The terrifying inevitability of Madison Taylor and Northwestern lacrosse

The Taylor Tornado’s junior season has shattered expectations, records and the souls of other teams.

When I was growing up in Nebraska (the heart of Tornado Alley), few things scared me more than the thought of a tornado touching down near my house. The worst part about them was that unlike other scary stuff in my 10-year-old brain (homework, sit-down lawn mowers, driving behind log trucks on the highway), there wasn’t really any way to counteract the threat of a tornado. All you could do was pray that you stayed out of its path of destruction.

Over a decade later, I started calling Madison Taylor “The Taylor Tornado”. There were a few reasons why — it’s a good successor to Scane Train, Taylor’s spin move is downright devastating and I’m a sucker for alliteration — but the biggest one is this: watching Taylor feels a lot like watching a weather report during a tornado warning. All you can do is hope you’re lucky enough to stay out of the path of destruction.

The Penn Quakers were the latest entry on a long and storied list of teams that weren’t lucky enough. Head coach Karin Corbett has been coaching for the entirety of the 21st century and has seen just about everything the sport of lacrosse has to offer. Even she succumbed to the unceasing force that is Madison Taylor.

“She’s a tremendous player. She just has a will to get to the net,” Corbett said. “She can take you underneath, she can take you over the top. She’s just difficult to stop.”

Feel free to substitute “impossible” for “difficult” in the preceding sentence. The last time Taylor didn’t score multiple goals in a game was May 18…of 2023. She has more games with over six goals (three) than with under three goals (two) this year. Her rampage through the lacrosse world culminated on Thursday afternoon with one record-shattering shot.

Earlier in the game, Taylor surpassed a player many around the Lake Show consider to be one of the best lacrosse players of the century. Izzy Scane set both a school and conference record with her 99-goal campaign in 2023, a season that earned her both a Tewaaraton Award and a national championship. One of the more iconic marks in Northwestern athletics was snapped just two seasons later.

Kelly Amonte Hiller’s program was brought back to a championship level by Scane, who still holds the NCAA record for goals in a career. Given all that history, surely Hiller was at least a little surprised that Taylor shattered Scane’s record as soon as the latter departed. Right? Wrong.

“Yeah, we saw it coming. Obviously Izzy was a phenomenal player…Maddy’s a phenomenal player as well,” Amonte Hiller said. “I think this year, she’s been able to just continue doing her thing.”

But even with the Taylor tornado doing its thing and whipping through Martin Stadium, Penn held strong. After going down 10-4 in the second quarter, the Quakers scored six of the game’s next seven goals. But 11-10 was the closest the game would get. After a Niki Miles goal off a turnover, Penn was still within two. But the Quakers had two problems. Number one: Madison Taylor was on the other team. Number two: so was Sam Smith.

If Taylor is a tornado, Smith is a whirlpool, swallowing up every available play in the draw circle and turning some of the nation’s best draw takers into non-factors. There were nine draw controls in between Miles’ goal and the game’s conclusion. Smith won six. The senior had a career day in the circle, tallying 15 draw controls — a new career high and the fourth-most in a game in program history.

“There’s nobody that is more of a hungry player than Sam. She just has that hunger for the dirty work,” Amonte Hiller said. “For draws, we always talk about how impactful it is, so I was glad that she was able to come up with quite a few, especially the last five.”

Smith may be the hungriest of the bunch, but all of the Wildcats’ leaders played like they were famished. Northwestern won the draw control battle 23-10, with 15 coming courtesy of Smith. Each of the other eight Northwestern draw controls went to either Taylor or Sammy White. For White, twice an All-Big Ten First Team member, the success in the draw circle comes not from talent but from desire.

“I think that we are just dogs. I honestly think that we would do anything for each other on the field,” White said. “When we’re on that circle, we are gonna do everything we can to come up with that ball. We are going to give every single last ounce of effort to do that.”

The old adage about hard work beating talent when talent doesn’t work hard? The Lake Show has proved it time and time again. And while Northwestern won’t be the favorite in Foxborough next weekend, with Boston College and North Carolina standing atop the lacrosse world, the Wildcats don’t seem to care all that much.

“We have a lot of pride in playing for each other and having each other’s backs. And even when it does get tough, we talk about how we really love the hard fight,” White said. “When we really do play for one another and not play for ourselves, that’s when we’re able to make it forward. And that’s what we’re planning to do.”

The Lake Show has made it to the Final Four. And while every other team in Foxborough next weekend has reached frightening levels of destruction at points this season, the Wildcats have the most dangerous tornado of them all. The sirens are blaring. Gillette Stadium is under a storm warning. All that everyone else can do is hope they get lucky. As for the Wildcats? They’ve just got to let the Tornado keep doing her thing.