The one program Northwestern couldn’t overcome in 2025.
The Tar Heels were too much for the ‘Cats to handle.
For the second consecutive season, Northwestern lacrosse fell short of a national championship, losing 12-7 to No. 1 North Carolina — which completed a perfect season. The ‘Cats were down by as little as two goals in the third quarter, but the offense was just never able to get in a rhythm.
Despite making 17 saves, a Northwestern single-game record, there wasn’t much that Delaney Sweitzer and the ‘Cats defense could do against Chloe Humphrey, who led both teams with four goals on the contest. On the flip side, the nation’s leading scorer in Madison Taylor was marked, stared, circled, and underlined on the UNC scouting report. The Tar Heels constantly sent two to three defenders at the junior attacker, and the pressure led to her first scoreless game since March 10, 2023. However, she did lead Northwestern with four assists, tying her career high for the third time in her career.
Sam Smith earned the ‘Cats first possession, as she has for three of her past five games. The ‘Cats looked to strike early following an yellow card on Osbourn, but Tar Heel goalie Betty Nelson stopped Riley Campbell’s shot. UNC bolted the other way with the ball, but Marissa White lost possession in the fan, allowing Delaney Sweitzer her first ground ball pickup of the afternoon.
Nelson stopped Taylor Lapointe’s first shot attempt of the afternoon while on the other end, the Wildcat defense pressured on North Carolina’s leading scorer in Chloe Humphrey, causing her to miss her first two shots of the afternoon.
After a sloppy first 45 seconds of an offensive possession, the ‘Cats drew first blood. From behind the net, Madison Taylor found Abby LoCasio cutting through the fan for the game’s first goal. Northwestern led 1-0 halfway through the first.
UNC found themselves deep in the offensive zone about 30 seconds later, but Jane Hansen tore the ball out of Osbourn’s stick, scooped up the ground ball, and dropped it to Sweitzer inside the crease.
Humphrey evened the score with 5:46 left in the first, working off a screen from Julia O’Conner to receive a pass from Caroline Godine in motion for the score. The freshman tried to go back-to-back at the 4:45 point, but Sweitzer made an incredible play on the bounce shot from Humphrey, diving to her left to catch the ball in her stick off the bounce.
Sweitzer couldn’t stop Kate Levy’s bounce shot through. Levy put the moves on Emerson Bohlig, getting to her outside and moving through the right elbow of the eight-meter fan for the shot.
2-1 UNC with three minutes left to play.
Godine notched her second point of the day with a goal, assisted by Chloe’s sister, Ashley Humphrey: the single-season assist record holder at 87 at the time of the score. The senior broke the record for most assists in an NCAA Tournament on the play — her 17th in four games.
With a 3-1 lead, the Tar Heels left their foot on the gas pedal and knocked on the door of opportunity again. Addison Pattillo came charging in off a free position, only to have her shot rejected by Sweitzer to keep the deficit at two heading into period two.
Opening the quarter with a goal was Marissa White, who snuck behind Sammy White to receive the ball from Ashley Humphrey for UNC’s fourth goal of the first half. Taylor tried to reduce the lead back to two on a free position attempt, but Sam Forrest snuffed out the shot attempt and turned it over for North Carolina.
Sweitzer continued to be stellar between the pipes with back-to-back saves on a Tar Heel offensive possession in the fourth minute of the quarter. However, the UNC sister connection got the best of Sweitzer inside the 10-minute mark. Ashley found Chloe down low to make the score 5-1 for UNC.
Lapointe ended the 5-0 run just over two minutes later to make the score 5-2 with 6:54 left in the second. UNC tried to reestablish their four-goal cushion following a Sammy White turnover, but Hansen made another great defensive play while trailing Chloe Humphrey, using one hand to check the ball out of the freshman’s stick then racing to the baseline to gain possession for Northwestern.
The North Carolina defense was flawless to end the half, causing three turnovers while Nelson got her sixth save of the day, stopping a Niki Miles shot with three and a half minutes to go. Both teams had their lowest scoring halves of the season.
Sweitzer opened the second half with her 10th save of the contest and 150th of the year, giving the ball to the offense in the first minute of quarter three. Taylor looked to capitalize in the offensive zone, but North Carolina would collapse on the attacker, much like it did in the first half. Ellie Traggio forced a turnover on the play for UNC.
Sweitzer’s save on a Chloe Humphrey free position shot gave way for Sam Smith to go coast-to-coast on a one-woman fastbreak, ending Northwestern’s 10-minute scoring drought at 11:26 of the third.
The lead was cut to two for the Tar Heels.
But not for long — Chloe Humphrey completed a hat trick less than a minute later, getting the ball from Olivia Vergano right in front of the crease, then muscling the shot around Grace Fujinaga to make it 6-3 North Carolina. Vergano got herself a shot from the top of the fan to make it 7-3.
Following a turnover from Humphrey, Lucy Munro scored in transition to reduce the deficit back to three. The final six minutes of the quarter went silent, leaving the ‘Cats a three-point-sized mountain to climb in the final quarter of regulation.
Besides two shot clock violations — one from each team — and a Chloe Humphrey goal being overturned, the first six minutes of play didn’t bring much action. Osburn then went back-to-back within 10 seconds of game time, getting the first by receiving a pass from Godine inside the fan, then taking the subsequent draw control down the field to score a second. Now with the lead padded to nine, the ‘Cats chances at hoisting the National Championship trophy inside The Razor looked bleak.
Vergano further pushed that narrative with a score 45 seconds after, forcing Northwestern to take a timeout at the 7:45 mark to regroup and prepare for an all-out pursuit of the six-point UNC lead.
The comeback attempt started with Munro, getting her second score via a Taylor pass throguh traffic that found the junior right next to the crease. 10-5 UNC.
Humphrey saw the fuse light inside the Wildcats and seemed to have put it out with her fifth goal of the contest, pushing the lead back to six. Hansen had something to say about it, logging her first offensive stat of the tournament with a score at the 4:10 mark.
Inside three minutes, Kiley Motice put the game to bed with beautiful stick work to fool Sweitzer right at the edge of the crease, faking right, bringing the ball to her left, then going back to the right to shoot, score, and make it a 12-6 game.
Aditi Foster got herself on the board at the 1:53 mark with an assist on Smith’s second goal of the game. Foster then scored herself with 54 seconds left in the game. However, the Tar Heels won the final draw and ran the clock out, winning 12-8 to claim their fourth NCAA championship in program history.