Vol. 16: Top 'Cats — Northwestern Claims Eighth National Championship, First Since 2012
No. 1 Northwestern ended its 11-year title drought with a blowout win over No. 3 Boston College, which fell to 1-5 in National Championship games.
The Wildcats celebrate, lifting the 2023 National Championship trophy after their 18-6 win over Boston College on championship Sunday. Photo courtesy: John Joyner/Getty Images.
From a confused state of anguish to unparalleled bliss.
Northwestern was on the doorstep of a highly-anticipated National Championship appearance last year. The Wildcats staked themselves to a jaw-dropping, 13-5 lead with less than a minute remaining in the Final Four against top-seeded and undefeated North Carolina.
What happened next was mystifyingly unfathomable. Over the final 15:31 of play, UNC orchestrated a game-ending, 10-1 run that tore the Wildcats’ national title game dreams—dreams that were on the verge of coming true—to shreds.
2021 Tewaaraton Award finalist Izzy Scane, sidelined the entire 2022 season with a torn ACL, walked over and hugged star graduate attacker Lauren Gilbert, who was already breaking down into tears. Northwestern, for the 10th straight year, was set to watch the National Championship from home after a run of seven titles in eight seasons from 2005-12.
UNC was a team of destiny last year. The Tar Heels became the fifth squad in the sport since 2000 to complete a perfect season.
This year, it was Northwestern’s turn. And while the Wildcats weren’t unblemished like UNC last season, they won 21 straight games to end the season after dropping their opener to Syracuse.
Northwestern traded perfection for redemption: When the Wildcats had a seven-goal lead entering the final quarter of the National Championship Sunday, they didn’t leave any doubt—not even against a Boston College team that’s MO was late-game comebacks.
Northwestern thoroughly outplayed BC in Cary, North Carolina, to the tune of an 18-6 victory that rewarded longtime Wildcats head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller with her eighth national title, and first in 11 years. She is tied with her former coach, Cindy Timchal (now at Navy) for the most national championships all-time.
Northwestern kept BC off the board for the first 19:47 of action. It was difficult for both offenses to get going, given the soggy conditions at WakeMed Soccer Park Sunday. But, by dominating practically every facet of the game, the Wildcats—who finished the season with the top scoring offense in the country (16.95 goals per game)—found ways to reach the back of the cage.
Northwestern posted advantages in shots (42-19), shots on goal (25-9), ground balls (24-16) and, perhaps most notably, draw controls (17-8). BC struggled to win possession against midfielder Samantha Smith (8 draws, 1 goal, 1 assist, 1 ground ball, 1 caused turnover) and defender Samantha White (7 draws, 1 goal, 6 ground balls, 3 caused turnovers). And when the Eagles did win possession, they lost it far too often, committing 21 turnovers, 11 of which were caused by Northwestern.
Scane piloted the Wildcats’ revenge tour, averaging 4.5 goals in the NCAA Tournament, en route to a wagon full of hardware, including the Tewaaraton Award. She also contributed to Northwestern’s pesky ride, at one point causing a turnover in BC territory and quickly scooping up the ground ball before depositing a goal by Eagles standout freshman goalie Shea Dolce.
Scane logged a game-high six points (4 goals, 2 assists). Fellow Tewaaraton finalist Erin Coykendall wasn’t far behind with five more (3 goals, 2 assists). Freshman Taylor Madison (4 goals) and Mercer transfer Hailey Rhatigan (3 goals) pocketed hat tricks, too.
Meanwhile, BC—which had held its previous six opponents to single digits—was looking up at a 12-goal differential. The Eagles were on the wrong side of the National Championship for the fifth time in the last six title games.
Why did it take so long for Northwestern to reclaim its throne atop the sport?
“Honestly, the years after that run of championships, it was pretty challenging,” Amonte Hiller said. “I was pretty hard on myself, taking a lot of ownership. I was putting too many expectations on myself and on the team. I think I got to the point where I just said, ‘I’m hitting the reset button.’ Completely resetting this program, going back to how I started it in 2005.”
