Northwestern lacrosse had an overall very successful season in 2025, going 19-3 and reaching the NCAA title game. But the final snapshot of that year, one that stuck with the team for 257 days of the offseason, was one of resignation. Northwestern head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller barely spoke in her post-game press conference as North Carolina basked in the Gillette Stadium confetti, the Wildcats still reeling from a 12-8 loss when they threw everything they could at their opponent but still had no
room to breathe. The weight once again fell on Madison Taylor, who was held scoreless for the first time in two seasons, while the rest of her offense didn’t quite step up either.
There was not much to be said besides that Northwestern simply couldn’t be the better team on the field.
A year later, Northwestern is still a national championship contender, ranked No. 2 in preseason polls. But the Wildcats who defeated Boston College 20-12 on Friday, becoming the first team since UNC in 2021 to put 20+ on the Eagles, looked nothing like they were a year ago. And while NU still isn’t perfect, it played like a team free of the burdens that haunted it in 2025.
One big burden, of course, was the never-resolved question of who would step up alongside Madison Taylor, who scored nearly a third of Northwestern’s goals last season. It was expected that she wouldn’t have to deal with that this season because of new additions on attack, but the way she and her team’s progress played out on the offensive end was beyond imagination.
Taylor, who led all players with five goals and four assists on just seven shots, somehow came out a better player than her NCAA single-season goals record-breaking self a year ago. While she ended many of her 2025 showings worn down from absorbing so much contact, the senior looked more composed on Friday, knowing exactly when to go to the cage and when to involve her teammates so the Boston College defense didn’t collapse on her. Of course, part of that was because Taylor had more help (and therefore, more space), but it also showcased the maturity of a superstar aware that she still had room to improve.
That help, of course, came from transfers Olivia Adamson and Maddie Epke, who combined for four goals. But it wasn’t just the highly-touted transfers — eight different Wildcats scored on Friday, six of them scoring multiple goals, showcasing a night-and-day change from the Taylor-centric offense of 2025.
One of those scorers was Aditi Foster, who shone with a career-best four goals and an assist in her first-ever start. But the box score didn’t fully showcase how much she improved this offseason at dictating the offense, even after coming in with high expectations following several big-time plays as a freshman. Three of Foster’s four goals were unassisted, and she orchestrated several other major goals even if she wasn’t amongst the final two to touch the ball. If the sophomore rises to become a solid second option for the Wildcats, it bodes extremely well for the future.
The offense was Northwestern’s most obvious identity shift, but the rest of the team also showed promise. There was concern coming into the season over Northwestern’s defensive inexperience, and those concerns still held merit — Boston College’s equally as inexperienced offense still put 41 shots on the Wildcats. But it was due to the NU defense that most of those 41 shots didn’t lead to anything. Big plays from transfer Annabel Child, three caused turnovers from Jaylen Rosga and moves by freshman Mckenzie Brown (who didn’t look like a freshman with her speed and her ability to fight for ground balls) provided reason for optimism and made the losses of Sammy White and Jane Hansen hurt a little less.
Northwestern’s defensive staple, though, was goalie Jennika Cuocco, who recorded 15 saves. There was much pregame hype about Boston College’s Tewaaraton finalist goalie Shea Dolce (who ended the game with an uncharacteristically poor 0.280 save percentage), but Cuocco came out of the contest as the MVP between the pipes. As good as Molly Laliberty and Delaney Sweitzer were, Northwestern hasn’t had a goalie be one of the team’s make-or-break players in a long time. If Cuocco can continue to play that role for the Wildcats, it could be a huge boost.
The Wildcats showcased a new identity not just through their player performances, but through how they controlled the game. With a history of blown leads (especially against an opponent like Boston College, which has given Northwestern several back-and-forth matches), Northwestern didn’t falter when Boston College turned a 7-2 deficit into 7-6 in the third quarter. Instead, NU took the third quarter to pull away from the Eagles with a second 7-2 run, not letting a poor defensive quarter stop it from winning the game.
There were some issues that Northwestern needed to address, like the aforementioned defensive inexperience, six second-quarter turnovers and struggles in the draw circle (the Eagles won the draw battle 20-15). But unlike last season, when the question of “who will step up besides Madison Taylor on offense” loomed for three months straight, the Wildcats showcased a promise on Friday that suggests a higher ceiling down the road.
Before the 2026 season began, Amonte Hiller told USA Lacrosse Magazine that both Northwestern as a team and Taylor herself weren’t trying to repeat 2025.
“And we’re not trying to be who we were last year. She’s not trying to be who she was last year,” Amonte Hiller had said.
That surely showed on Friday. This new-look Northwestern, different from what it was both in 2025 and program-defining seasons of the past, passed its first big test. It now has the rest of the season to build on that.
