Coaches also credit Coykendall for her selflessness and thoughtfulness.
Trisha Condon, Coykendall’s coach at Spencerport High School, often invited Coykendall to coaches’ meetings to talk drills, how to best defend opponents and what would make the program successful. As Coykendall got older, Condon said her lacrosse knowledge surpassed that of the coaching staff.
“Constantly, she was face guarded,” Condon said. “Instead of looking at it as a negative, she always found a way to show other people how it could benefit them, like, ‘How can we use this to our advantage?’”
Hiller said Coykendall is the first to reach out when someone is struggling outside of lacrosse.
She’s caring and empathetic, he said, noting her close ties to John John, a family friend and Northwestern fan that her sister met through Best Buddies, and Herb, an 87-year-old, longtime Northwestern lacrosse fan.
This caring nature was, in part, developed through fostering animals. Her mother Jennifer Coykendall said their family brings a dog home each year they go to Aruba, fostering it and then getting it adopted. There were always pets in the home — dogs, cats and turtles.
Erin Coykendall even tried to rescue what she thought was a baby opossum hanging on a fence in her backyard during the fall of her junior year at Northwestern. She went to help it down, but quickly realized it wasn’t a baby when it bit her.
Her teammates still send her videos of opossums on campus and bring it up. But that incident wasn’t a deterrent.
“If I had one hobby, it would be rescuing animals, fostering them,” Coykendall said. “I love animals.”
This caring attitude comes across in Coykendall’s assist-heavy game. Her parents encouraged assists when she first began playing, telling her it was part of being a good teammate.
During her freshman year at Northwestern, Coykendall was so well-known for being a feeder — and just that — that defenders wouldn’t slide to her when she had the ball. Amonte Hiller saw a way to capitalize on that. She liked Coykendall’s feeding abilities but told her that she could open up her feeds even more if she scored more and started drawing defenders.
Coykendall improved her scoring as she worked with Northwestern’s staff and her trainer, Brinson, along with support from her family. She watched Kayla Treanor highlight reels at Amonte Hiller’s recommendation, examining how Treanor drew slides and got her head up to find feeds.
Coykendall also spent 2-3 hours with Brinson almost every day during her summers at home, working on seemingly small adjustments with big results.
“He does a really good job slowing down, even if it’s a half-second, where my hands are coming too soon to follow my hips [after shooting],” Coykendall said. “He can find that and be like, ‘OK, you’ve got to drive your back hip before you bring your hands through.’”
The efforts started appearing on the stat sheet during her junior year, when she scored 45 goals after tallying just 21 the previous season. She’s been a serious scoring threat for the Wildcats ever since, highlighted by a 58-goal, 50-assist season in 2023 that earned her Tewaaraton Award finalist honors.
The physical adjustments helped with improvement. But none of it would have been possible without the belief of her coaches, Coykendall said.
“Without confidence, you’re constantly doubting yourself,” Coykendall said. “Their trust in me and the way they’ve instilled confidence in me has allowed me to play free and have fun.”
That confidence is almost palpable when Coykendall plays. Whenever she has the ball near the crease, it feels as though there’s something magical on the horizon — a tricky behind-the-back, a fake out or a heady feed.
Those moments aren’t just another day in the office for Coykendall. It took countless hours on the rebounder, tweaking tiny aspects with Brinson and listening to her coaches’ insights to bring all the pieces together.
In the final days of her college career, it’s do-or-die as Coykendall looks to power the Wildcats to another national championship.