With the clock ticking under ten seconds, Northwestern had noice choice but to rush. The first overtime period was about to end, and the ‘Cats had possession while crowding around a goal that was their ticket to a championship title. Madison Taylor wanted to write the storybook finish, but the ball slipped out of her cradle during her shot. Annabel Child scooped it up with under five seconds left on the far right side of the goal. She calmly curved left around the defenders, found a lane and flicked
her stick. The ball found the net and with it, the Wildcats’ fourth-straight Big Ten title.
Child wasn’t fully aware how many milliseconds were left on the clock. She just knew to shoot.
“Honestly, I just heard Aditi yelling, ‘go, go’” Child said. “I wasn’t sure how much time was left, so just put it on cage as hard as I possibly could, and prayed that it went in. So I was happy when I saw it hit the back of it.”
Moments like these show how battle-tested this team is. The ’Cats played the third-strongest schedule in the country, according to NCAA RPI metrics, while becoming the first team since 2012 to beat two IWLCA No. 1-ranked squads in the same year.
For the second consecutive year, NU drew Maryland — a powerhouse program that has quickly blossomed into the team’s most distinguished rival — in the Big Ten Tournament title game with a chance to become the first team ever to best the Terrapins seven consecutive times.
Maryland had a reason to be hungry. The Terps lost an 8-7 heartbreaker to Northwestern in last year’s conference championship contest. Three weeks ago, they suffered an 11-0 defeat at the hands of NU that all but cost them the Big Ten regular season title. They entered Ann Arbor motivated for vengeance.
This season has been full of challenges for Northwestern. But that’s exactly how the ‘Cats like it.
Head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller said the ‘Cats’ difficult schedule prepares them for moments like this. It taught the team that to be the best, you have to face it.
“We know it’s going to be a battle,” Hiller said. “They (Maryland) have a great tradition, great coaching staff, and you know they they battle every time. So that’s really where you want to be.”
Beating the top teams requires players to rise in the biggest moments, lean on regular-season experience and be willing to step outside their roles to get it done.
Jenika Cuocco and Child were the stars in Ann Arbor, and each embodied those traits. Cuocco’s 18 saves tied a career-high and were the most saves made by a Big Ten goalie this season. She was aggressive all game long and stifled a strong Maryland offense for most of the afternoon. Cuocco’s performance earned her the 2026 Big Ten Tournament Most Outstanding Player.
The graduate student described this as the culmination of her work, while also crediting her fellow teammates for their support.
“It like end of a chapter for me,” Cuocco said. “I’m just super proud of my defense. They gave me looks that were what I wanted to see and could save all day. So I’m just super proud of their performance. They made my job really easy.”
While Cuocco spearheaded the defensive effort, Child was the headliner on offense. She netted a hat trick for the first time in her career and put together her first multi-goal game since March 25. Child’s back-to-back goals early in the third quarter helped Northwestern widen its lead to four, giving the ‘Cats their first true cushion of the game.
What made Child’s outing even more impressive was the versatility it required. Despite being normally a defensive midfielder, Hiller adjusted Child’s role to reflect that of an attacker, compensating for eight minutes worth of cards handed out to Northwestern’s offensive unit in the contest..
Hiller touted Child’s willpower when making the adjustment, a challenge that the graduate student embraced.
“I think it means the world that my coaches and all my teammates have confidence in me, so I can derive their confidence and just put it into my game plan,” Child said.
Together, Cuocco and Child — combined with excellent team defense that forced 16 turnovers and was 19-for-21 on clears — helped the Wildcats build a 7-3 lead with 11 minutes left in the fourth quarter. But then, the Terps regained their offensive firepower, scoring four-straight goals to tie the game at 7-7 and force extra time.
Despite the game being turned on its head, the ‘Cats stayed confident and poised.
“We knew we could do this,” Child said when recalling the team’s sentiment after Maryland’s comeback. “We were never on the ropes, that wasn’t the mindset in our huddles.”
Sometimes, a single play is emblematic of a player’s success in a game. That was true of Child’s game-winning shot and of what transpired two minutes before in overtime.
Taylor Lapointe thought she had netted the game-winning goal, but it was negated due to a crease violation. Despite that, the ‘Cats’ defense stayed ready on the counter attack. Maryland got two clean looks to try and win the title — first from Maisy Clevenger, then from Kristen Shanahan after she picked up a ground ball. Both were denied by Cuocco, whose clutch pair of saves in rapid succession kept the game tied and set the stage for Child’s heroic moment.
“She’s big time, she’s really a big time goalie,” Hiller said. “When you make those types of saves, it gives your defense so much confidence that you know what they’re doing is good as well.”
That’s what these Wildcats do. Career-defining performances from two veteran pillars of this team were the fuel it needed to rise to the occasion. And because of them, Northwestern is the Big Ten Champion for a fourth consecutive year.
“We leaned on each other and poured on each other,” Cuocco said. “We knew that the team that stayed the most composed was going to win the game, and we leaned into that and knew that we were in the driver’s seat and needed to keep that mentality.”
With the NCAA tournament on the horizon, the Wildcats are balancing their relishment in this victory with preparation for what’s to come.. But if this past weekend’s performance is any indication of the future, the ‘Cats will be ready for whatever challenge awaits them next.
“Today we celebrate a win we’re really proud of, and then going into next week, we reset,” Child said. “We think about the future. We think about the goals we still have to accomplish and the time we still have to cherish together.”
