The big banquet will be Thursday, followed by the game Friday, and, naturally, Jaclyn Murphy is expected to be in Evanston for both.

She means so much to each of the women on the university's team.

She is their friend. She is smart, she is cute, she is 13.

She has a brain tumor.

Northwestern's women are the three-time defending national champions in lacrosse. They all believe that they couldn't have done it without her.

"We hear some people focus on what the team has done for her," said Ashley Gersuk, who was the goalie for the Wildcats' first NCAA championship team. "It's what she has done for us."

None ever had even heard of Jaclyn Amanda Murphy until the middle of that first championship season.

A mutual friend knew of this little girl from Yorktown, N.Y., who had to miss her lacrosse practice because she was weak from her struggle with medulloblastoma, a form of cancer that preys on children.

"I was asked if we could send Jaclyn a little something, just to cheer her up," Northwestern's lacrosse coach Kelly Amonte Hiller recalled.

Her assistant at the time was Alexis Venechanos, whose friend happened to be coaching Jaclyn's team in New York.

No way that Jaclyn would miss a lacrosse practice if it were humanly possible for her to be there. She had been an active child from the start, learning to walk at 10 months, riding a bike by 5.

After she was diagnosed in March 2004, she underwent a six-hour surgery to remove the malignant growth. A life port was implanted in her chest. Then the chemotherapy began.

But you couldn't keep her down.

Northwestern's players sent her an autographed team guide and a few other items. They invited her to a 2005 night game at Johns Hopkins if she felt strong enough to make the trip.

"At first she was this shy little girl," Gersuk remembered. "But she wasn't intimidated by being in a room with 30-odd older girls. She came to our pregame dinner and told us the whole story of everything she had been through up to then. We just sat there dumbfounded.

"Her father said that was the first time he had heard Jaclyn talk about herself that way."

A bond formed on the spot.

Northwestern knew it had a pretty strong team, but whether Jaclyn was a lucky charm, an inspiration or simply a brand new fan, everything began to go the team's way.

At the NCAA championship game, Gersuk said, "As a goalie, I only saw the ball two or three times the whole second half. I have to think Jaclyn was the reason for that. That's the way she predicted it."

A television station had heard about Jaclyn and invited her on at halftime. She predicted a final score of 13-10, which is exactly they way it turned out.

"We learned to love her from the very day we got to know her," said Amonte Hiller, who has been coaching NU lacrosse since 2000.

"She's a fighter, so energetic, so mature for her age, so positive. Any time a player is struggling or going through a hard time, they think of her and gain a whole new perspective."

Players constantly telephone and text-message Jaclyn. If they believe she might be anxious about an MRI or some upcoming treatment, they try to keep Jaclyn so occupied that she won't have time to think about it.

On the field, the team has posed with handmade banners and sent the photographs to her: "NU (heart) JACLYN—THINKING OF AND PRAYING FOR YOU."

When the first national championship was won, Jaclyn was there. One of the Wildcats presented her championship wristwatch to Jaclyn as a gift.

After the players made headlines for wearing casual footwear to the White House, they decided to auction off their flip-flops and donate the money to Jaclyn's medical bills. It was just the start.

"We wondered if there was more we could do, especially because Jaclyn does so much for us," Gersuk said.

A year later, Northwestern won the NCAA title again. Jaclyn was on hand, but so weak by night's end that a Wildcat picked her up and carried her on the field.

An organization was formed: The Friends of Jaclyn Foundation. Its goal is to raise money for pediatric brain cancer research.

A benefit game between Northwestern and Massachusetts, now coached by Venechanos, was played in Jaclyn's hometown in 2007 and raised more than $30,000. It was such a success that it has been turned into an annual event, the Pediatric Brain Tumor Awareness College Lax Challenge. (Lax is shorthand for lacrosse.)

<b>This year the game will be at 7 p.m. Friday at Lakeside Field in Evanston.</b> The opponent will be Georgetown, which has adopted a young cancer patient of its own the way NU's team has.

There will be a fundraising banquet for both schools Thursday night at the Hotel Orrington and is open to the public at $100 per seat.

Tickets to the next night's game will be $10 and it is preferred they be purchased in advance.

Jaclyn's friends can't wait to see her again.

"She's honestly a ray of sunlight," said Gersuk, 24, who no longer plays for the Wildcats but is coordinating this week's events. "There are a lot of reasons a team wins three national championships in a row, but as far as this team is concerned, Jaclyn is one of them."

Undefeated this season, NU's game with Georgetown will be the next step to a possible fourth straight NCAA championship, which is yet another reason the players so want their honorary teammate to be there.

If they need the final score, they can check with her at halftime.

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Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune, Written by: Mike Downey