

Though disappointed by the loss, many of the Quaker players were proud for bringing the national spotlight to their corner of Pennsylvania.

“Not only did we make history for our program, but we made history for our college, which is really exciting,” Manson said.

Manson, Finch, Lathrop Nielsen and Bowen were all named to the all-tournament team, joined by Northwestern’s Meredith Frank and Maggie Bremer, Penn’s Melissa Lehman and Hillary Renna and Megan Mosenson and Halley Quillinan from Syracuse and Duke’s Carolyn Davis and Lindsey Gilbride.

Semifinals

Northwestern  7          9 – 16

Syracuse          6          2 – 8

Northwestern scoring: Hilary Bowen 6, Casey Donohoe 3, Meredith Frank 3, Danielle Spencer 3, Katrina Dowd.

Syracuse scoring: Megan Mosenson 3, Kristin Brady 2, Christina Dove, Halley Quillinan, Awehiyo Thomas.

Goalkeeper saves: Northwestern (Morgan Lathrop) 2; Syracuse (Liz Hogan) 6.

Penn    3          5          1 – 9

Duke   4          4          0 – 8

Penn scoring: Melissa Lehman 3, Rachel Manson 2, Giulia Giordano 1, Ali DeLuca, Emma Spiro, Kaitlyn Lombardo.

Duke scoring: Carolyn Davis 5, Lindsay Gilbride 2, Sarah Bullard.

Goalkeeper saves: Penn (Sarah Waxman) 7, Duke (Kim Imbesi) 7.

Championship game

Northwestern  5          5 – 10

Penn    2          4 – 6

Northwestern scoring: Hannah Nielsen 3, Hilary Bowen 3, Meredith Frank, Katrina Dowd, Christy Finch, Meghan Plunkett.

Penn scoring: Ali DeLuca 2, Rachel Manson, Emma Spiro, Kaitlyn Lombardo, Chelsea Kocis.

Saves: Northwestern (Morgan Lathrop) 11, Penn (Sarah Waxman) 6.