Who won the state and county races on Evanston voters’ ballots? What’s behind the strong performance this season from Northwestern field hockey? The Daily answers these questions and recaps other top stories from the last week.
DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: Democrats won the state and county races on the Evanston ballot.
Northwestern field hockey lost the Big Ten Tournament to Michigan after going undefeated in the regular season.
And a Northwestern Intercampus Shuttle was struck by a bullet while heading to downtown Chicago.
From The Daily Northwestern, I’m Dov Weinstein Elul.
EDWARD SIMON CRUZ: And I’m Edward Simon Cruz. This is The Weekly, a breakdown of our top headlines from the past week.
You may have heard a new voice on the show just now. That’s Dov Weinstein Elul, one of our reporters. He worked on one of the segments for today’s episode. Dov, welcome to The Weekly.
DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: Thanks so much for having me, Edward.
EDWARD SIMON CRUZ: You’ll hear more from Dov in a few moments. First, a quick recap of this week’s election results. While Republican Donald Trump beat Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris to retake the presidency, Democrats saw many victories in other local races.
For Illinois’ 9th Congressional District: Incumbent U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Evanston) was reelected to a 14th term. She defeated Republican challenger Seth Alan Cohen.
For District 17 in the Illinois House of Representatives: Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz (D-Glenview) was reelected to a fourth term. She defeated Republican challenger Jim Geldermann.
For District 18 in the Illinois House of Representatives: Rep. Robyn Gabel (D-Evanston) was reelected to an eighth term. She defeated Republican challenger Charles Hutchinson.
For Cook County Clerk: Democrat Monica Gordon won a special election. She defeated Republican Michelle Pennington and Libertarian Christopher Laurent.
For Cook County Circuit Court Clerk: Democrat Mariyana Spyropoulos defeated Republican Lupe Aguirre and Libertarian Michael Murphy.
For Cook County State’s Attorney: Democrat Eileen O’Neill Burke defeated Republican Robert Fioretti and Libertarian Andrew Kopinski.
For Cook County Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Commissioner: All four Democrats won their respective seats.
Evanston residents will vote for mayor, city clerk and councilmembers April 1. Jeff Boarini will run against Mayor Daniel Biss, while City Clerk Stephanie Mendoza will run unopposed. Ald. Melissa Wynne (3rd) and Ald. Eleanor Revelle (7th) will have their seats open.
A quick note before this next segment: Dov spoke with Sports Editor Henry Frieman on Thursday, ahead of the weekend’s Big Ten Field Hockey Tournament. Since they recorded, some statistics have changed, and the Wildcats lost to the Michigan Wolverines in the Big Ten Tournament Championship yesterday afternoon, 1-0. Here’s Dov.
DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: So, I’m here today with Henry Frieman, the Daily Northwestern sports editor. We’re going to be talking about Northwestern’s field hockey team, who just clinched (its) first-ever undefeated season on Friday (Nov. 1). And so, yeah, just tell me a bit about what made this Northwestern team so special this year.
HENRY FRIEMAN: I mean, Northwestern — the first undefeated season in program history, a perfect 18 wins, 10 of those came over ranked opponents. I think this just speaks to the credit of coach Tracey Fuchs, you know — been here since 2009, architect of this Northwestern field hockey team — they haven’t lost a game since Aug. 27, 2023, in the regular season. That’s an insane thing to say. That’s something like 30, 35 games — just straight dominance. And it’s in all three facets, from the offense to the midfield to the defense to even the goalkeeping. Annabel Skubisz is phenomenal. But you have Ashley Sessa, who scored 20 goals and 13 assists and 53 points — that’s the best in the nation. And you have Maddie Zimmer in the midfield, and you have Ilse Tromp and Emilie Kirschner on the back line and Annabel Skubisz, probably the best goalkeeper in the country, tied for the program leading career shutouts. It just — everything goes right.
DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: What were some of the different factors this year from other previous years?
HENRY FRIEMAN: Well, Northwestern retained Maddie Zimmer, who missed the year due to Olympic duty last year, and they also got Ashley Sessa through the transfer portal. Sessa was from North Carolina, took a year off to participate in the Olympics, where she and Zimmer were first teammates and under Coach Fuchs as an assistant coach. And now they’re back at Northwestern, and those two have been just so dominant throughout Big Ten play.
DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: Yeah, awesome. I saw that Maddie Zimmer just won Big Ten Player of the Year. What does she mean to this team?
HENRY FRIEMAN: Zimmer is the captain. She’s the unspoken leader. She is the spoken leader as well. And Coach Fuchs has told me multiple times that Maddie, Maddie is the glue in the midfield, a ferocious attacker, a staunch defender. On a penalty corner, which is when the team sets up for basically like a free stroke, the opposing team does, and Northwestern has to defend, she takes on the “flyer” role. So she’s got her mask on, you know, and she’s got to run out to meet the defender. And so she does that so effortlessly, and that’s part of the reason why Northwestern has only allowed 10 goals this season. Zimmer’s also got seven goals, seven assists, so she’s a huge key part of this, and, you know, I’m sure the Olympic experience is something there as well. Really just a phenomenal player.
