Jan. 28, 2007

Updated Feb. 6

EVANSTON, Ill. -- To no one's surprise, the back-to-back national champion Northwestern lacrosse team was tabbed the preseason No. 1 team by Lacrosse Magazine and Inside Lacrosse in January and once again by the IWLCA on Tuesday, Feb. 6.

Northwestern, who earned 12 of the 13 first place votes for the Inside Lacrosse poll and 13 of the possible 15 in the IWLCA poll, is slated to play 11 teams currently ranked.

The Wildcats return their top two goal scorers and nearly 62 percent of their scoring from a year ago, including last year's Tewaaraton Award Winner Kristen Kjellman who led the nation's top scoring team with 72 goals. Senior attacker and All-American Aly Josephs also returns after scoring 55 goals last season. Making life even more miserable for opposing defenses will be last year's ALC Rookie of the Year Meredith Frank (32g, 19a) and sophomore Hilary Bowen (22g, 13a).

Anchoring the defense will be sophomore goalkeeper Morgan Lathrop along with All-American defender Lindsay Finocchiaro and senior Annie Elliott.

Last season Northwestern won its third-straight ALC title and became the first team in school history to repeat as NCAA Champions with its 7-4 win over Dartmouth in the championship game. They shattered single-season school records for goals (333), assists (165) and points (498) in a season and also set the record for goals per game average (15.8). They fell just short of breaking the all-time NCAA record, which is 16.1.

The 'Cats are 41-1 over the past two seasons and 55-3 in their last 58 contests.

Lacrosse Magazine Preseason Top 20
1. Northwestern
2. Virginia
3. Duke*
4. Princeton
5. Notre Dame*
6. Dartmouth
7. Maryland*
8. Georgetown
9. Johns Hopkins*
10. North Carolina*
11. Cornell
12. James Madison
13. Hofstra*
14. Penn State*
15. Boston University*
16. Stanford
17. Syracuse*
18. Towson
19. Denver
20. Richmond

Inside Lacrosse Preseason Top 20 Poll
1. Northwestern (12)
2. Duke (1)*
3. North Carolina*
4. Georgetown
5. Princeton
6. Maryland*
7. Virginia
8. Notre Dame*
9. Dartmouth
10. Johns Hopkins*
11. Cornell
12. Richmond
13. James Madison
14. Penn State*
15. Hofstra
16. Boston University*
17. Syracuse*
18. Stanford
19. Pennsylvania*
20. Vanderbilt*
Others receiving votes: Denver 15, Towson 14, William and Mary 10, Loyola 7, UMBC 2, Virginia Tech 1

IWLCA Preseason Top 20 Poll
1. Northwestern (13)
2. Duke (1)*
3. Georgetown
4. North Carolina*
5. Notre Dame (1)*
6. Dartmouth
6. Princeton
8. Maryland*
9. Virginia
10. Johns Hopkins*
11. Cornell
12. James Madison
13. Richmond
14. Penn State*
15. Syracuse*
16. Hofstra*
17. Boston University*
18. Stanford
19. Vanderbilt*
20. Penn*

*2007 regular-season opponent