Sometimes, for a task as complicated as winning a national championship—a cat’s cradle, if you will—something as simple as a reset can do the trick.
Final Four Rewind:
Northwestern breaks down vaunted Denver defense, cruises to eight-goal win: Northwestern has shown all year that you can’t keep its offense down for long. Tallying 13 or more goals in 21 of their 22 games, the Wildcats finished the season with the nation’s best scoring offense. Facing a 4-2 deficit against Denver at the end of the first quarter, Northwestern didn’t panic. It did what it does best: score. Amonte Hiller’s squad outscored the Pioneers, 13-3, across the final three quarters and stamped its ticket to its first National Championship appearance since 2012 with a 15-7 win.
Denver entered the game with the nation’s premier scoring defense, and it looked up to the task for the first 15-plus minutes. Four different Pioneers found the back of the net in the opening quarter, and they limited Northwestern to just six shots. Then came the avalanche. Tewaaraton Award winner Izzy Scane, grad transfer Hailey Rhatigan and Big Ten Freshman of the Year Madison Taylor scored three goals in 1:23 of game play, and the Wildcats took the lead, one they wouldn’t surrender.
Senior attacker Erin Coykendall works through Denver’s suffocating defense on her way to cage. Coykendall finished the NCAA Tournament with 17 points, including two goals and three assists against the Pioneers. Photo courtesy: Grant Halverson/Getty Images.
The Wildcats outscored Denver, 9-1, over the second and third quarters, and a nine-goal run put the game fully out of reach. Scane had another brilliant game with six goals and two assists. She finished the NCAA Tournament with 26 points (18 goals, 8 assists). Rhatigan had her best game of the tourney with four goals, and senior attacker Erin Coykendall added two goals and three helpers.
Graduate attacker Kayla DeRose led Denver with three goals, but the Pioneers’ offense could not keep up with Northwestern’s. A 25-minute scoring drought saw a 6-5 deficit transform into a 15-5 hole. Friday marked the first time all year that the Pioneers allowed an opponent to score double-digit goals. Still, 2023 was the best year in Denver women’s lacrosse history, as the program made its first-ever Final Four and finished with an incredible 22-1 record.
The cardiac Eagles rally for another comeback win to once again stump Syracuse: BC used a 5-0, game-ending run to escape South Bend with a win over Notre Dame on April 8. Two weeks later, the Eagles outscored Syracuse, 5-1, in the final 8:14 to win the ACC regular season title. Flash forward to the ACC Championship, and BC found itself down three goals midway through the third quarter but rallied to snap North Carolina’s streak of six straight ACC Tournament titles.
So it surprised no one when head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein’s team shut out Syracuse, 3-0, in the final frame of the teams’ Final Four matchup to secure another one-goal win over Kayla Treanor and the Orange.
Eagles embrace as BC narrowly beats Syracuse in an all-ACC semifinal. BC has appeared in six consecutive National Championship games. Photo courtesy: Ethan Roy/Boston College athletics.
But just because it wasn’t surprising doesn’t mean it was expected, or any less exciting for that matter. Tewaaraton Award finalist Jenn Medjid put the wheels in motion with two of her game-high five goals in the fourth quarter, each separated by 21 seconds of game time. Kayla Martello delivered the game-winner with a calculated free-position goal that saw her angle shot between a pair of Orange sticks and past Syracuse netminder Delaney Sweitzer.
Martello might have scored the game’s final goal, however, two-way BC middie Belle Smith punched the Eagles’ ticket to their sixth straight national title game with a trail check on the other end of the field.
The play was a microcosm of the game, and really a season that saw BC start 6-3 before rallying to win 13 straight games and a pair of conference titles. Smith was beat off the dodge by Syracuse attacker Olivia Adamson. Rather than folding, Smith recovered. Despite being the Eagles’ third-leading goal scorer this season, she didn’t rip twine, or even record a point, in the win, but the Westhampton Beach, New York, native came through when it mattered most.
