Can I share a sentence from the official Northwestern preview of this game that I found whilst pulling up the streaming and live stats links for this game?
The matchup has the makings of an elite attacking duel, as the Wildcats (3-1, 0-0 Big Ten) boast the nation’s No. 2 scoring offense (18 goals per game), while the Golden Eagles (3-0, 0-0 Big East) have an NCAA-best 18.67 goals per game.
I did not know that! I checked the NCAA stat page on Thursday while writing this preview, and yep, there’s Marquette,
most prolific scoring offense in the country, with Northwestern and George Washington tied for second. GW has only played two games to get to 18 per game, so we’ll trust NU’s offense as slightly more reliable for the moment. I like the idea that a national powerhouse is happy to point out a Small Sample Size Theater stat to point out something that makes their opponent dangerous. It’s like Ric Flair telling Tony Schiavone that he knows that Sting is fast and strong and athletic, and he’s gonna be a heck of a challenge on Saturday night at The Omni.
I checked the individual stats, because obviously, right? Tess Osburn is tied for the 11th best goals per game mark in the country right now at 4.33/game. Dani Serrano’s 2.33 assists/game have her tied for 39th best in the country. The pair are deadlocked at 5.67 points/game right now, and that’s 15th best in the country. Hanna Bodner is slacking off at “only” averaging a hat trick per game through three contests, and Ella Mautz is one point shy of joining Serrano as Marquette freshmen averaging at least three points per game. Mautz might have gotten slowed down on that merely by not being in the starting lineup so far this season.
Y’all want to talk about scoring defense for a second? Marquette is tied for 31st in the country with 8.33 goals allowed per game. Not too bad with 121 teams in the country. They’re also #37 in the country in Defensive Efficiency according to Lacrosse Reference. Not too bad.
The question that we — and head coach Meredith Black — has to ask is how much of that is schedule based. If you asked me before the season, I would have said that the Golden Eagles could and perhaps should be 3-0 heading into the Northwestern game, and that’s where they are. However, junior goalie Mikayla Yang has stopped just four of the 20 shots on frame against her to this point of the season. This hasn’t been much of a problem for the Golden Eagles, as they were leading 17-7, 9-4, and 7-5 when Yang gave way to Jillian Howell at halftime of each of those games. We could argue that Howell’s .654 save percentage, all in second halves this season, is propped up by Marquette pushing their advantage in the second half, and double digit leads has made it easier for Howell to not give up goals as time goes on to get to a goals-against average of 6.00 through 90 minutes of play.
In the last two games, Howell is a perfect 5-for-5 in saves relative to shots on goal in the third quarter, and as you can see from the 9-4 and 7-5 margins when she took over the cage, both opponents clearly had a reason to be trying to win a game that was within reach in those 15 minute periods. Is that enough to pull the trigger on going to Howell against a Northwestern offense that is clearly going to test Marquette’s defense more than they have been tested to this point of the year? Or is the move to give the cage to Yang one more time to see what happens in her biggest trial of the season?
Game #4: at #5 Northwestern Wildcats (3-1)
Date: Friday, February 20, 2026
Time: 7pm Central
Location: Ryan Fieldhouse, Evanston, Illinois
Streaming: B1G+, which does mean you’re going to have to drop $13 for a month of access.
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Marquette is 0-10 all time against Northwestern. The two squads met for the first time in 2014, which was Marquette’s second season as a Division 1 squad. After that 20-5 first meeting, MU did throw a scare or two into the Wildcats even though they’ve never been ranked lower than #14 for any of these games. Things have gotten a little bit lopsided in the last few meetings, including 21-3 the last time they played in Evanston and 19-9 last year in Milwaukee.
The good news for Marquette is that (hopefully) Northwestern has gotten their frustration out of their system. After opening the year with a 20-12 road win over #3 Boston College, the Wildcats flubbed their home opener, falling 10-9 to Colorado. They gave up the first three goals of the game, eventually built an 8-6 lead with six minutes left in the third quarter…. and then got outscored 4-1 in the fourth quarter and lost. Colorado took more shots in the game, which led to more shots on goal and the Buffaloes won both the turnover and ground ball battles, thus rendering Northwestern’s 17-4 edge on draws mostly useless.
As for where the frustration about that game went? Five days later, the Wildcats stomped #20 Army, 18-7, and then to really draw the point into relief, they beat Central Michigan 25-2. That’s the same CMU team that Marquette beat 19-6 after adjusting the Chippewas out of the game in the second half. Maybe they’ve worked out their energy now.
Taylor Madison led Northwestern with five goals against CMU, and that has her way out in front of the pack on the stat sheet. Madison is the Wildcats’ leading goal scorer with 19 on the year, and her team high 10 assists mean that she has more than twice as many points as anyone else on the roster. Aditi Foster is NU’s only other double digit goal scorer through four games, and the sophomore from Philadelphia has 12 on 28 shots. Madison set the NCAA record for goals in a season last year, but you can win even if you don’t slow her down. She had six of Northwestern’s nine goals against Colorado, and she “only” took nine shots to get there. Still, it would seem like trying to get the ball somewhere else is a more reliable idea on the defensive end.
Jenika Cuocco is Northwestern’s starter in net, racking up 195 minutes so far this season as her backups carried the game home after an 8-0 first quarter lead and a 21-1 shot advantage against Central Michigan. The Drexel transfer is allowing just 8.92 goals per 60 minutes this season and is stopping 54.7% of shots on frame. She had 11 saves in the Colorado game, so it would very much seem like Northwestern’s problem in that contest was not her.
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