Stick Season, Week Ten: Dominance by chaos

The Wildcats made their 2025 debut on Northwestern’s best venue.

This week’s Stick Season column will be relatively straightforward. The only game from this past week was Northwestern’s 19-10 rout of Oregon on Sunday afternoon, in which the starting lineup only played for one half of the game. But despite that, there’s never a shortage of topics to discuss regarding this team.

I’m going to be impartial for a moment, but my absolute favorite place on Northwestern’s campus is Martin Stadium during the spring. So even if the wind was a bit too much for my liking, covering lacrosse for the first time outdoors this year on Sunday was still an exciting experience.

This was especially true with how wildly entertaining Northwestern’s rout of Oregon was, specifically during the first half when the ‘Cats jumped out to a 17-5 lead. The scoreline told the story of a ridiculously fast-paced scoring game, but even Northwestern’s 17 first half goals aren’t enough to describe just how chaotic the Wildcats’ dominance was on Sunday.

The first three minutes of the match were marked by a flurry of turnovers before Madison Taylor got on the board for Northwestern with 12:08 left in the first. The Wildcats were mainly in control from then on out, but Oregon did show a little fight — cutting a 5-0 deficit to 8-4 within around eight minutes between the first and second quarter. The Ducks’ run was fun for them while it lasted, as the Wildcats responded with a whopping 7-1 second quarter run to force a running clock after a half.

In other words, in around 28 minutes of play, there was a goal scored every 1.27 minutes. Then you add the chaos of Oregon committing seven first-quarter turnovers (the Dukes average 15.13 per game) and 10 fouls, and Northwestern taking 25 first half shots. And to cap things off, the second half was a totally different story — as Northwestern head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller started emptying her bench, the Wildcats only scored two goals, while Oregon went on a 4-0 run to end the running clock in that period.

It wasn’t a perfect game by any means — Amonte Hiller mentioned defensive breakdowns throughout the game, while senior Samantha Smith talked about some early struggles of getting into a groove against an unfamiliar team. However, a win is a win, and it’s extremely fun when it happens as wildly as Sunday’s game did.

Taylor/Munro analysis

Northwestern’s dominant first-half showing on Sunday was a product of the entire team, but two attackers were at the forefront: Taylor and Lucy Munro. And those are the two players that I want to zero in on this week.

Taylor, of course, is a mainstay of this column. But just when I thought her performances couldn’t get more egregious, she goes and puts up seven goals and four assists on 70% shooting in just over 28 minutes of play. Yes, she was facing an Oregon defense that hasn’t yet won a conference game, but it’s still absurd to do that much in a short amount of time, especially when her teammates were also combining for 10 other goals in that frame.

Last week, I talked about how Taylor’s efficiency dropped while her playmaking and rate of non-free position goals increased. On Sunday though, she had a bit of everything while also playing efficient — a free position goal, five goals assisted by five different teammates and two unassisted goals (including the free position). And that’s not even accounting for her feeding abilities.

“She’s just a dual threat,” Amonte Hiller said. “She is such an elite dodger. But then if they send the slide, she can feed so well too. So tough matchup for other teams, and our team is doing a great job if seeing the openings that she’s given to us.”

If everything continues to come together for Taylor the way it did on Sunday, it’s hard to see any other player in the nation being as impactful as her.

Then there’s Munro, who tallied three goals and two assists on Sunday to put together a career-high five-point game. She’s now combined for 14 points across the last four games, which is more than any of her teammates not-named Taylor in that stretch. But what impresses me the most is how good Munro is despite only starting seven collegiate games.

Munro has a powerful shot and can comfortably aim from the eight-meter arc, but she also has great decision-making abilities on the field, as shown through her playmaking. The fact that a player as well-polished as her barely saw the field (unless it was a blowout) last season is a testament to just how phenomenal Northwestern’s development is.

Because even if Munro was buried beneath several other attackers in previous depth charts, it’s clear from the way she plays now that she still got better during her time as a bench player. Hence why now that she’s gotten the starting nod, she’s able to come out of the gates swinging. I fully expect her to have an even bigger role next season, and when she does, it will become even more obvious that Northwestern is a place where everyone is ready.

This senior class

A lot gets talked about last season’s departing class and the amount of all-time greats it consisted of. However, it can’t be understated how important this year’s senior class is for Northwestern.

Yes, several grad transfers on this Northwestern team have made a significant impact, and I for sure will talk about them at the end of the season when I do my retrospect on this year’s team. But when the montage of the Northwestern class of 2025 played before their senior day celebration on Sunday, I realized just how much that group in particular meant.

Specifically, the starting seniors — Emerson Bohlig, Samantha White and Samantha Smith — in addition to graduate student Jane Hansen — have been huge anchors for Northwestern this season, all in different ways. Hansen and White are a dangerous duo on defense, ranking second and fourth respectively in the Big Ten for caused turnovers. Smith ranks second in the conference for draw controls and a big reason why NU can dominate possession in games. Then there’s Bohlig, who boasts tremendous power in her shot and ties for third on the team in goals despite being a first-year starter.

These four players played major roles in Northwestern’s national championship game runs over the past two seasons. However, they are also part of why the Wildcats could pick up where they left off in 2025 even after massive roster turnover. While the makeup of the team changed completely, their presence remained a very important constant.

“Our class has just really been trying to fill the gaps from a lot of people that we lost last year,” White said at a media availability on Monday. “[We’re] trying to just help all the new girls acclimate to our culture and trying to bring in as much fun energy as we can.”

But more importantly, something that Amonte Hiller has repeatedly emphasized is the leadership that this class has brought to the team — and how it positively impacts the NU culture.

It’s easy to get wrapped in the narrative that Northwestern is “rebuilding” this season. But Sunday brought to the forefront how a separate group of stalwarts are wrapping up their NCAA careers, and just how much of an X-factor that group has been over the last four years.

Weekly Awards

Player of the Week: Madison Taylor — junior attacker: After a three-week hiatus from winning this award, Taylor receives this week’s POTW after her seven-goal, four-assist performance against the Ducks. And she did it all in one half.

Play of the Week: Is it lacrosse or is it basketball? White misses her shot, but graduate student Riley Campbell taps the ball into the net off the rebound.

What’s Next?

Next up is arguably Northwestern’s most highly-anticipated matchup of the regular season, where it takes on No. 17 Michigan under the Martin Stadium lights on Thursday at 7 p.m. CDT. A win means that the Wildcats will clinch at least a share of the Big Ten regular season championship — however, it won’t come easy. The Wolverines are coming off a big 13-2 win against No. 8 Johns Hopkins and Northwestern’s last two matches against Hannah Nielsen’s squad were decided by one goal.

The Wildcats are marketing Thursday night’s game as “Lacrosse Night in Chicago,” as an ode to the sport’s growth in the midwest. We’ll have plenty of coverage on that match and what it means for women’s lacrosse later this week, so stay tuned!