Maddie Zimmer and Ashley Sessa showed why they’ve been Northwestern’s top two points scorers this season.
One flash of greatness was all that it took.
With ten minutes left in the NCAA semifinals, Maddie Zimmer intercepted a ball from midfield, sprinting down the field for a fastbreak. She handed the ball to an open Ashley Sessa, who hit a backhand shot past Massachusetts goalie Myrte Van Herwijen to score Northwestern’s only goal.
However, that goal was enough to send Northwestern to its fourth-consecutive national title game.
“I was just really trying to keep the ball as close to my stick as I can and try not to get it taken,” Zimmer said. “Sessa is also busting her butt off the field with me, which helps a lot. I don’t have to do it on my own…I know that if I can at least get the ball close to the circle [and] pass it off to Sessa, [I can] let her do her thing. That’s what she did today.”
Van Herwijen stood tall for the Minutewomen, tallying six saves and only allowing one goal just two months after she let Northwestern score six on her. UMass had to deal with a barrage of shots from the Wildcats but stopped most of them, including two from Sessa. After letting NU shoot the ball eight times in the first half of the game, UMass held the Wildcats to just two shots in the second half. But as much as the Minutewomen did to halt Northwestern’s efforts, they could only hold down the Sessa-Zimmer duo for so long.
After all, there’s a reason why Sessa and Zimmer are Olympic teammates. There’s a reason why they’re the top two leading points-scorers for Northwestern. There’s a reason why they are arguably the two best offensive players on the No. 2 team in the nation. By stepping up and trusting their instincts, utilizing their connection in that moment, they showed they were exactly what their star power painted them to be.
“It’s always frustrating when you’re taking a lot of shots that are not falling, but at the end of the third [quarter], I remember I came off and I said ‘we’re knocking on the door there, one of them has to go in,’” Sessa said.
All the little things mattered as well. Northwestern dominating possession was crucial and holding UMass to just two shots was crucial — UMass can’t score if it doesn’t have the ball. The Minutewomen previously held UConn and Harvard to four and three shots respectively in their earlier NCAA Tournament games, so Northwestern getting nine shots off gave the Minutewomen a taste of a much more challenging offense.
And then of course there was Ilse Tromp’s defensive save. Elena Clococeanu’s shot had rolled between Northwestern goalie Annabel Skubisz’s legs, but Tromp dove past Skubisz to knock the ball out of the goalpost. In a sport where defensive contributions don’t show up on the stat sheet, what Tromp did reminds us that defense wins championships — or at least punches your ticket to win one.
“Ilse [Tromp] is one of those people that defensively maybe flies under the radar a little bit, but she’s a hell of a player,” Northwestern coach Tracey Fuchs said. “When [the ball] went behind [Skubisz], it was like slow motion and I yelled ‘No!’, and then all of a sudden [Tromp] came in from behind. She’s in the right spot, I guess.”
Heading into the NCAA title game, Northwestern is in a position it hasn’t been in since 2021 — the favored team to win it all. After Saint Joseph’s handed No. 1 North Carolina its first NCAA Tournament loss in three years in the semifinals, it could pull off another upset win against a dominant force in college field hockey on championship Sunday.
The two teams still standing could not be any more different. The Hawks have never been to a national title game, while Northwestern has made the title game for four straight years now.
On Sunday, Northwestern needs to let its experience shine and not get distracted by the moment or whatever preconceived notions others may have about this potential matchup. If it does what it needs to do, it can hoist the ultimate prize in Ann Arbor — just like it did three years ago.
“They’re going to come out flying,” Fuchs said of Saint Joe’s. “We’ve been in [its] position a few years back, but we play our game and stay on our front foot and do the things that we do well. We’re going to give them a great battle on Sunday.”