Northwestern Beats BC in NCAA Championship Rematch

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. —  In a tightly contested game all afternoon, third-ranked Northwestern managed to keep top-ranked Boston College at arm’s length to secure a 14-11 victory over the previously unbeaten Eagles. The Wildcats played a cleaner, more composed game and never wavered despite momentum shifts in BC’s favor.

It was a rematch of the 2023 NCAA women’s lacrosse championship game, also won by Northwestern. Shortly after the opening draw, the focus quickly shifted to missed opportunities and penalties for the Eagles — and timely scoring for the Wildcats.

Notably, Northwestern (4-1) scored three goals in a span of 96 seconds near the end of the first quarter to open up a five-goal lead.

BC (5-1) put up a good fight the rest of the way, but never got to within closer than three goals. Neither team was particularly sharp as they combined for 34 turnovers.

Late goals by Eagles attacker Rachel Clark and midfielder Shea Baker drew Boston College within three with under four minutes remaining in regulation. But the Wildcats played the possession game to bleed the clock until the final horn sounded to stamp out the BC’s comeback bid.

Reigning Tewaaraton Award winner Izzy Scane led Northwestern with five goals. Erin Coykendall added four.

Clark paced the Eagles offense with five goals and an assist. Belle Smith had a game-high seven draw controls.

After the game, Wildcats coach Kelly Amonte Hiller praised her team’s toughness to grind out the back-and-forth contest. “Any time they really surged, we fought back,” she said. “It was a total team effort.”

Played outdoors at Newton Lacrosse Field and televised nationally on ESPNU, the game drew a crowd of 1,528 fans despite game-time temperatures hovering around the freezing point.

“Our team from top to bottom had great focus this week in practice. We were really dialed in,” Amonte Hiller said. “It’s tough to come here and win on the road like this. Really proud of the group and excited for continuing that focus, continuing that fight aand getting better each week.”

Northwestern got off to a hot start. Three unassisted first-quarter goals from Coykendall set the tone. Scane (twice), Dylan Amonte and Madison Taylor also scored to give the Wildcats a 7-2 lead.

But the Eagles closed to within three following two massive goals from Clark and one from Emma LoPinto. They trailed 8-5 at halftime. It could have been closer were it not for Northwestern’s defense.

“They’re the best. So aggressive, so fast, so athletic,” said Madison Taylor, a sophomore attacker for the Wildcats who had a hat trick. “When the offense isn’t doing that well, the defense steps up. And if the defense isn’t doing that well, the offense steps up. We just have such a good connection on and off the field.”

Taylor and Scane showed particularly strong chemistry in the second half. While Boston College was never out of it, with the way the Northwestern was playing on both ends of the field, even a three-goal lead seemed insurmountable.

“We worked on our offense all week — especially moving off ball on the backside when the righties had the ball left side, just moving and trying to draw those fouls,” Taylor said. “We did a really good job of that in the first quarter. Definitely took our foot off the gas in the second but came back and got the win.”

Amonte Hiller considered the contest a significant early-season test given the history between the two programs.

“They’re obviously going to be fired up,” she said. “We played really well in that national championship game, and it’s a new season. It’s a new team.”

The Wildcats have won three straight games since a Feb. 16 loss to Notre Dame.

“It’s only February,” Amonte Hiller added. “We don’t expect to be in May form in February. But we knew that we wanted to make the fight really our greatest asset. Just really playing as hard as we could and controlling what we could control. It got sloppy, but that’s going to happen in a high-stakes game, and it’s also going to happen early in the season.”

For Northwestern, the win could potentially signal a move back to the No. 1 spot in the national rankings, while Boston College is left with a familiar taste in its mouth. With how these two teams are playing, another rematch could be brewing in late-May.