It will take every ounce of effort to beat the No. 2 Eagles.
It’s showtime.
The ‘Cats are ready to roll in their sixth straight Final Four, preparing to take on the Boston College Eagles for the second time this year at 4:30 PM CT in Foxborough. The Wildcats dropped the first meeting 13-9, one of just two losses all year for a star-studded squad headed by Tewaaraton finalist Maddy Taylor.
To be frank, Northwestern is the underdog in this game. The ‘Cats were truly stifled in their two home games against BC and top-ranked UNC, but based on season-long performance, they’re certainly the best-equipped to challenge those two behemoths. Being away from Evanston will make things tough, but with head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller at the helm, NU always has a fighting chance. So how do they complete the first step on Friday?
To get the obvious out of the way, it all starts with Maddy Taylor. With 105 goals on the season, Taylor is the new single-season record holder, and she’ll likely need a victory to prevent Rachel Clark, the Eagles’ goal-scoring leader with 103, from catching her. The ‘Cats will still hope to have goal-scoring diversity against dominant goalkeeper Shea Dolce, but Taylor’s 16 goals in two NCAA Tournament games so far have shown why she always remains the primary option.
Beyond Taylor, there’s plenty of room for the Wildcats to have success. Sam Smith has been dominant in the draw circle, with 15 draw controls in the 17-12 quarterfinal win against Penn. She showed up big in the first rendition of ‘Cats/Eagles, picking up seven draw controls to help NU to a 15-10 overall edge in the circle. Winning draws will take lots of pressure off Taylor, who would otherwise be forced into a tough spot in terms of maximizing possessions.
But draws aren’t the only answer here. Northwestern won the battle in the circle against both BC and UNC earlier in the year, yet they lost both of those games. Clearly, there’s something else at play, and in both games, turnovers were absolutely an extra factor. The ‘Cats lost the turnover battle by four in both of their losses, and they allowed a combined 46 shots on goal in the two games, putting up just 33 themselves. Getting good looks will be paramount against Dolce, who leads the country with a 55.4% save percentage, and the ‘Cats will need to be consistently firing shots on net to jump out to a fast start.
Speaking of fast starts, the ‘Cats suffered dramatically when they couldn’t get one against BC, as they were unable to recover from an early 6-0 hole in that game. Perhaps a reason for optimism is that Wildcat goalkeeper Delaney Sweitzer looks much better now than she did in the first half of that game, when she let in eight of 10 shots on goal.
Sweitzer bounced back nicely to deny six of 11 in the second half, and it’s absolutely possible she was plagued by rust after missing NU’s first two games of the season. Now, she’s 13th in the country in save percentage. While she’s not putting up Shea-Dolce-esque numbers, Sweitzer is still less than a full percentage point below the 49.1% mark of UNC’s Betty Nelson, who’s done enough to guide the Tar Heels to an undefeated season thus far.
To stop Clark and Co., Sweitzer will need all the help she can get from her defenders, led by Jane Hansen, Sammy White, Mary Carroll and Grace Fujinaga. Hansen and Fujinaga, along with Jaylen Rosga and Megan Mallgrave, each caused multiple turnovers in the win against Penn. Notably, Carroll (who was selected to the All-Big Ten Freshman Team) committed three fouls without causing any turnovers in that game. It’ll be crucial for her to play with a combination of discipline and aggressiveness in Foxborough.
Overall, if the offense, defense and goalkeeping units can come together, the ‘Cats will have a real shot to take down the titans of Boston. Revenge would be sweet for Taylor and many others, who seek to avenge last year’s 14-13 national title loss at the hands of BC.
Regardless of the end result, fans should expect a highly competitive game. And when the ‘Cats put it all on the line, they can never be counted out.