We’re back! This week’s Northwestern field hockey notebook is dedicated to a weekend doubleheader of two of the more exciting games I’ve seen in quite some time — a 1-0 win over No. 6 Duke and a 2-0 win over No. 4 Boston College. There’s a lot I want to talk about, so let’s get right to it!
Peak field hockey is here.
Opening weekend was about getting to know Northwestern as a team, as it familiarized itself with gameplay against less competitive opponents. But week two was all about blockbuster matchups,
as the Wildcats traveled to Durham to take on two of the better teams in the ACC, arguably the NCAA’s premier conference.
And as much as Northwestern’s wins reaffirm its status as the nation’s best, the Wildcats were challenged.
Much of the game against Duke was played between the thirds, as both teams were held to under seven shots (and under five shots on goal). Duke backs mostly halted NU’s attempts to drive down the middle. However, the same could be said for the Wildcat defense, which held the Blue Devils scoreless despite getting arguably more good looks than Northwestern.
The penalty corners are still a work in progress for NU, but progress has been made. The ’Cats were able to execute the game-winning goal off an Ilse Tromp dragflick set by Aerin Krys with mere seconds left until halftime.
But as tight as the Duke game was, it was the Boston College game that was the main show this weekend in terms of entertainment. Much like against the Blue Devils, Northwestern was also in a deadlock with the Eagles. But this time around, it felt like both teams (especially the Wildcats, who doubled their shot count from the prior game) had better chances.
In fact, Northwestern’s misses, coupled with Ashley Sessa’s red card (which I’ll embed below for you to see for yourself because someone decided to upload it on YouTube??), had me convinced that the team would drop this contest while down its best attacker (who will miss Northwestern’s next match as well). But instead, the ejection seemed to be the force that pushed the ‘Cats over the top.
After that moment, Kate Janssen gave Northwestern arguably the best look it got all game. Around eight minutes later, Grace Schulze finally found the back of the net for the ‘Cats, and then she did it again with an empty net to secure Northwestern’s back-to-back hard-fought wins.
Gelling Together
Coming into the season, I thought that the Northwestern defense would take longer to build chemistry than the offense, due to the loss of longtime backs like Lauren Hunter, Katie Jones and Annabel Skubisz in goal. But after this weekend, it’s clear that it’s the offense that needs some time to click. But, like the penalty corners, it’s happening.
And in hindsight, it makes sense. Lauren Wadas has graduated, while Grace Schulze and Kate Janssen have arrived. Names like Aerin Krys and Laura Salamanca are earning more minutes than they’ve gotten in prior years. A lack of cohesion was visible at times across both games last weekend. There were instances where a midfielder like Maddie Zimmer would bring the ball downfield and attempt to connect with a forward who was slightly out of place or blocked by an opposing back, and a pass resulted in a turnover. Other times, a forward would have a swath of space in front of them and not know what to do with it.
It took a few of these miscues, including a fast-break opportunity from Schulze against the Eagles, where she fired too late from a bad angle, and Janssen’s miss I mentioned earlier, for the Northwestern offense to really get going in a tie game. So, it’s fitting that it all came together when Krys made a pass that was half the length of the backline to Schulze, who was positioned perfectly to score a goal.
The empty net goal afterward saw similar teamwork, with Olivia Bent-Cole going down the right side of the field on a fastbreak and handing the ball off to Schulze.
It’s clear that Northwestern’s new-look offense needed time to gel, and it’s happening. And the craziest thing about it all is that Sessa and Zimmer, Northwestern’s first and third-highest scorers from 2024, have combined for just one goal so far. Sessa’s movement shows that she’s still one of the best one-on-one forwards in the nation, and Zimmer has already made some incredible plays — including one that had ACCN commentator Leah Secondo emphatically saying “Maddie Zimmer, Suzanne” to her broadcast partner Suzanne Bush. Once this duo’s contributions start showing up more on the stat sheet, the offense will be hard to stop.
A Generational Debut
The entire Northwestern defensive unit deserves its props for putting clamps on Boston College and Duke, which I thought had opportunities to push things throughout their respective contests. But the goalie storyline is what I keep coming back to, because Northwestern is the only Division I team right now to have not allowed a single goal thus far, and redshirt-first-year Juliana Boon is a big reason why.
Specifically, there was a fourth-quarter stretch against Boston College where I was *convinced* that the Eagles would break the dam open after Sessa went out. They took three straight shots on goal, but Boon stopped every single one of them before Northwestern got the ball back and the Krys-to-Schulze goal happened.
There was another instance against Duke where Blue Devil Julia Boehringer tried to pass the ball to an attacker right by the goalpost, but Boon ran out of her spot at the net to block the shot and kick the ball out of the circle.
Yes, I’m aware that Boon had experience playing for the U.S. and Dutch junior national teams before college, and she has a whole year under her belt training with the best team in the country. However, the type of aggressive decision-making, as well as her reaction time and overall energy on the pitch, are astonishing to watch. To do that as a player suiting up for her first-ever collegiate contests with the pressure of replacing an all-time program great is beyond impressive. If she keeps up this level of elite play, it’s going to be one of the top storylines of the year for this team.
Weekly Awards
Player of the Week: Juliana Boon, redshirt-first-year goalie
Who else other than the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week? Boon didn’t get much action the previous week while her offense did the heavy lifting. But against two top-ten teams, she was constantly challenged and yet passed every single time, combining for nine saves across two games.
Play of the Week: You can’t go wrong with a Tromp drag-flick shot. In this one, her stick barely even leaves the ground as she hits a shot straight through the entire Duke defense and in between the goalie’s legs. Doesn’t get much cleaner than that.
Around the NCAA
- Although Northwestern had a clean sweep, the rest of the Big Ten, for the most part, didn’t fare well in the Big Ten-ACC challenge. Across 12 matches taking place across three different sites over the last two weeks, the ACC came out on top with an 8-4 record.
- No. 10 Maryland, expected to be Northwestern’s biggest threat in the Big Ten this year, lost to both Duke and Boston College in Durham. Both teams had been ranked lower than the Terrapins at the time the games were played.
- Obligatory North Carolina watch: The Tar Heels took on Penn and No. 11 Princeton in New Jersey, defeating the Quakers 6-2 and the Tigers 3-2. Notably, Princeton had been up 1-0 with 30 seconds left until halftime before a Powder Blue barrage of goals rained down. 2024 NCAA DI goals leader Charly Bruder is back after missing week one, but she’s come off the bench (and scored two goals against Penn). Meanwhile, freshman Merrit Skubisz continues to split time with grad student Katie Wimmer in goal.
- No. 13 Saint Joseph’s, last year’s NCAA finalists, were upset by a then-unranked Penn State 2-1 in overtime. The ‘Cats play the Nittany Lions on Oct. 10.
What’s Next?
Northwestern will take its third weekend road trip of the season to Louisville, where it will face the home team Cardinals on Friday and Miami (Ohio) on Sunday. Louisville is far from the team that beat Northwestern and reached the NCAA quarterfinals two years ago, so playing without Sessa shouldn’t be a make-or-break there. The match against the MAC RedHawks will be a 2024 NCAA tournament rematch, but the ‘Cats won that 9-2 and are heavily favored once again this time around.
