When Northwestern coach Kelly Amonte Hiller inherited a club team slowly transitioning back to varsity lacrosse after a 10-year absence in 2000, there were few expectations for the Midwestern program. The Big Ten had yet to sanction lacrosse and wouldn’t until 2015.
But once Amonte Hiller and the Wildcats won their first national championship in 2005, three years after they returned to the varsity level — and then won seven more — the program became a nationally renowned juggernaut.
As NU continues its journey to the forefront of the women’s college lacrosse landscape, it has added a new venture to its quest to revolutionize the growth of lacrosse in the Midwest.
The red-hot ’Cats, winners of four straight games and boasting a 12-2 record, will host the inaugural “Lacrosse Night in Chicago” at Martin Stadium in the hopes of setting a new program attendance record, the latest milestone on its meteoric ascension. The packed stadium will serve as a test run for the 2026 NCAA National Championship, which will be held on that same field.
“We want to show that people have interest in lacrosse. It’s a beautiful game,” Amonte Hiller told The Daily. “To get people in the stands and get people seeing the beauty of the sport is just such an important thing for our sport in general, but for Midwest lacrosse, too.”
Women’s sports are reaching new heights
Amonte Hiller said the team conceived the idea of “Lacrosse Night in Chicago” after seeing the
“boom” of women’s sports across the country. She mentioned Caitlin Clark, who headlined the record-breaking television ratings during the 2024 NCAA Women’s Basketball Final Four. Fans across the country tuned in to watch the sharpshooter from Iowa — some of whom were watching collegiate women’s basketball for the first time.
Several teams, both professional and collegiate, have brought in packed houses for women’s sports during the past few years. 92,003 people crammed into Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska, in August 2023 to watch Nebraska’s volleyball team, setting a world record for attendance at a women’s sporting event in the process. More than 55,000 people filled Iowa’s football stadium to watch Clark and the Hawkeyes play an exhibition game that October.
Last year, most games in the Ryan Fieldhouse sold out — and fans flooded Martin Stadium for NU’s outdoor regular season contests, the Big Ten Tournament and the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament, where the ’Cats hosted their first two games.
With next year’s semifinals and national championship slated to take place in Evanston, it marks the first time either a men’s or women’s lacrosse title game has been held outside of the Eastern time zone. Amonte Hiller and her team are seeking to capitalize on the women’s sports boom and show the power of Midwest lacrosse.
“We’ve done really well with our crowds over the past several years,” Amonte Hiller said. “We want to show that we can kind of take this to the next level.”
Expanding past EST
The sport of lacrosse is primarily centered around — and played — in East Coast states. Maryland has won an NCAA-best 14 national titles, while Boston College, North Carolina and Virginia have found success at the highest level.
Amonte Hiller played at Maryland and grew up in the suburbs of Boston, two lacrosse-heavy areas. She won two national championships as a player under Maryland coach Cindy Timchal, who headed NU’s team from 1982 to 1991 before the program reverted to a club sport in 1992.
When Amonte Hiller took the reins to revive NU’s lacrosse program in 2000, lacrosse was hardly a factor in the Midwest. The coach carried a chip on her shoulder as she built the program, fostering an underdog mentality while recruiting and competing against the game’s top programs.
“I’ve always kind of felt like a little bit of an outsider in my life, and that’s why I fit in so well here — I feel like we’re always the outsider in the game of lacrosse,” Amonte Hiller said. “We’ve kind of gotten our fans to buy into that.”
A major part of NU’s success has come from Amonte Hiller’s willingness to recruit out west. The coach called it the team’s “lifeblood.”
Selena Lasota joined the ’Cats from British Columbia, Canada, in 2015. She wound up setting NU’s scoring record before it was broken by Scane, who hails from Clarkston, Michigan. Both players were named Tewaaraton finalists — Scane won two — and invigorated the ’Cats attack.
Amonte Hiller recruited Taylor Thornton out of Dallas in 2009. Through her four years with the ’Cats, Thornton emerged as a fearsome defender to go up against in the fan, winning IWLCA National Defender of the Year in 2011 and the Honda Sport Award in 2012. She ranks third in NU history in caused turnovers.
Thornton’s stardom sparked waves across the Texas lacrosse scene. Charlotte North grew up in Dallas, went to Boston College and set the career record for goals scored before Scane broke it in 2024.