Syracuse outshot BC, 28-17, won 17-of-29 ground balls and 11-of-19 draws. What’s more, the Eagles committed 20 turnovers, seven more than the Orange. Except, that was Syracuse’s problem this season: Starts so promising, like the beginning of the Orange’s season that saw them win a one-goal thriller over eventual national champion Northwestern and then stack 14 more victories in a row, ended in heartbreak.
Treanor’s squad lost three of its final six games and blew leads in two of those defeats, both of which came against BC.
National Championship Tid-Bits:
BC head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein looks on during the Eagles’ 18-6 loss to Northwestern in the national title game on May 28. Photo courtesy: BC Athletics.
The National Championship was a rematch between BC and Northwestern from earlier this season. Back on Feb. 19, the Wildcats grabbed their first win over the Eagles since 2013—BC had won the previous two meetings (2019, 2022)—with a 15-14 triumph in Evanston. Izzy Scane inspired a 4-0 run in the fourth quarter that turned a two-goal deficit into a two-goal lead for Northwestern. The Wildcats held on for what ended up being a one-score win. BC was the team needing a comeback Sunday, albeit a much bigger one that the Eagles—despite their repeated resilience in 2023—couldn’t summon.
Championship Weekend was held in Cary, North Carolina, this season for the first time in the sport’s history. On one hand, it’s great to grow women’s lacrosse in new areas. On the other hand, it made for a lesser National Championship atmosphere. Now, the wet weather and a lopsided score probably factored in, but watching this year’s title game had us missing the 2022 site, Homewood Field, which brought in a sellout crowd of 8,500—1,795 more fans than this year’s title game drew—and featured UNC outlasting BC, 12-11, in Baltimore. Cary will have Championship Weekend again next year, but, in 2025, the event will return to Foxborough, Massachusetts, where it also took place in 2017.
BC is now just the second team in the sport’s history to lose consecutive national title games twice. If it’s any consolation, Maryland—which has six more national championships than any other program—is the other school in that heartbreaking company. The Terrapins lost back-to-back National Championship matchups in 1984-85 and in 1990-91. BC lost three straight from 2017-19 and, now, after winning it all for the first time in 2021, the Eagles have dropped back-to-back national title games in 2022-23.
A Look at Northwestern, Izzy Scane’s Historic Offense:
Northwestern has become synonymous with elite offense. In three of the last four seasons, the Wildcats have led the nation in scoring with 16.95 goals per game in 2023, 20.12 in 2021 and 21.57 in the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign. But scoring goals doesn’t always equate to winning championships. In 2021, head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller’s squad lost, 21-13, to Syracuse in the Final Four in its lowest scoring output of the season. Northwestern also ranked first in scoring offense in 2010, when they suffered their only National Championship loss in program history. The Wildcats fell, 13-11, to Maryland, and, again, the NCAA Tournament defeat marked Northwestern’s lowest goal total in a game all season.
Northwestern head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller imparts wisdom during a timeout in the National Championship against BC on May 28. She has made Northwestern one of the most dangerous offenses in the country, winning 10 NCAA championships (eight as coach, two as player). Photo courtesy: Grant Halverson/Getty Images.
But it’s not impossible to win with offense as the primary strength. The last team ranked first in scoring to capture the national championship was Maryland in 2017. Remember that team? The Terrapins went 23-0 and averaged 16.96 goals per game. In the NCAA Tournament, they averaged 17.50 goals per game, and they broke the 20-goal mark twice.
That’s the kind of company the 2023 Northwestern Wildcats are in, and Izzy Scane is a huge reason why.
You know the name by now. The Clarkson, Michigan, native led the country in scoring this season with 99 goals, averaging 4.95 per game. In her junior season, she averaged 6.12 goals per contest, also first in the country. Scane suffered a torn ACL which sidelined her for the 2022 season, but she didn’t skip a beat this year. With her fourth goal of the National Championship, Scane claimed Northwestern scoring records for both single-season goals (99, breaking her own record of 98 from 2021) and career goals (288).
