After five seasons, Alia Marshall leaves Northwestern field hockey a championship-winning program that’s among the best in the nation. She now has the chance to win a second title in a different sport.
In the 2020 field hockey season, Alia Marshall, then a sophomore, walked into a meeting with her coaches ready to share a list from her notebook.
“Goals: win a Big Ten and win a national championship,” Marshall wrote.
“I would sell my soul to do this,” she said.
It was an ambitious goal to set.
The ‘Cats did make it to the first round of the NCAA Tournament in 2019, but that was just the third time in six seasons. Before 2014, NU last qualified for the postseason in 1994.
But five years later, Marshall’s ambition has created a decorated legacy for both herself and the program.
After helping lead Northwestern to three consecutive championship games and its first national title, she is finishing up her college athletic career as a graduate student on the lacrosse field. She is now a Big Ten champion in both sports and has the potential to win a national title in both.
Marshall was recruited by Tracey Fuchs to play field hockey, but Kelly Amonte Hiller knew Marshall as an All-American lacrosse player.
When the pair met in the fall of 2019, Amonte Hiller mentioned that Marshall’s high school lacrosse coach had emailed about her playing lacrosse in college.
“I had nothing to do with it, no idea,” Marshall said. “But [playing lacrosse] was something we kind of joked about. It was always in the back of my mind as a light-hearted joke. And then one day, I was like, ‘You know what? I would be mad at myself in the future if I didn’t.’”
At Cape Henlopen High School, Marshall won three field hockey and four lacrosse state titles. She captained both teams and was named Delaware’s Player of the Year in both during her senior year.
Marshall always played sports. Along with lacrosse and field hockey, she played basketball before switching to indoor track in her last winter season.
That athleticism was one of her biggest assets as a field hockey player.
“She’s one of the biggest competitors we’ve had in our program, and actually, she’s probably one of the most improved,” Fuchs said. “She came in, her skills were a little raw, but we knew she had the athleticism, and she worked hard to become one of the best field hockey players in the country and to be selected for the national team.”
Fuchs said Marshall’s ability to eliminate players defensively and dominate corners, whether as an inserter or by getting the rebounds, in combination with her leadership and competitiveness made her an impact player.
Northwestern field hockey was not the championship-caliber team that it is now when Marshall started her career in 2019. She was joining a team that had a losing record and finished seventh in the Big Ten regular season in 2018. At that point, Fuchs never had a team make it farther than the second round of the NCAA Tournament through 10 seasons.
Five seasons later, Marshall has only ever made it to the postseason, with three of those campaigns ending in the national championship game.
Marshall became a consistent presence on the field as a freshman, playing in all 22 games. Then as a sophomore, she ranked second on the team in assists. That year, the ‘Cats lost in overtime in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals and made it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
The success of that season with the disappointment of not having gone deeper into the postseason redefined the culture surrounding the program. As sophomores, Marshall and Peyton Halsey, whom Marshall lived with for three years, realized they could reset their expectations.
“I remember being so upset, losing in the Big Ten Tournament,” Halsey said. “But it was kind of this moment of knowing we were still young and that the goal we were looking toward was realistic. We had never thought of winning a national championship before then.”
Then came 2021. Marshall’s dreams that had lived in her notebook began to feel tangible.
The ‘Cats went 14-5 in the regular season, and although they lost in double overtime of the Big Ten quarterfinals to Michigan, the team was confident in its talent.
That was evident when Northwestern beat North Carolina 2-0 in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament and snapped the Tar Heels’ championship streak at three.
“There was never a doubt that we were gonna lose that game,” Marshall said. “We ended up just destroying them. They hardly got any shots off. That opening round game set the standard for the following three years in the sense that we can compete and run with anybody.”
In the championship, Marshall scored the first goal of the 2-0 victory over Liberty, deflecting a shot off a penalty corner. It was the first time the program ever made it to the championship, and Northwestern won.
BOOM. ON THE BOARD.
Alia Marshall on the deflection!#GoCats | #nufh | #NCAAFH pic.twitter.com/QROjkSBujf
— Northwestern Field Hockey (@NUFHCats) November 21, 2021
That title put NU on the map, but over the next two years, Northwestern continued to solidify itself as a powerhouse. While they did lose the last two, the ‘Cats made three straight championships and won the program’s second-ever Big Ten Championship in 2023 — the first was in 2014.
