There’s a lot to take away from the first half of the season.
No. 3 Northwestern lacrosse is halfway through its season, having played 11 of its 15 regular season games. It has a 9-2 record, with its most recent loss being last Friday against Penn State — its first Big Ten loss since 2022. Although the Wildcats are on pace to have a worse regular season than 2023 (where they only lost one game overall), they are successful overall, which has become the standard for Kelly Amonte Hiller’s squad.
Offense
Just like in previous years, Northwestern’s reputation as a top team largely comes from its offense. It ranks fourth in the nation for scoring offense, averaging 17.36 goals per game, and has an arsenal of scoring weapons that can overwhelm the nation’s best defenses.
The Wildcat offense has changed since the beginning of the season. At the start of the year, the goalscoring was distributed relatively evenly — up until its March 16 matchup against Johns Hopkins, there was not a single game where a player led the team by more than one goal. During that period, it was sophomore Madison Taylor (driven by a significant improvement in free position shooting) who led the team in goals, while graduate student Izzy Scane was well below her goals per game average from last season.
However, since that match, Northwestern’s offense reverted Scane dominating the attack, as she scored seven of the team’s 14 goals against the Blue Jays. At Penn State, she had five goals while none of her other teammates had more than two. At North Carolina, she scored seven goals out of her team’s 14. With these games racking up, Scane is now the nation’s leading goal scorer and is just 22 goals away from breaking Charlotte North’s all-time career goals record. The question for the future of this Northwestern team is: will Scane taking over be sustainable?
What makes the Wildcats so strong is that they had so many weapons, so double-teaming Scane wouldn’t do much to prevent its overall offensive force. While Scane carrying more weight of the Northwestern offense is great for her Tewarraton stock, it is to be seen whether there will be negative consequences of her team being increasingly reliant on her goalscoring abilities.
Scane and Taylor aside, graduate student Erin Coykendall has been a force as well, leading the team with 31 assists in addition to 22 goals. Graduate students Dylan Amonte (24 goals, 6 assits) and Lindsey Frank (15 goals, 6 assists) have also been important to the offensive firepower of this team.
Defense
The Northwestern defense has been playing without arguably its best player, junior Samantha White, as she has been out with an injury since Feb. 29. Although losing her has been a big blow, the team has still been holding it together relatively well on defense, ranking 28th in the nation and third in the Big Ten for goals allowed. An especially impressive performance came from the team against Denver, where it matched the aggressiveness of the Pioneers’ defense and forced more turnovers than them.
Without White, the main contributors on defense have been seniors Carleigh Mahoney, Kendall Halpern, and Jane Hansen, who have 20, 18 and 16 caused turnovers respectively. Mahoney notably leads the team in caused turnovers despite missing Northwestern’s matchup against Penn State — the Wildcats were impacted by her absence in that game, allowing an uncharacteristic 13 goals against a considerably worse team on paper.
Draw Circle
On a good day, the draw circle is one of Northwestern’s biggest strengths, as it leads the nation with 19.09 draws per game. It has outdrawn its opponents on the draw in all but one game this season and has won 210 cumulative draw controls compared to its opponents’ 128. Draw controls are a big reason why the Wildcats can gain an advantage, as having the ball automatically means greater opportunities. Leading the team in the circle is still junior Samantha Smith with 64 total draw controls, though her first-year sister Madison Smith has been coming into her own as well, tallying 26 draws and winning two B1G Freshman of the Week awards.
However, draw controls can also be why Northwestern falls to other teams. In its loss against Notre Dame, which has one of the best draw contingents in the nation, it only racked up a mere eight draws compared to the Irish’s 20. Additionally, while the Wildcats beat Penn State 20-10 on the draw, the Nittany Lions won three of the final four draws — which proved to be the dagger that led to immediate free position goals and put them ahead for the victory. As basic and cliche as it sounds, possessions are critical in lacrosse, and being dominant in the draw at the right moment is key to gaining them.
Goalkeeping
For the most part, graduate student goalkeeper Molly Laliberty has been phenomenal for the Wildcats. She’s got four games with 9+ saves (vs. Notre Dame, Denver, Johns Hopkins, and UNC), four games with an above .500 save percentage (vs. Colorado, Central Michigan, Denver, and Johns Hopkins) and two games that fit both of those criteria (vs. Denver and Johns Hopkins). Against Notre Dame and Denver, she pulled a lot of weight, making important defensive stops when the offense wasn’t producing. She also made key saves facing Boston College to stop its momentum. The only game she struggled in was Northwestern’s loss against Penn State, where she posted a season-low .261 save percentage and allowed three consecutive free-position goals (which she’s usually pretty adept at saving) at the end of the game.
Junior Cara Nugent has also been seeing some action this year. She started in Northwestern’s matchup against Marquette and also played in half of the team’s games versus Albany, Colorado and Central Michigan. Based on the fact that sophomore goalie Francesa Argentieri hasn’t seen any action this season, it’s safe to say that Nugent is the clear No. 2 option behind Laliberty for Amonte Hiller. And while Nugent posted an impressive .700 save percentage against Marquette, her struggles in the cage while facing a No. 20 Colorado team prove that she’s not ready to take the reigns against top teams (and that shouldn’t be expected of her). She’s a formidable option in blowout games, and the playing time she’s gotten will only give her more experience.