November 6, 2009
by Scott Souza/
In June, Kjellman made the All-World team as she helped the US win the World Cup in Prague.
Kelly Amonte Hiller knew she was getting a player with potential when she convinced Kristen Kjellman to join her fledgling Northwestern University women’s lacrosse program.
It took only a few weeks into her freshman season for Kjellman to hint at how she would go on to expand the boundaries of how potential in the sport is measured.
Amonte Hiller remembers that Kjellman got off to a modest start with the Wildcats when she arrived on campus six years ago. A state champion and Boston Globe Player of the Year her senior season at Westwood (Mass.) High, she brought the talent and work ethic the coach craved in her recruits. But the aggressiveness and polish she had hoped for was missing from preseason workouts.
“A lot of people expected her to star right away,” Northwestern’s coach recalled. “But she was a little timid, at first.”
So Amonte Hiller pushed, and found a player willing — eager, in fact — to be shoved in the direction of success. Then it happened. The Wildcats headed to New England April 4, 2004, for a game against the University of Connecticut and the freshman unleashed the array of skills that would wash over the national landscape for the next four years.
She scored a school-record eight goals and added an assist in a contest that suggested the fortunes of the program would skyrocket.
“She was around a lot of her family and ex-teammates that day and you could see her confidence just soared,” the coach said. “She never turned back. She led the team in goals that day. She had this great behind-the-back goal. It made you realize that she had what it took to go out there and produce. The special thing was that she realized it too.”
It’s not a stretch to say a legend arrived that day. Kjellman went on to become a four-year All-American for the three-time national champions. She set school records in points (344) and goals (250), while becoming a driving force behind what is among the most dominant programs in collegiate sports.
Her teams went 77-5, including 62-2 over her final three seasons, and were 13-1 in NCAA Tournament play. She became the first player to win the Tewaaraton Trophy as national player of the year in back-to-back seasons.
Now a gold medalist as a member of the Women’s World Cup team in Prague in June, Kjellman is one of the most accomplished women’s lacrosse players the sport has seen and among the best New England has produced.
Like many young lacrosse players, Kjellman was an athletic girl who signed up for a clinic in middle school and was quickly hooked on the sport. Also a basketball and soccer standout, she said she went to a camp in eighth grade and decided it was something she wanted to try again in high school.
Her play at Westwood followed the same trajectory as the Wolverines program would. She and the team got better and better each season under Westwood coach Leslie Frank. By her senior year, the Wolverines were state champions for the first time and Kjellman was a hot commodity in college recruiting circles.
When Amonte Hiller came calling, Kjellman said she looked back on the instruction she’d received from the former Thayer Academy star when she attended her summer camp and decided to head to the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Ill., to try to help build another program coming off an 8-8 season.
“That was a new program that was still in its infancy,” Kjellman said. “I had played with some of their players when I was in high school and felt comfortable with them. They had started out slowly, but they had been building the year before and you could tell Kelly was getting them ready to move forward.”
Kjellman and her fellow class of athletes provided the additional spark that thrust the Wildcats to the next level.
“I first met Kristen on her official visit to Northwestern,” recalled NU and U.S. World Cup teammate Sarah Albrecht, a Braintree native and Thayer Academy alumna. “She was very quiet and reserved — a mysteriously good player.”
But starting with the UConn game, Kjellman came out of her shell on and off the field. During her first year, the Wildcats lost just three games and advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals, where Kjellman had five goals and three assists in a loss to Virginia.
“She was tremendous in that Virginia game,” lauded Amonte Hiller. “That was another one that really got her confidence going. You name it from there — with every big stage, she would have a big game.”
The Inside Lacrosse Rookie of the Year returned the next spring with herself and her team seemingly the heirs apparent to greatness. She then helped lead the Wildcats to the first of NU’s five straight national titles.
“We played Virginia again the next year in the tournament, and while we knew we could get there, we were still kind of shocked we did,” said Kjellman, who had five goals against the Cavaliers in the title game and was named Championship Game MVP. “Then the next year (2006) we beat Duke in the semifinals and we won in overtime. Everybody knew we were the top two teams and that was for the championship. It was just such a battle.”
The battles continued, but neither Kjellman nor her teammates backed down, as they relentlessly pursued improvement. The ability to push the pace even when there was no one ahead of them proved their greatest collective attribute.
The team’s camaraderie was apparent and significant, and Kjellman also had some memorable performances — and displayed some nifty moves — away from the field. Her teammates dubbed her NU Women’s Lax Idol for her “Footloose” footwork on the dance floor.
Amonte Hiller and Kjellman credit much of their success together to being the perfect fits for each other. The coach said Kjellman’s willingness to learn and keep working toward higher goals helped create the foundation of a dynasty, while Kjellman credits her former coach’s ability get the most out of every player in the program, rather than simply relying on stacking the team with the strongest, fastest girls in the country.
“She recruits work ethic,” Kjellman said. “She is a phenomenal strategic coach and she finds ways to use players to the best of their ability. She was such a talented player herself, so she knew how to bring out our skills and instill confidence in our abilities.”
Once the confidence came for Kjellman at the next level, the limits of her potential came crashing down.
“I look for competitiveness and I saw when she was young her level for that was so high,” the coach said. “She had this ability to push herself. She wasn’t the most polished player when I got her, but I could see the potential with her ability to drive herself. Our program is built on hard work and players being willing to do what it takes to bring their individual talent levels together to make a team.”
That formula worked for three years with Kjellman and the Wildcats, and has continued to work during a national title string that has reached five in a row.
“We listened to whatever Kelly told us and tried our hardest to carry her ideas and philosophies out,” Albrecht said. “Being unified in that way really took our game to the next level.
“The first year we won our championship, we might not have been the most talented players, but we were unified as a team and that’s what really made the difference.”
Kjellman graduated in 2007 and now lives and works in Chicago as a field coordinator for Nike Lacrosse. But while the daily grind of practices is behind her, the 24-year-old is still playing the sport and winning championships.
This spring, she joined the U.S. Women’s World Cup team for a five-day training camp in Baltimore. The squad then traveled to Prague in June and avenged an upset loss to Australia in the 2005 event with the gold-medal win over the Aussies.
“It was great to be able to play with Kristen again after playing with her in college,” Albrecht said. “I think that it helped us on the field to be able to connect with someone who already knows your strengths and weaknesses as a player. We knew what the other was doing, or thinking, during the games, which always helps you get the ball in the net.”
Kjellman, who scored five goals against England and made the All-World team in Prague, said lacrosse is still a big part of her life and that she still trains regularly at the Northwestern campus. Her career now involves igniting that flame inside other young girls to pursue the sport with the fervor and dedication she did.
Young girls who may very well be fueled by the desire to be the next Kristen Kjellman.
“I guess I never thought of it that way,” she said. “I am just so grateful to have been able to play for great coaches and play against so many great players. To think that I would be considered on that level is amazing.”
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