April 4, 2007

Northwestern's Purdue/Indiana Weekend Game Notes in PDF Format
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EVANSTON, Ill. -- No. 8 Northwestern makes its first Big Ten road trip this season to the state of Indiana, facing Purdue Friday and Saturday before an Easter Sunday doubleheader at Indiana.

The Wildcats come into the weekend with a 3-1 conference mark after splitting with No. 10 Michigan and sweeping Michigan State, while both Purdue and Indiana are 1-3 following splits with Illinois and sweeps at the hands of Iowa on the Big Ten's opening weekend.

NU won a midweek game Tuesday against Northern Illinois at Sharon J. Drysdale Field, improving its overall record to 28-7 this year. NIU was the Wildcats' 25th opponent out of 30 this year to have a winning or .500 record at the time of the game (not counting any of the games during the season's opening weekend).

Northwestern brings with it two USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year finalists this weekend after senior Garland Cooper (Mission Viejo, Calif./Santa Margarita Catholic) and sophomore Tammy Williams (Roscoe, Mo./Osceola) were named to the top-25 finalists list on Wednesday. Cooper hit two home runs Tuesday to tie the NU single-season record of 14, while Williams is in the midst of a 21-game hitting streak.

Freshman Nicole Pauly (Palatine, Ill./Palatine) was the hottest 'Cat after the opening weekend, turning a conference-best .571 batting average, 10 RBIs and a 1.125 slugging percentage in four games into the first Big Ten Player of the Week honor of her career.

In the circle, freshman Lauren Delaney (Jefferson City, Mo./Helias) remains undefeated after securing two wins last week to up her mark to 14-0 on the year. Senior Eileen Canney (Paradise, Calif./Paradise) won her second decision of the year over a top-10 ranked Michigan team last weekend.

For Northwestern's complete weekend game notes, click on the .pdf link at the top of this page.

ON THE INTERNET
Gametracker will be available for all games this week. Also, live streaming audio will be available for the Purdue series at NUsports.com via All-Access with SID Doug Meffley on the call. To sign up for the premium service, link to the audio/video page on NUsports.com.

ON THE AIRWAVES
Student radio WNUR 89.3 FM will broadcast Sunday's doubleheader at Indiana. The broadcast also can be found on the internet at NUsports.com or at sports.wnur.org.