Field Hockey: No. 1 Northwestern claims outright Big Ten regular season title after road slate

The Wildcats are just one win away from completing an undefeated regular season.

The No. 1 ranked Northwestern field hockey team continued its historic season this past weekend, defeating No. 7 Michigan and Michigan State on the road to claim the Big Ten Regular season championship for the second consecutive year. The Wildcats are now 17-0, extending the longest win streak in program history.

With a win against Ohio State on Friday, Northwestern field hockey can become one of the few teams in school history to pull off an undefeated regular season.

At No. 7 Michigan

For the second time in the same calendar year, a Northwestern sports team clinched a second consecutive Big Ten regular season title in Ann Arbor, with the field hockey squad following in the footsteps of the lacrosse team. The Wildcats won a nail-biter of a match, taking down the Wolverines in overtime on Friday.

The first quarter was quiet for both teams, with Michigan recording just one shot that went high and Northwestern having zero. The Wildcats were immediately awarded with a penalty corner 30 seconds into the second quarter but did not get a great look until the end of the quarter when sophomore Olivia Bent-Cole fired a shot that just went a bit wide.

Five minutes into the third quarter, Northwestern graduate student Chloe Relford scored the game’s first goal off a pass from sophomore Ilse Tromp. In addition to getting on the board, the Wildcats also made key defensive stops, with graduate student goalkeeper Annabel Skubisz stopping two penalty corner attempts and making a diving save.

The offensive pressure from Michigan didn’t stop in the fourth quarter. After three shots in less than ten minutes, the Wolverines eventually came through, as Emmy Tran made a shot from the goal circle that ended up just sneaking past Skubisz. Northwestern attempted two more penalty corners at the end of the match but couldn’t convert, and the match went into overtime.

The first four minutes of overtime were just like the first quarter, with not a single attempted shot. However, at the 4:30 mark, graduate student Maddie Zimmer got downfield and passed the ball to sophomore Ashley Sessa. Sessa’s shot was initially blocked by Michigan goalie Hala Silverstein, but graduate student Lauren Wadas caught the rebound with her stick and scored the game-winner — clinching at least a share of the 2024 Big Ten regular season title for Northwestern.

At Michigan State

Unlike its experience just two days prior, Northwestern’s matchup in East Lansing was much smoother, as it defeated Michigan State 5-0 to claim the Big Ten regular season title all to itself.

That being said, even the score couldn’t fully demonstrate how lopsided this match was. The Wildcats outshot the Spartans 43-4 and had 12 penalty corners compared to the Spartans’ one, going to show how much the former team dominated possession.

Northwestern pounced on Michigan State early, outshooting its opponent 9-0 in the first quarter. However, the team couldn’t score — Sessa had an opportunity to put one in the back of the net, but her shot went a bit high. The second quarter was a similar story, with the Wildcats outshooting the Spartans 13-1 but being unable to score.

However, the tides turned in NU’s favor in the third quarter. The team was awarded a game-high six penalty corners (and 13 total shots) in the frame and capitalized, scoring goals on half of those attempts. Senior Regan Cornelius, freshman Elaine Velthuizen (who scored her first career goal), and Sessa combined to score three goals in the third quarter.

The fourth quarter was a similar exhibit of dominance for Northwestern, with Zimmer and Tromp scoring additional penalty corner goals. In the end, the Wildcats came out with the victory as the Spartans had no shot at slowing them down.

What’s Next

After its eighth straight multi-goal game, Northwestern field hockey appears to be peaking right as postseason play gets underway. There’s just one regular season game left — against Ohio State this Friday afternoon at Lakeside Field — before the true chase for the field hockey crown begins. The Wildcats will be the top seed in the Big Ten Tournament, which starts on November 7 in College Park, Maryland. A few victories there would make it back-to-back seasons where Northwestern swept both the Big Ten regular season and tournament titles. But for now, there’s one more game before the postseason. The Wildcats will look to push their winning streak to 18 games when they take on the Buckeyes this Friday at 3 pm CST.