Scane scored multiple points in every game this season, including a monstrous 10-goal performance against Notre Dame and 10 points on seven goals and three assists against Loyola in the Elite Eight. As a team, Northwestern reached or eclipsed 20 goals five times. Against Denver’s top-flight scoring defense that was allowing 5.82 goals per game, the Wildcats scored 15.
Deserving national champs? Absolutely.
National Championship Numbers to Know:
7.75 – Northwestern outscored its opponents by 31 goals in the NCAA Tournament, averaging a +7.75 goal differential across its four games. The Wildcats scored a tournament-high 57 goals, 12 more than second-best Syracuse. BC averaged a +5.67 goal differential before its 12-goal defeat in the National Championship.
6 – Northwestern sophomore defender Samantha White fielded six ground balls in the national championship game against BC, tied for the most by a single player in a game this NCAA Tournament. The other three players to reach that mark were Wildcats goalie Molly Laliberty (quarterfinals vs. Loyola), Syracuse goalie Delaney Sweitzer (semifinals vs. BC) and Syracuse middie Tess Queri (quarterfinals vs. James Madison).
6.12 – Laliberty finished her first D-I NCAA Tournament with a 6.12 goals against average in Northwestern’s four-game run to the title. After falling in the D-III National Championship last year, Laliberty tallied 159 total saves this season, finishing with a 8.60 goals against average (8th nationally) and a .473 save percentage (19th).
Tewaaraton Award: Scane Train
Northwestern graduate attacker Izzy Scane scored a school-record 99 goals this season. She is the first Wildcat to win the Tewaaraton Award since Shannon Smith in 2011. Graphic courtesy: Northwestern Athletics.
We spelled it out above: Izzy Scane was borderline unstoppable during her comeback 2023 season, and it resulted in her not only winning the national title but also the Tewaaraton Award, which is given annually to the best player in the sport. Scane beat out teammate Erin Coykendall, Meaghan Tyrrell (Syracuse), Isabella Peterson (James Madison) and Jenn Medjid (BC) for the honor.
Coykendall was second on Northwestern, behind Scane, with 108 points, and her 50 assists were tied for fifth nationally. Tyrrell wrapped her illustrious Syracuse career as the school’s all-time leading point scorer (415). Peterson set single-season JMU records in goals (91) and points (114) while leading the Dukes through their first year in the AAC. And Medjid became the second-leading all-time goal scorer in BC history (252).
But Scane recorded at least eight more goals and a whopping 20 more points than every other player in the country, in addition to winning the Big Ten and, more importantly, hoisting the national championship trophy.
Scane’s 99 goals are the third most by a player in the last five seasons. BC’s Charlotte North set the NCAA single-season goals record with 102 goals in 2021, and then High Point’s Abby Hormes rewrote that mark last year with 103 goals in just 19 games.
Scane is the first Northwestern player to win the award since Shannon Smith in 2011. She is the fourth Northwestern player all-time to earn the honor, joining Smith, Kristen Kjellman (2006, 2007) and Hannah Nielsen (2008, 2009)
Scane has a chance to go back-to-back like Kjellman and Nielsen, as she is returning for one final season in 2024. Although Scane started her career in 2019, she got the COVID-19 waiver in 2020 and a medical redshirt in 2022.
Scane was also named the IWLCA Player of the Year this week. Earlier this season, she reeled in unanimous Big Ten Attacker of the Year and first-team All-Big Ten honors. Plus, after averaging 4.5 goals per game in May Madness, she was crowned NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player.
THANK YOU!
That’ll do it. Thank you for reading this season! If you enjoy this newsletter and our YouTube channel, please share with your friends and family. It’s been a pleasure covering this sport another year and continuing to build Quick on the Draw.