It got testy and the waters got mucky, but the ‘Cats got the job done in Ann Arbor on Saturday.
Northwestern (13-3, 7-1 B1G) went on the road to face off against Michigan (11-6, 5-3 B1G) in its Big Ten regular season finale, with the No. 1 seed on the line. Four teams were still in the mix to claim a share of the conference championship and with a Wolverines win, they, along with Johns Hopkins and Maryland, would join NU as co-regular season champions.
Since the inception of Big Ten women’s lacrosse
in 2015, the trophy has never been shared between multiple programs. Northwestern made sure that trend held true, upending Michigan, 9-7.
The contest was tight across the board, as, with the exception of the shot category, neither team was more than +2 in any box score statistical category on Saturday afternoon. NU rifled 10 more shots than Michigan, which may have proven to be the Wolverines’ Achilles’ heel.
Freshman goalkeeper Elizabeth Johnson answered the call for U-M as best she could, saving 13 shots in her 60 minutes between the pipes, just two short of her career-high set on Feb. 6 against Notre Dame. Her graduate counterpart on the other end of the field, Jenika Cuocco, made seven saves for a .500 save percentage on the day.
Madison Taylor led all attackers with three goals in the contest and found the only Northwestern assist of the game. She added four draw controls as well to lead the ‘Cats draw unit.
After ‘Cats head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller and Wolverines’ head coach (and former Northwestern attacker and later Amonte Hiller’s assistant coach) Hannah Nielsen exchanged pregame plesantries, teacher and pupil went to battle on the lacrosse pitch in what turned out to be a low-scoring dogfight.
Emma Burke opened the day with the first of her game-leading five draw controls to earn possession for U-M, opening the door for Emma Bradbury to try her hand at putting the Wolverines on top early. Her shot was denied by Cuocco.
NU made good on two of its first three possessions, starting with a Taylor Lapointe free position shot from the left hash that she buried into the bottom-right quadrant of the net for Northwestern’s first score of the day. Johnson redeemed herself with a save on the ‘Cats’ next shot on goal, fired out of Taylor’s stick, but couldn’t stop a second shot from Maddy T at the 8:57 mark.
From X to the front of the cage, easy pickings for the left-handed stick of the WLL-bound Taylor. NU led 2-0 halfway through the first.
Through the first 15 minutes, Northwestern’s defense was disciplined in its man-to-man, communicating well and rotating consistently to keep the ball outside the fan. It took a sidearm sling from Ceci Stein through telephone booth-like pressure to get Michigan on the board.
Johnson settled into her own, making seven saves in the first half after allowing two early ‘Cats scores. Aditi Foster would provide the only other score of the half at the 11:41 mark of the second, as Michigan held NU to three in the first half, its lowest total in a half since being restrained to two in the second half against then-No. 14 Syracuse.
The problem for her and the rest of U-M’s defense was that its offense only mustered a single point, the fewest that Northwestern allowed to a ranked opponent since Feb. 21 of last year.
Nielsen spent the break crafting the perfect counterattack for Amonte Hiller’s defensive scheme and with their backs against the wall, she led her Wolverines to a 4-0 run in the third quarter to snatch the lead. The former two-time Tewaaraton winner focused her Michigan squad on movement away from the ball, utilizing off-ball screens to free up cutters through the fan for high-percentage shots from the border of the crease.
Peyton Shreves took it herself past Annabel Child for the go-ahead goal with a little under three minutes to go in the third and momentum suddenly favored Big Blue in Ann Arbor.
Lucy Munro found a brief equalizer, connecting with Taylor in close proximity for Northwestern’s only assisted goal of the game. Despite this, the Wolverines’ offense refused to curb its relentless attack, as Calli Norris and Shreves went back-to-back to build Michigan a two goal lead with 13 minutes left.
From there, with its back against the wall, Northwestern became a well-oiled machine, locking up the victory with a 4-0 run to end the game. Foster kickstarted the rally by rolling a shot through the five-hole and finding the net. Subsequently, Taylor logged two consecutive goals — both on free position from opposite hashes, and Noel Cumberland provided the nail in the coffin, sprinting to the left of the goal and sneaking a shot inside the opposite post.
Championship-worthy heroics from the ‘Cats to clinch the conference’s regular season title.
With the Big Ten Tournament’s top seed locked up, the ‘Cats get a free ticket to the semifinals. They’ll await the winner between no. 4-seeded Michigan and no. 5-seeded Penn State (12-5, 4-4 B1G), who are set to open the tournament on Wednesday at noon CT. Northwestern matches up against the victor at 3 p.m. CT on Friday, April 24 on Big Ten Network.
