Stick Season, Week One: New Beginnings

After months of waiting, we finally have some answers and plenty of lacrosse to play.

Welcome to Stick Season, Inside NU’s brand-new weekly Northwestern lacrosse column. In this series, we’ll discuss everything related to The Lake Show and their showings from the past week. While we will continue with our more traditional recaps of games, this column will focus more on our thoughts on the team. So without further ado, let’s get started.

Lacrosse season is the best time of year. One, it gives me an excuse to visit the far North campus and its beach, the prettiest part of this university that is unfortunately 30 minutes away from where I live. Two, covering the most successful team at this school is either a great way to either build on the hype of Northwestern basketball or escape from its miseries — this year, it’s the latter. Three and most importantly, this sport is just so fun to watch.

But it was especially nice to see Northwestern lacrosse finally hit the field this season because it gave us answers.

Losing seven starters (including some all-time greats) and gaining 17 newcomers means that you can’t expect Northwestern to be the same team it has been in past years. Although the standard for The Lake Show has been greatness for the past half-decade, that’s not something you ask of a new team right off the bat. So it was nice to get even the slightest sense of what the 2025 team could do this past weekend.

To recap, the Wildcats powered through a 13-10 victory against No. 11 Notre Dame on Feb. 7 in its season opener, and then steamrolled Canisius 23-3 three days later. In the former game, they started with a 7-0 lead and let the Fighting Irish outscore them in the final three quarters. We’ll focus most of the article on that match, given that the Canisius one was pretty much a non-story.

The Season Opener

Massive first-quarter leads and relatively quiet latter-game performances aren’t a new experience for Northwestern. That said, I don’t think the score against Notre Dame panned out the way it did solely because of a collapse — it was a multitude of factors.

First, the Wildcats just began with a hot streak of momentum, which goes a long way. Junior Madison Taylor, the game MVP, said postgame that she took the field super excited. That checks out. Her adrenaline showed as she scored three goals in the first quarter, kicking off the game with her signature free-position goal before finding graduate student Riley Campbell for a point-blank pass on the next possession.

But after Notre Dame starting goalie Malie Follet was benched for Isabel Pithie after allowing seven goals and making just two saves, the tide turned. Pithie performed much better, tallying 12 saves on just six goals allowed. The Fighting Irish found openings through free position opportunities and ramped up their defensive intensity, forcing Northwestern to miss shots or make messy turnovers — something Taylor attributed to the team losing focus (she said it, not me!).

“I think we maybe slowed down a bit, and we could have kept playing our game,” Taylor said. “When you go up so quickly, so fast, it’s easy to take a second off. I think we can do a better job of putting our foot on the gas pedal the whole game and not just stopping.”

However, there were still plenty of positives to take away from the latter three-fourths of the game. Northwestern’s defense did a phenomenal job getting stops in the second half when the offense wasn’t producing. Senior Samantha White was all over the place with four caused turnovers and three ground balls, looking like the Defensive Player of the Year frontrunner she’s expected to be. And a big shoutout to Campbell, who in addition to scoring two goals, recorded four caused turnovers, producing the greatest ride performance I’ve seen since Izzy Scane in the 2023 Final Four.

Senior Emerson Bohlig also scored two clutch late-game goals, as part of her first career hat trick in her first career start. She’s come off the bench for NU in previous years, and I’m glad she’s finally coming into her own as a mainstay player. She has tremendous speed and isn’t afraid to go straight to the net from midfield. If it weren’t for her putting the nail in the coffin, I think Notre Dame would have had a real shot at coming back.

Overall, this match was a good test for two teams fighting not to become shells of their former selves. Notre Dame, which took down a stacked Northwestern squad 14-10 last season, had an even more dramatic roster turnover than the ‘Cats this offseason, so I was impressed to see it hold its own in Ryan Fieldhouse.

Lineup Notes + Clash Of The Titans

Other takeaway points from this weekend involve the draw and the goal. With draw specialists Samantha Smith and Penn grad transfer Niki Miles both on the team, I didn’t know who would be the main draw-taker this season. It seems like Head Coach Kelly Amonte Hiller is sticking with familiarity though — after Miles and Smith alternated in the first quarter against Notre Dame, Smith took all the draws in the second half and started in the circle against Canisius.

“[Smith] didn’t lose a draw in the first half, so we looked at the stats and decided to go with her,” Amonte Hiller explained after the Notre Dame game.

That’s a fair explanation, though it doesn’t hurt to have Penn’s single-season draw control record holder in the arsenal as a backup. The more confusing situation is in goal, as Northwestern’s high-profile goalie transfer Delaney Sweitzer did not play in the team’s first two matches and Amonte Hiller didn’t specify her return timeline. Redshirt sophomore Francesca Argentieri got her first career start against Notre Dame, tallying eight saves. Meanwhile, senior Cara Nugent (NU’s backup last season) started against Canisius.

I liked seeing Argentieri, who has been waiting in the wings behind Molly Laliberty for the past two years, get her fair shake, given that we know she’s good enough to be on Team USA’s U20 roster. But there’s always going to be what-ifs with Sweitzer out of the picture for now.

After Canisius, Northwestern will have almost a week off before playing its biggest game of the season on Saturday, a national championship rematch against No. 1 Boston College. I’m not sure the ‘Cats win this match just because of how much talent the Eagles return from that championship team, but I am excited to see NU be the underdog in a game for the first time since early 2023. After having a target on its back for so long, being the chasers might be what it takes to push this team back to the highest of heights.

Weekly Awards

Player of the Week — Madison Taylor, Junior: This one was easy to decide, and I fully expect her to take home most of these awards this season. Taylor had a career-high six goals against Notre Dame, in addition to one assist and three draw controls. She then followed that performance up with five goals and three assists against Canisius. There were questions about how Taylor would respond to becoming Northwestern’s top defensive target, but she seems to be handling it just fine.

Highlight of the Week: Taylor splits two Notre Dame defenders with just the movement of her arms. It’s incredible how she can do so much while seemingly doing so little.

What’s Next?

As said above, Northwestern will face Boston College at home on Saturday at 12 p.m. CST for a national title game rematch. After that, it hosts Niagara on Tuesday, Feb. 19 at 1 p.m. in what should be another blowout get-back match.

That’s all for now — Stick Season will be back next week for my thoughts on both matches. We’ve got a big slate ahead of us!