94 days after suffering their most shocking loss of the 21st century, the Lake Show found redemption and exercised its early-season demons in a 13-12 win over Colorado — an NCAA Quarterfinal to remember for ages.
That is, of course, an objective statement.
Memorable for Madison Taylor, who was clutch beyond the 12-meter arc last week and for a second straight game caused havoc on the defensive end and was critical on the draw.
Memorable for Taylor Lapointe, whose career reached a crescendo with an NCAA
Tournament career-high five points to help pace the ‘Cats in victory.
Memorable for Noel Cumberland (as expected), who embellished her breakout season with the biggest goal of her career to give Northwestern the opportunity to compete in the Final Four on home turf.
As fun as this was for ‘Cats faithful, Kelly Amonte Hiller and everyone else involved, this game was a nightmare for Jenika Cuocco — something nobody could’ve had on their bingo cards. Subsequently, it’s one that she’d like to forget.
She finished Thursday’s contest with a .333 save percentage: the lowest since March 15.
The opponent that day was Ohio State, who (in the words of former Editor-in-Chief Brendan Preisman) went on a “Buckeye Bonanza” inside Ryan Fieldhouse to upset Northwestern on its own senior day.
Why do I bring this up? Well, the past is a good predictor of the future, so let’s stay in the relative time period of regular season play to see what this performance means for the Wildcats.
Two weeks removed from the aforementioned upset loss to OSU, Cuocco looked far more like herself against Johns Hopkins, who NU rematches with on Friday. In that previous outing, Cuocco posted 11 saves on 23 shots in a 16-12 victory where the offense was firing on all cylinders. Obviously, 12 goals allowed isn’t ideal, but considering that NU couldn’t stay out of foul trouble — it had 13 total that day, which led to four JHU goals on free position — that number becomes understandable.
Same totals, so from a distance, Cuocco’s performances in both these games seem to be quite similar. Maybe “copy-paste” in a way.
Friends, sports aren’t that simplistic.
The glaring difference between these two games is defensive discipline: NU only allowed two free positions to Colorado in its last outing, meaning that the Buffaloes earned 10 legit scores against Cuocco, including four in the first quarter.
That is concerning. Especially with the No. 1 scoring offense in the Big Ten on the horizon.
Johns Hopkins doesn’t need free position to score. In fact, of its 55 goals in the NCAA Tournament thus far, only nine have been sparked by free positions. Ava Angello has solidified herself as one of the best attackers in the conference as its second leading scorer, while Lacey Downey doesn’t trail too far behind as its fifth leading scorer. By total assists, Taylor Hoss could be considered the one of the best facilitators in the country with 57 heading into Championship Weekend.
What lies directly in front of NU is scary: a team that will test Cuocco as hard as anyone else has in the nation. The Blue Jays will aim to cannonball shot after shot at NU’s “brick wall” in hopes of damaging it beyond repair. Cuocco’s “stone-cold” demeanor will have to be more than just a mentality — it’ll need to show up in her performance, just as it did in the Big Ten Tournament Championship Game.
Zooming out, the last big hurdle for Northwestern as a whole to overcome is putting it all together against an opponent who has it all together. This “new-look” unit with Maddy T at the helm, Aditi Foster preparing to take the reins of the offense in due time, a skillful two-way midfielder in Annabel Child, a (pre-season-altering injury) an offensive beast in Olivia Adamson and a draw technician in Maddie Epke wasn’t bound to be as cohesive as any other squad in the Final Four by nature.
Every other team that finds itself in Chicago has a core that’s played together for years — yes, North Carolina included, as Chloe Humphrey seamlessly fit into an offense led by her sister, giving way to the best dynamic in all of the sport last season. The caveat to this was unsynchronized play that cost it three games this season, but once it got its feet under itself, it was able to match every program that critics seemed to place ahead of it.
Just twice more, the Wildcats need to do it again. But in order to do so, everything that’s gone well for them this postseason run needs to mesh. The defense against James Madison, the draw play against Michigan, the perseverance against Colorado and the clutch factor against Maryland in past games all needs to show up this weekend.
Why? Because Johns Hopkins is seeking to make history, Maryland is eyeing revenge and North Carolina wants to end the debate over the national No. 1 spot.
Northwestern has a red dot on its back and every team left standing is gunning for it.