DOV ELUL: What do you expect from this Northwestern team as they head into the postseason?
HENRY FRIEMAN: Well, they’re the No. 1 team in the country, and the sky is truly the limit. It appears to me as though there are two field hockey programs: Northwestern and North Carolina, and they are in a class by themselves, and they are 100% headed to a collision course in the national championship — the No. 1 seed versus the No. 2 seed. It’ll be a rematch of last year and the year before that, and I think that’s what’s probably going to end up happening. I think that they have the Big Ten Tournament this weekend. We’ll update you on those results when they come out . And they’ll have the postseason and who knows — we could see Erin Matson against Tracy Fuchs, North Carolina head coach Erin Matson taking on Northwestern at Phyllis Ocker Field in Ann Arbor for the national championship.
DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: Have you been speaking with any of the players at all? What have they been saying about their feelings towards the season, what’s next? Yeah.
HENRY FRIEMAN: Yeah, so from all of my conversations with the players post-match — usually they’re after a dominant win, so emotions are pretty good. But Olivia Bent-Cole specifically told me — she’s a sophomore forward — she specifically told me their goal was to win the national championship. They saw how close they got last year, falling at the end in a penalty shootout. They know the goal was to get there, and their mentality is, “We’re going to do whatever we can to win this time.” And so I think that’s what everyone’s focused toward. The Big Ten Tournament, sure, they take one game at a time, but the bigger picture is they want to come home to Evanston with a national championship trophy on the plane.
DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: Absolutely. Can you tell me a little bit about some of the highlights from this season? Best moments for the team — if there was any, I don’t know, particular goal, game that really stood out, that really helped this team get to this place or just will help them going forwards.
HENRY FRIEMAN: Well, I think it’s really been a complete, just, across-the-board highlight reel for Northwestern, but there’s one specific goal that got into No. 4 on the SportsCenter top 10: Ashley Sessa picked up the ball on her stick and started juggling it to beat an Iowa goalkeeper (and) score a goal. She, like, batted the ball to herself twice and then scored— it was unreal. And it just shows the caliber of player that she is — you know, as I mentioned, team leader in goals, Olympic athlete — truly maybe one of the best attacking forwards in the country, at least at the collegiate field hockey level.
DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: So, heading into the postseason, they’re looking pretty good — first-ever undefeated season. What are your predictions?
HENRY FRIEMAN: I think the train keeps chugging on down the tracks. There’s not really anyone in their way except for maybe Michigan. Then it’s on to the NCAA tournament, where again, there’s not really anyone in their way until they get all the way to the final steps, which is North Carolina.
This current iteration of Northwestern field hockey is outscoring (its) opponents 66-to-10 throughout the regular season, and I think it is potentially the best field hockey squad of all time. I don’t think there’s anyone that can stand in its way, and I think Northwestern is headed for its national championship victory.
DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL: Awesome. Henry Frieman, thank you so much.
Yesterday, Michigan took down Northwestern 1-0 to win the Big Ten Field Hockey Tournament. The first round of the NCAA Division I field hockey tournament will take place Friday, and the final two teams will face off in the championship Nov. 24.
Here are the other top headlines from the week:
A Daily investigation revealed that Compass Group has transferred some dining workers accused of harassment or abuse. The investigation found that even after these transfers, the misconduct sometimes continues.
The Dr. Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies will keep its seventh and eighth grade classrooms open for the school year. Parents previously protested the district’s plans to close the classes.
Refresh Dance Crew, Fusion Dance Company and Boomshaka will come together next weekend for their annual Refusionshaka show.
The Northwestern men’s basketball team is currently 1-1, having defeated Lehigh 90-46 before losing to Dayton 71-66.
And a Northwestern Intercampus Shuttle bus was struck by a suspected bullet on its way to Chicago. The driver sustained minor injuries from shattered glass, while the approximately 15 passengers onboard were all unharmed.
From The Daily Northwestern, I’m Dov Weinstein Elul. Thanks for listening to another episode of The Weekly. This episode was reported and produced by me, Edward Simon Cruz and Henry Frieman.
The audio editor of The Daily Northwestern is Edward Simon Cruz. The digital managing editors are Carlotta Angiolillo and Sasha Draeger-Mazer. The editor in chief is Jacob Wendler.
Our theme music is “Night Owl” by Broke for Free, used under a Creative Commons Attribution License and provided by the Free Music Archive.
Make sure to subscribe to The Daily Northwestern’s podcasts on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or SoundCloud to hear more episodes like this. Follow us on X and Instagram @thedailynu. We’ll be back next Monday with another episode of The Weekly.
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X: @dov_w_elul
Email: [email protected]
Related Stories:
— Field Hockey: No. 1 Northwestern falls in Big Ten tournament championship to No. 9 Michigan
— Northwestern Intercampus Shuttle hit by suspected bullet on way to Chicago
