Star Lacrossed Lovers
- May 24
- 3 min read
Today being a holiday, we take the day for a point of personal privilege to celebrate the women’s lacrosse team of the beloved Northwestern University winning the NCAA National Championship on Sunday. I’ve written about them in the past here, but then I’ve had very good reason to. After all --
Lacrosse is almost exclusively an East Coast sport, especially women’s lacrosse. That was until Northwestern hired Kelly Amonte Hiller in 2001. Not only has the team won the national championship nine times (now) in the last 22 years, but they won five consecutive national championships from 2005-2009. In fact, they’ve been in the finals the past four years in a row, winning twice. (And they’ve been in the Final Four a full 17 times in those 22 years. “Dynasty” is not a word one gets to use often with Northwestern sports, but under Hiller, this has been a dynasty.)
This year was notable, too, because previously the national championship game – for either women or men – had only ever been played on the East Coast. This year (and it was set up last January, before the current season began), the game was not only played outside the East Coast, but…it was played at Northwestern, in Evanston, Ill. So, this ninth championship was actually played before a home crowd. (And a very big home crowd, for women’s lacrosse, of over 8,000.)
In fact, on my recent trip to Chicago, I wandered through the Northwestern campus past where they play lacrosse, although the field was empty. But readers here with good memories will recall that last year I posted video from my trip to Chicago (where I stayed in Evanston and, as always, walked through the campus) that I took of the women’s lacrosse team practicing, including an odd, raucous dodge ball-type exercise. For those readers without good memories – or who want to join in the celebration -- you can see the two, 30-second videos here.
The championship game was broadcast on ESPN, and – even though I don’t know the rules of the sport -- it was very exciting. I also find it hard to follow the ball, since it’s carried in a stick, and thrown extremely fast. But I look at the sport basically like it's hockey where you throw the puck, and so I have a reasonable sense of what’s going on. (The one thing I'm good at is knowing when a goal is scored. Not because I can see the ball go in -- I can't -- but I quickly look at the net, and if it "shakes," then I know there was a goal.)
The match-up had a great deal of drama going in. Northwestern began the season 5-3, and Coach Amonte Hiller had said early on that she wasn’t even sure at that point the team would even make the tournament. But they won their next 13 games and came into the finals 18-3 and ranked #1 in the country. North Carolina was #2 with a record of 19-1 – but that one loss was to…Northwestern. The two teams had played each other in last year’s finals, that North Carolina won.
It was a fascinating game. Northwestern started off taking a 3—0 lead. But UNC tied the game by half-time. Northwestern hit a hurdle when their senior attacker Lucy Munro was lost for the game in the first quarter with an injury.
Her replacement was freshman Gabriella McCollester, who had only played sporadically during the season, scoring six goals. But in the second half…she scored four goals! And team leader Madison Taylor (who holds the NCCA record of 109 goals in a season, a mark that was tied this year by North Carolina’s Chloe Humphrey) had seven points, with a goal and six assists.
But Northwestern was down by two goals going into the fourth quarter, 11-9. However, the Wildcats came back with five unanswered goals and won 14-11!!
The game turned when, with the score tied and 6-1/2 minutes left, North Carolina scored to take the lead -- but Northwestern challenged it, and not only was the goal overturned, but UNC was called for a penalty and had to play one person short. With the one-player advantage, Northwestern scored -- so, rather than being down a goal, was ahead by a goal. And held on to win.
The correct response is – huzzah!
Here are the 11-minutes of highlights. There’s no need to watch, but it will be on the test.
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