A month in, and all that was expected is, as Northwestern reclaimed its No. 1 title after falling as low as fourth.
Perfection is a hard standard to maintain. But after a nearly perfect season, that’s what is expected. So while a loss against Notre Dame in the second game of the year wasn’t predicted, it’s not a sign, it’s not glaringly significant and it’s not some revelation into where this team is at. It’s a loss, it happens.
A month into the season, Erin Coykendall is the expert player the lacrosse world knows her as with 13 goals and a team-leading 20 assists.
A month into the season, Maddy Taylor has picked up right where she left off, scoring multiple goals in every game for the most on the team with 23.
A month into the season, Sammy White remains as versatile as ever, with 10 groundballs, six caused turnovers and 15 draw controls.
A month into the season, Izzy Scane is still Izzy Scane, becoming Northwestern’s all-time leading scorer as she surpassed the previous record of 398 in a four-goal game against Central Michigan.
A month into the season, Northwestern has the fourth-best offense in the country, most of the starters from last year’s championship team are still here and Wildcat lacrosse is still setting the bar for the rest of the sport.
So, no shocking news here, this is a championship-caliber team. Unless the worst of the worst happens, NU will have its chance at back-to-back titles.
That wasn’t ever a question, but in case it was, wins over Syracuse and Boston College prove this. NU took the lead against both teams and never once trailed.
The Orange entered the season and still remain at No. 5. Delivering the ‘Cats’ only lost in 2023, NU started off in the deep end, but it didn’t seem like it.
The Wildcats went up 8-2 in just the first quarter, and the Orange only ever came as close as three points of the lead. Coykendall and Taylor each grabbed four goals, with Scane and Frank, the Richmond grad transfer who has nicely added to the attack, each collecting hat tricks in the 18-15 victory.
Although BC and NU both scored six goals in the second half of their championship rematch, NU was the more dominant team by far. The ‘Cats scored seven in the first quarter and were up 8-5 at the half. Similarly to Syracuse, BC came within three at the end, falling 14-11.
Among the other games, Northwestern cruelly defeated Marquette 21-3 and Central Michigan 27-3. The ‘Cats got off to a slow start against then No. 20 and now No. 19 Colorado, falling behind 3-1 and ending the first quarter tied. However, Northwestern ended the half up 11-9 and finished 19-14.
The thing about Northwestern lacrosse is that it's never expected to falter. There’s nothing wrong with expectations, and this team knows its level, but there’s a difference between not completely overpowering opponents and playing concerningly. There hasn’t been any concern.
Teams occasionally fall behind throughout games, and the ‘Cats don’t need to always crush a team to win. That being said, beating Colorado by five and two of the most storied programs in all of lacrosse by three are respectable margins.
And, of course, there is that one loss. One loss across the last 27 games this team has played. One loss in over a year. One loss against a good team in No. 4 Notre Dame.
For as much as the ‘Cats are on a mission, the Irish are on one too. They are a top-five team that felt under projected, ranked in the bottom half of the top 10 to start the season. In this game, Northwestern couldn’t win because it couldn’t grab the draw. In the third and fourth quarters, it won just one of four and one of seven draw controls. That’s not going to cut it. But Notre Dame is the 10th-best draw-control team in the country. Against ranked teams in Syracuse, Colorado and Boston College, Northwestern came out on top 24-13, 25-12 and 16-12 in this category.
5-1 is a good start. That’s the same record the 2023 champions had at this point last year. It is still early, and NU will become more battle-tested as the schedule gets tougher.
Seven of Northwestern’s nine remaining games are against ranked teams in No. 10 Denver, No. 15 John Hopkins, No. 14 Penn State, No. 8 North Carolina, No. 22 Rutgers, No. 9 Maryland and No. 6 Michigan. Only Albany and Ohio State are not ranked.
It’s crucial that Northwestern continues to clean up its draw and works on remaining strong throughout all four quarters of games. The ‘Cats are in a habit of starting strong, while their scoring slows down later on. But those are aspects that can get cleaned up the more they play.
It’s also worth noting that aside from the addition of Frank, NU is seeing more of Emerson Bohlig and Serafina DeMunno this season and has Samantha Smith’s first-year sister Maddy Smith getting reps on the draw.
Through six games, Northwestern lacrosse is living up to expectations. But about those expectations: remember perfection is impossible to reach. Whatever this program does though, is about as close as perfect a team can get.
