Buffs' Elliott Ready To Test Mentor As Northwestern Lacrosse Visits

BOULDER – Sunday afternoon, Colorado women's lacrosse head coach Ann Elliott will be welcoming an old friend to Kittredge Field in the form of the No. 9 Northwestern Wildcats and NU head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller.

What makes this game a special event for Elliott is that for the first time since she started the program at CU, her mentor and friend, Amonte Hiller, will get a chance to see what she's built during the past three years.

"On a personal level I'm excited to have Northwestern come out and see the University of Colorado and see what we have here and where we are in the building process," said Elliott. "And for me it's neat to have Kelly bring Northwestern out here to see my new home and to be a part of what we're building here."

Elliott was a powerhouse defender at NU from 2004-07, where she was part of three national championship teams under Amonte Hiller. Shortly after her time as a player she joined Amonte Hiller's staff in 2009 and was part of another three national championships won by the Wildcats.

"I had a great experience at Northwestern because as a player I was there kind of at the beginning and as a coach we started to become successful," said Elliott.

Through the years Elliott and Amonte Hiller have remained close.

"Ann is pretty much like family to me," Amonte Hiller said. "And she's one of my closest friends. She was with us for many years and she'll always be a part of our family. It was very hard to let Ann go when she got the job at Colorado. But I think it's amazing to be able to see Ann with her own team and to be able to see her grow and come into her own. She's just a tremendous individual who's smart and caring, and I felt very lucky to have her as a player on my team and I felt even luckier to have her as a coach on my staff. And, most importantly, to be able to call her my friend."

The relationship Elliott has with Amonte Hiller has allowed Elliott to confidently bring to Colorado the same ideals that Amonte Hiller used to build NU.

"As a player, Kelly was an incredible mentor and someone who was always approachable and she always pushed you to be your best," Elliott said. "And I think it was the same when I was under her and I was working at Northwestern. When Kelly was building Northwestern, she went after players that she thought would fit her philosophy and that could play, and we've taken a lot of that here to CU.

"We don't need our players to be the most skilled, fancy or showy, but you have to play hard and you've got to focus on the little things while staying tough. And that's really what we've been focusing on and what we'll continue to build here at CU."

During her time at NU, Elliott witnessed first-hand what it takes to build a program both from a player's perspective and as a coach on Amonte Hiller's staff.

When Elliott joined the team in 2004 Amonte Hiller had been in charge for just two seasons and the Wildcats had yet to finish with a winning record. That quickly changed. In 2005, Elliott's sophomore season, NU went from a newly minted program that sat unknown in the Midwest to becoming the first team not located on the East Coast to win a national championship.

NU, with Amonte Hiller driving the ship, has gone on to win seven national championships on its way to becoming a powerhouse program and Amonte Hiller has accumulated a 256-57 record to go along with her seven titles. All of this has provided a blueprint for Elliott to follow at Colorado.

"Being able to see both sides of it is interesting, especially when you're tasked with building a program yourself," said Elliott. "I think it gives you a perspective and understanding of how important the core values you have are, no matter if you're building a program or if you're just a bit more established."

Since arriving at CU in March of 2012, Elliott has put together an impressive 35-20 record over three seasons, with a 18-9 record in the competitive Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.

During that time the Buffs have finished in the top four of the MPSF every season, and each year the wins have increased as the program begins to make a name for itself.

Looking to continue to grow the program, the Buffs have made the trip to Evanston, Illinois, the past two seasons, looking to play top competition but in those two previous meetings CU was unable to come away with the win.

It's another factor that makes NU's first trip to Boulder unique, because for Elliott, it's a chance to take down her mentor for the first time while showcasing her own program's growth.

"It's a great opportunity to play an incredible team at home," Elliott said, "which is something that you don't always get to do a lot, especially early on when building a program."

On the field Colorado senior midfielder Marie Moore and her teammates understand what's at stake Sunday for both the Buffs and their coach.

"It means a lot to have them come here to play us," Moore said. "We need to have a lot of pride out there on the field and I think it will be helpful for us to have home field advantage. We all know the relationship coach Elliott has with Northwestern, and it doesn't have to be said. But at the same time, we're trying to play our game and be who we are without worrying about them, and I think that's how coach wants us to look at the game. But the bottom line is it's Northwestern and we know it and we want to come out here and win."

While Moore and her teammates focus on the action in front of them, "Northwestern has a little bit more size then we do, so we just need to go out and play fast and physical to match them and beat them."

Elliott, on the other hand, will be dealing with a mix of emotions when she takes her place next to Amonte Hiller on the sideline.

"One thing about the both of us is that we're extremely competitive and want to win," Elliott said. "And while we both want to win, we also both have a lot of respect for each other.

So it can be conflicting and especially for myself this game can be emotional, but being here at CU we're building our program and to have the opportunity to play a program like

Northwestern is incredible. We'd love for this game to continue throughout the years going forward and to have this develop into a rivalry, I think that would be exciting. You always want to play great teams and to get better, so we're excited about this."

A win for CU on Sunday will go a long way to creating that friendly rivalry between two programs connected at the hip by two coaches who, no matter what, will continue to care about each other regardless of the outcome on the field.

Colorado University Athletics

Buffs' Elliott Ready To Test Mentor As Northwestern Lacrosse Visits

Players Mentioned

Marie Moore

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