Northwestern Enters NCAA Tournament Atop Final In-Season USA Lacrosse Top 20

No. 1 in the Big Ten, No. 1 in the NCAA tournament and No. 1 in the penultimate USA Lacrosse Division I Women’s Top 20 of the 2024 season.

Northwestern enters the postseason favored to win it all once again. The Wildcats downed Penn State in the Big Ten championship game to solidify their place as the best team in college lacrosse — at least for now.

No. 2 Boston College, No. 3 Syracuse and No 4 Notre Dame of the ACC were idle this week but stay put in their respective positions. No. 5 Loyola beat Navy in overtime for its fifth consecutive Patriot League crown, rounding out the top five.

Besides Loyola, a few Top 20 teams faced stiff competition, including No. 9 Denver (vs. UConn), No. 13 Yale (vs. Penn) and No. 14 Stony Brook (vs. Drexel). But for once this season, only one Top 20 team had an unexpected loss this weekend, so there’s little movement.

That one was USC, which exits the field. Colorado, which beat USC in a Pac-12 semifinal and pushed No. 19 Stanford in the title game, is No. 20.

This is the final in-season update to the Top 20. The final ranking of 2024 will be released in the days after the NCAA championship game.

USA LACROSSE DIVISION I
WOMEN’S TOP 20

1. Northwestern, 15-2 (Prev: 1)
2. Boston College, 16-3 (Prev: 2)
3. Syracuse, 14-5 (Prev: 3)
4. Notre Dame, 14-3 (Prev: 4)
5. Loyola, 17-2 (Prev: 5)
6. Virginia, 14-4 (Prev: 6)
7. Florida, 17-2 (Prev: 8)
8. Maryland, 12-5 (Prev: 7)
9. Denver, 15-3 (Prev: 10)
10. Penn State, 11-7 (Prev: 9)
11. Johns Hopkins, 11-7 (Prev: 12)
12. Michigan, 14-2 (Prev: 11)
13. Yale, 14-2 (Prev: 13)
14. Stony Brook, 17-2 (Prev: 14)
15. Penn, 13-4 (Prev: 15)
16. James Madison, 13-5 (Prev: 16)
17. North Carolina, 10-5 (Prev: 17)
18. Stanford, 12-4 (Prev: 19)
19. Princeton, 10-6 (Prev: 18)
20. Colorado, 13-6 (Prev: NR)

Also considered (alphabetical order): Brown (10-5), Drexel (13-5), Duke (10-7), Harvard (10-5), Fairfield (16-2), Navy (13-4), Richmond (13-5), USC (12-5)

HOT

Northwestern (no change)

Losses to Notre Dame and Penn State? Please. No team is invincible this season — and Northwestern is no exception — but the Wildcats enter the postseason as a clear frontrunner after a chaotic campaign around the country.

Hopkins pushed the Wildcats in the Big Ten semifinals, even limiting Izzy Scane to one goal. But Madison Taylor picked up the slack with five. In the championship game, Scane poured in five goals, with Taylor coming through with three goals, one assist and eight draws.

Are the Wildcats beatable? Yes. But they’re also versatile and deep. They are, frankly, the consensus No. 1.

Florida (+1)

Florida has rattled off 13 straight wins since starting 0-2 with losses to Loyola and North Carolina. While the AAC is mostly a two-horse race between the Gators and James Madison, Florida’s resume also includes an impressive win over Maryland, which it leapfrogged this week after scoring its second win over the Dukes. 

Both of Florida’s wins against its soon-to-be-former conference rival were of the dominant variety. The Gators followed a 15-7 win against James Madison on April 13 with a 21-11 one in the conference title game, giving them their 10th straight conference crown.

Stony Brook (no change)

The Seawolves don’t move up because chalk mostly held throughout the rankings. But Stony Brook enters the NCAA tournament on a 12-game winning streak. That’s not surprising — the Seawolves were favored to win the CAA. However, it’s the way the Seawolves have won.

Stony Brook closed the regular season with an 11-10 OT win over Stanford. After handling Elon, the Seawolves fell behind early in the CAA title game against Drexel, as Dragons goalie Jenika Cuocco was the human equivalent of a brick wall. (She made 10 first-half saves and 17 overall.)

But unlike in Stony Brook’s loss to Hopkins (which saw Madison Doucette make 14 stops), the Seawolves remained poised and confident and rallied, using a 6-0 run to claim their 10th conference crown since Joe Spallina took over in 2012. The late-season resilience makes Stony Brook a team to watch, especially during a season defined by unexpected results.

IN

Colorado (No. 20)

Colorado upended second-seeded USC, the hosts of the final Pac-12 tournament, on Thursday night. The win allowed the Buffs to play for their first conference tournament crown for the fourth time. Once again, Colorado fell short, a hard-fought 11-7 loss. Still, the 13-6 mark and win over a previously ranked opponent has the Buffs in this week’s Top 20.

OUT

USC (was No. 20)

Despite having home-field advantage and the No. 2 seed for the Pac-12 tournament, USC's bid for a crown was thwarted, mirroring its fate from last year: A surprising loss to Colorado, despite a six-point effort from Isabelle Vitale.