Currently, 15 players on the NU roster hail from a state outside of the Eastern time zone. Key contributors like senior midfielder Sam Smith, who anchors the draw unit, and senior midfielder Emerson Bohlig, whose breakneck speed has contributed to a wealth of NU goals, both hail from California.
“There’s this big notion that lacrosse is only for the East Coast,” Amonte Hiller said. “We won the first national championship off the East Coast. … It’s just really special to see the sport grow.”
Today, the local growth in Evanston itself is evident. When the five-time IWLCA Coach of the Year drives down the streets of Evanston and its surrounding areas, she said she sees lacrosse nets scattered in backyards.
“That’s a really cool thing, to see the excitement of the sport growing, seeing kids younger and younger playing it,” Amonte Hiller said. “The love of the game, and I think the exposure of our success, has really helped the sport in this area grow.”
Nearly every game at Ryan Fieldhouse this season has seen a local lacrosse team pack the bleachers. Amonte Hiller hosts a yearly lacrosse camp at NU and has been active in the local community, developing the game’s talents across Illinois and beyond.
Two players on the ’Cats — senior midfielder Serafina DeMunno and freshman attacker Claire Ratke — hail from Illinois, with the latter graduating from nearby New Trier High School in Winnetka.
“We want to continue to push and (be involved with) what we can do,” Amonte Hiller said. “And you know, there’s no better place than right here on the lakeside.”
Setting the stage
The marketing blitz ahead of Thursday night’s game is in full swing.
Smith appeared with Amonte Hiller on the Big Ten Network, Amonte Hiller sat down for a podcast episode with the long-running NU sports podcast West Lot Pirates and ABC7 Chicago showed up for the team’s media availability on Monday.
Meanwhile, NU program legends Scane and Erin Coykendall, representing the upstart Women’s Lacrosse League as brand ambassadors, will be in the facility Thursday night to sign autographs.
“You want your players to leave here, love the game, feel like they can achieve anything that they want in life and just stay connected and find ways to give back what they were given and really pay it forward so this sport can continue to grow,” Amonte Hiller said. “I love how Izzy and Erin now have a platform to just continue to inspire.”
Playing Michigan, another Midwestern foe, means that Amonte Hiller will face off against Tewaaraton Award winner and NU alum Hannah Nielsen, who was hired at Michigan in 2017.
Additionally, the large Michigan alumni base in Chicago should help bring fans into Martin Stadium.
“We want to try to encourage all Michigan people to come out and support as well, so we can do something special,” Amonte Hiller said. “This isn’t just about Northwestern. This is about the bigger picture and growth of the sport.”
With wintry temperatures hindering the ability to sustain outdoor lacrosse games, NU only gets to play two or three games per season outside at Martin Stadium, instead playing in the Ryan Fieldhouse.
“It’s my favorite field in the country, so I’m really pumped — I think it’s gonna be a great atmosphere,” Smith told reporters Sunday. “It’s gonna be a great game. Michigan, they’re a great team, and it’s always a good fight. I’m super excited.”
The venue has been modified to accommodate NU’s football program as Ryan Field is rebuilt. It seats approximately 12,000 fans. A temporary video board has been installed in the corner of the field, and those in the higher rows can see Lake Michigan from their seats.
The draw of watching junior attacker Madison Taylor play in person should fill some seats. The superstar is tied for the most goals in the country and leads the nation in goals scored per game with 5.07.
“It’s gonna be awesome. I think we emailed some of our teachers to come,” Taylor said. “I’ve heard a lot of lacrosse programs out here are coming. I think it’s gonna be really good for the sport, and I’m just really excited to see all the fans.”
The matchup has large implications: with a win, the ’Cats will clinch a share of the Big Ten title.
But, more importantly, the game serves as a marker of the growth NU lacrosse has displayed from its humble beginnings as a club team turned varsity squad that became a national powerhouse, as well as the growth the sport of women’s lacrosse has seen over the first quarter of the century.
Amonte Hiller encouraged fans — even those who haven’t seen lacrosse before — to walk through Martin Stadium’s gates for Thursday’s matchup.
“This is something that you can do to support your daughters and young women. I’ve seen how people have shown up for other women’s sports. I think this is the next step for the women’s sports at Northwestern — let’s show up, show out, and show that,” Amonte Hiller said. “We can produce a crowd. We can produce excitement. We can do some of the same things that men’s sports have done. And if you have a daughter, if you have a sister or a mother that values it, show up for them.”
Email: h.frieman@dailynorthwestern.com
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