June 7, 2005

EVANSTON, Ill. - Kelly Amonte Hiller completed a superb season for the Northwestern women's lacrosse team Tuesday, when the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) named her its National Coach of the Year.

In addition, Amonte Hiller was named Mid-Atlantic Region Coach of the Year for the second-straight season. The other regional honorees were Liza Shoemaker of Boston University (Northeast Region) and Kerstin Kimel of Duke (South).

Complete IWLCA Coaches of the Year Release in PDF Format
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Prior to the IWLCA awards, she was named womenslacrosse.com National Coach of the Year, as well as American Lacrosse Conference Coach of the Year for the second year in a row.

Since being hired to revive a program that was dormant for nearly a decade in 2001, Amonte Hiller has led the Northwestern women's lacrosse team to unprecedented heights in an extremely short amount of time -- the Wildcats won the NCAA Championship in just their fourth year since being reinstated as a varsity program. They finished the season as the only unbeaten team in NCAA Division I at 21-0, including ten wins against ranked teams.

Only four teams stayed within five goals of the Wildcats all season, and they had ten wins by 10 or more goals. Northwestern also held the No. 1 position in the IWLCA poll for seven weeks, becoming the first team outside the Eastern time zone to hold the top spot in the poll's history.

The 'Cats set program records for goals, assists, and points this season, and in American Lacrosse Conference play they broke their own record for conference goals (98) and shattered the mark for fewest goals allowed (28).

Overall, Northwestern finished the 2005 season leading the nation in scoring offense (15.10), scoring defense (5.90), scoring margin (+9.19) and draw controls per game (15.14).