After a tumultuous opening slate of games in which it beat No. 6 Boston College 20-12 and lost to unranked Colorado 10-9, Northwestern Lacrosse (3-1, 0-0 Big Ten) looked to regain momentum in back-to-back weekend fixtures against No. 21 Army West Point (2-1, 0-0 Patriot League) and Central Michigan (0-3, 0-0 MAC).
It’s safe to say that the Wildcats have bounced back from their shaky Monday night performance as they took down Army 18-7 and Central Michigan 25-2.
Northwestern 18, No. 21 Army West Point
7 (Feb. 14)
Valentine’s Day at the Lake Show saw Northwestern triumph over Army West Point thanks to 11 different goal-scoring ‘Cats, who worked hard in the second half to pull away from the Black Knights. Aditi Foster, Madison Taylor and Lucy Munro each scored a hat-trick, with Munro marking her first five points of the season. First-year Gabriella McCollester also scored her first career goal as a Wildcat.
Army saw its offensive triple-threat in Tewaaraton watch-list nominees Brigid Duffy and Allison Reilly, as well as Patriot League Attacker of the Week Lily Valentini, take center stage against Northwestern’s defense. The three players combined for five of the Black Knights’ seven goals.
On the defensive end, the ‘Cats also edged the Black Knights in the ground balls category 14-12, and the teams tied for turnovers at 13. Northwestern also won 18 draw controls to Army’s nine.
One particular star of the draw controls was first-year Kate Ratanaproeksa, who cast herself as one of the leaders in the category alongside Taylor, Madison Smith and Maddie Epke with four on the day.
“She’s a really, really smart player,” said head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller of Ratanaproeksa. “She was working well with our draw takers, and being able to anticipate where that ball was gonna go. I think that’s been a real focus for us since the Boston College game where we didn’t perform well on the draw, especially on the circle play.”
Coming out of its nail biting loss against Colorado on Monday, Northwestern needed a fiery start to get back on track in its play. Northwestern’s first quarter did exactly that for the team, with two goals from Munro, one from Epke, and one from Hannah Rudolph to Army’s zero. In addition to the goals, close calls came from both sides of the field: Taylor hit the post on a free position, and Northwestern goalie Jenika Cuocco and Army goalie Lindsey Serafine each saved two shots.
In the second quarter, Army’s attacking trio of Duffy, Reilly and Valentini combined for three goals quickly in succession to reduce the Wildcats’ lead to 5-3. Penalties cost the ‘Cats in this period: Duffy and Valentini scored off free positions, and Northwestern led the penalty count over Army 4-2. Still, though, the attack recovered at the back end of the quarter, and Foster and Abby LoCascio added two goals to push Northwestern up to 7-3. Though Valentini added a goal to Army’s tally after, that would be the last goal the Black Knights would score until late in the third quarter.
Northwestern took total control of the game in the third quarter as they outscored Army 7-2. A key source of this offensive dominance came from the stability of the NU defense, an attribute that has recently gained more credibility with the introduction of graduate transfer Jenika Cuocco to the team. Cuocco has stepped into net for the ‘Cats and made an instant impact, a transition whose smoothness she credits to the team’s cohesion.
“We implement everything in practice and build that connection on the field,” said Cuocco. “It makes it really easy to have confidence in my teammates knowing they have my back as well as I have theirs.”
The fourth quarter was marginally less action-packed than the third quarter, as Amonte Hiller utilized more substitutes in play. Still, team cohesion persisted, and Foster, Taylor, Olivia Adamson and Taylor LaPointe contributed four goals for the ‘Cats to put their final tally for the night at 18. Meanwhile, for the Black Knights, Allison Reilly assisted Rocky Phelps to settle Army’s response at five goals.
Northwestern’s emphatic win was an important shift in momentum following Monday night’s loss to Colorado.
“I think we played okay on Monday. I thought we played a lot better tonight as a team, and you know, that’s what it’s going to take,” said Amonte Hiller. “You need a whole team performance. You need offense, you need defense, draw controls, and goalie play.”
It’s fair to say that the ‘Cats’ performance against Army upheld these standards and set the tone for more.
Northwestern 25, Central Michigan 2 (Feb. 15)
If Amonte Hiller talked about needing a dominant all-around performance from her squad against Army, she certainly got it against Central Michigan the next day. Every component of the Wildcats’ well-oiled machine worked together from the first draw, whether the players involved were seasoned seniors or first-year substitutes.
Northwestern outshot Central Michigan 53-14 and performed particularly well on the draw, winning 22 to Central Michigan’s six. Madison Smith and Olivia Adamson excelled for the ‘Cats in the circle in particular, winning eight and five draws, respectively.
Between the pipes, Jenika Cuocco, Francesca Argentieri and Cara Nugent traded minutes. The trio combined for 10 saves, and Argentieri and Nugent marked their first minutes in net of 2026.
In a feat for Northwestern Lacrosse, Madison Taylor clinched her 369th career point, moving her into third all-time on the points leaderboard past Erin Coykendall. Taylor notched five goals on the day.
“I think it’s unbelievable,” said Amonte Hiller on Taylor’s performances. “Erin is one of the most phenomenal players of our program. These are some of the greats of all time. It’s a pretty cool thing that she’s come to this level. But for her, she just cares about her team and the success of the team. She just competes every day to try to put us in a great position.”
Taylor was the highest scorer of the game, but it was Foster who opened the scoring for the ‘Cats just 52 seconds into the game from just outside the 8-meter-arc. By the eighth minute of the first quarter, Foster had a hat trick, and by the 15th minute, Northwestern was up 8-0.
These patterns of dominance persisted: Northwestern outscored Central Michigan 8-0 in the second quarter, 4-1 in the third and 5-1 in the fourth.
In contrast to Northwestern’s nonstop-dominant scorelines, however, its personnel involved on the field rapidly changed as the game progressed. Sienna Connolly, Annabelle Mahoney and Lauren Archer came on as substitutes and scored their first goals as Wildcats, while Claire Marosi scored her first goal of the 2026 season. Archer had a notable run of two goals — the announcer was still celebrating her first goal as she sniped in her second just outside the crease.
“We need as many weapons as we can have, because we don’t know what they’re going to take away,” said Amonte Hiller in regard to the wider involvement of substitutes in Sunday’s game.
Jenna Soto, a redshirt first-year who missed the 2025 season due to injury, led the Wildcats in points with four goals and four assists.
“She really puts a lot of attention on her rehab and everything that she does. On the field, she just is a very calm and smooth player and she connects with, she’s the type of player that you connect with right away because she knows how to feed, and she knows how to leverage space. I’m excited that she was able to have that performance today,” said Amonte Hiller of Soto.
But it was Soto herself that traced the team’s performance against Central Michigan all back to team chemistry.
“Last night after our game, we prioritized recovery and making sure to put the team first, and everyone bought in and did everything as a team. And I think we showed up today with the same hunger and excitement that we show up [with] to every game,” Soto said.
Northwestern will seek to continue its momentum from this weekend as it finishes out its four-game home stand against Marquette on Friday, February 20 at 7 p.m. CT.
