The national championship isn’t the only title Northwestern field hockey won back-to-back in 2025.
On Thursday morning, the National Field Hockey Coaches Assocation (NFHCA) named Northwestern graduate midfielder Maddie Zimmer the 2025 Division I National Player of the Year, which is presented annually to the top player in college field hockey. The occasion marks the second consecutive season that Zimmer came home with this honor, as she was also named National Player of the Year after the 2024 season.
After becoming the first Northwestern student to win NFHCA NPOY in 2024, Zimmer is now one of three athletes to win the award multiple times, joining North Carolina’s Erin Matson (2019, 2020, 2022) and Virginia’s Tara Vittese (2015, 2016, 2017). Zimmer remains the only player hailing from a school outside the East Coast to be named NPOY since the award’s inception in 2010.
Zimmer, who was named the NFHCA West Region Player of the Year on Dec. 11, beat out four other regional finalists in Princeton’s Beth Yeager (Mid-Atlantic), Syracuse’s Bo van Kempen (Mideast), Harvard’s Bronte-May Brought (Northeast) and North Carolina’s Ryleigh Heck (South) for the overall national award. The honor is voted on by the NFHCA Awards Committee, comprised of coaches throughout the United States.
During her 2025 campaign, Zimmer recorded five goals and a career-high 17 assists, ranking fourth on Northwestern’s team in total points with 27. In her final season as a collegiate athlete, she helped lead Northwestern to its third overall national championship and was named Most Outstanding Player for the third time during the 2025 NCAA Tournament. In addition, she was also unanimously voted as the Big Ten Player of the Year for the second consecutive season.
The only NCAA award remaining for Zimmer to win is the 2026 Honda Sports Award for field hockey, which she won in 2025 to become the first Wildcat recipient since 1994. The NFHCA Player of the Year has gone on to win the Honda Award 10 out of 15 times, with 2018 being the last time the award winners differed.
Regardless of what happens next, though, Zimmer will finish her time at Northwestern with three national championships, three NCAA Final Four MVPs, two National Player of the Year awards, two Big Ten Player of the Year awards, four First-Team All-American honors and five First-Team All-Big Ten honors — a fitting ending to one of the most decorated careers in Northwestern history.