“I remember being like, I know that we can’t win a national championship, but we can maybe fight for a Big Ten Championship,” Halsey said. “The mindset wasn’t, ‘I’m coming to Northwestern to win.’ But now people commit here, wanting to win. If you look at the recruits that [Northwestern’s] getting, I think it’s very apparent that it’s gonna turn into a dynasty.”
In her senior season in 2022, Marshall started 24 games, missing just one, and served a crucial role as an inserter on corners. She also ranked for second-most in assists with 13, including three pivotal ones in the postseason. She assisted a fourth-quarter goal that sent the quarterfinals into overtime, the game-winner in the Final Four and one in the national championship.
As a graduate student and captain in 2023, Marshall started every single game, led the country with 24 assists and earned All-American honors.
Throughout these five years, Amonte Hiller and Fuchs kept up their joke about Marshall joining the lacrosse team. But, ultimately, it was never a joke. Marshall is a stellar athlete with loads of playoff experience.
As Northwestern went on to win its eighth lacrosse title, Marshall began to consider playing lacrosse more seriously.
When Lindsey Frank, a dual-sport athlete at Richmond, transferred to Northwestern to play both lacrosse and field hockey, Marshall became certain she could do it. Unlike Frank, however, Marshall had never played Division I lacrosse before.
“I know what I’m capable of in field hockey, but in lacrosse, I don’t know,” Marshall said. “I haven’t played at such a high level. High school is not Division I. So when I came in, I didn’t know what to expect of myself. My goals are just to be as positive and as encouraging as I can.”
Although playing lacrosse meant joining a brand new team, it was not completely foreign. The teams knew each other and Marshall’s freshman year roommate was Kiera Shanley, who played lacrosse for four years and is now the Director of Operations.
Throughout the summer of 2023, Marshall practiced some lacrosse, but her focus was on field hockey. Until her fifth season was done, nothing else mattered. But during winter break, she recruited her high school friends and her brother, AJ, who played club at the University of Georgia and coached the JV lacrosse team at her former high school, to practice and run drills with her.
In a matter of months, Marshall made up the past five years. She has 13 appearances so far, including three starts, and was even ready to play in the first game of the season against Syracuse.
Marshall’s parents were there, as well as the field hockey team who came to support her and Frank.
Marshall said she knew she was starting off in the “deep end,” facing a top-tier team and rival of the ‘Cats in Syracuse. But that was nothing new for her.
“[Marshall] is extremely competitive and has that experience of playing at the highest level and competing at the highest level,” Amonte Hiller said.
And that is what Marshall’s legacy has culminated in. She has helped build the foundation for a Northwestern field hockey dynasty and has emerged among the best players in the nation. Playing lacrosse is just another opportunity to attest to the player that she is. In the end, Marshall’s love of sports and her athletic talent and leadership qualities cement her as one of Northwestern’s greatest student-athletes.
That legacy continues to contribute to the ever-growing legend of how dominant the school’s female sports are.
“This year, field hockey swept the Big Ten titles. Softball swept the Big Ten titles. Lacrosse swept the Big Ten titles,” Marshall said about 2023. “It is really awesome to be somewhere where women’s sports are so valued and so successful. There are always improvements to be made, but Northwestern is one of the best places in the country to be a female athlete.”
After five years, Marshall is not quite done with Northwestern. She will be returning for a two-year master’s program in Speech, Language and Learning. When all is said and done, it’ll be seven years in Evanston.
But beyond the shores of Lake Michigan, Marshall has the ambition to succeed. That’s clear.
After all, this is a national champion who plays for Team USA.
After all, Northwestern field hockey accomplished the goals she once set for it and is now a powerhouse.
After all, Marshall even has the opportunity to reach these goals again in a completely different sport. The lacrosse team claimed the Big Ten title, now it just needs its ninth national title.
“Whatever Alia wants to do after this, whether that be at a company or training with the national team for the L.A. Olympics in 2028, anybody would be happy to have her,” Fuchs said.