FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Northwestern trudged off the turf Sunday as national runners-up for the second consecutive season after falling 12-8 to North Carolina at Gillette Stadium.
But as coach Kelly Amonte Hiller, graduate student defender Jane Hansen and graduate student goalkeeper Delaney Sweitzer addressed the media following the Wildcats’ (19-3, 8-0 Big Ten) national championship loss, they didn’t seem inconsolable.
Yes, there were glum looks on their faces, their eyes downcast. Regardless, an underlying theme manifested within the press conference room: gratitude.
“I came into this game knowing I already won, no matter what the results were,” Sweitzer said. “I knew I was going to leave it all out there. … The results weren’t obviously what we wanted, but I know I won in the end.”
In her final collegiate game, the ’Cats’ netminder turned in one of the best performances of her career.
Sweitzer made a program-record 17 saves against the nation’s best scoring offense, which entered Sunday averaging 17.71 goals per game. The Tar Heels (22-0, 9-0 ACC) only tallied 12 goals on Sweitzer’s cage Sunday.
“It’s all about having fun,” Sweitzer said of how she maintains composure. “At the end of the day, it’s just a game, it’s not that deep. Believe in yourself and know that the results will come.”
For NU, the day began on the right foot. The ’Cats controlled the first draw, and North Carolina midfielder Eliza Osburn immediately picked up a yellow card. But Tar Heel goalkeeper Betty Nelson stood firm in net, making two saves, as NU’s offense failed to cash in on the power play.
Redshirt sophomore attacker Abby LoCascio opened the scoring, firing home a feed from junior attacker Madison Taylor midway through the first quarter. North Carolina responded quickly with a goal by attacker Chloe Humphrey — her first of four — to tie the game, and took the lead two minutes later. After going up 2-1, the Tar Heels never relinquished their lead.
The North Carolina defense, which coach Jenny Levy described as a “sliding defense,” gave the NU attack fits all game, especially in the first and second quarters. Taylor, the NCAA’s single-season goals record holder, failed to score in a game for just the third time in her career, though she led NU in points with four assists.
“They came out and just absolutely terrorized Northwestern,” Nelson said of her defense. “So it made it really easy for me to do my job.”
Sophomore attacker Taylor Lapointe finally broke through the North Carolina wall, whipping a sidearm shot past Nelson to snap a nearly-17-minute scoring drought.
Defensively, NU hunkered down, forcing five North Carolina turnovers in the first half. Hansen generated three of her five caused turnovers in the first half, a vintage performance in the final game of her storied six-year ’Cats career.
“Kudos to North Carolina, they’re an incredible offense,” Hansen said. “I’m really proud of our (defense) for stepping up. We made a lot of great plays.”
Still, the Tar Heels continued to pepper Sweitzer with shots. Though she made nine saves through the game’s first 30 minutes, five goals snuck through as the two teams headed into their locker rooms at halftime with the Tar Heels leading 5-2.
NU gave itself a glimmer of hope shortly into the third quarter. After Sweitzer saved a free-position shot, she connected with senior midfielder Sam Smith, who sprinted the length of the field and found herself on a breakaway. Smith powered a shot past Nelson to trim the deficit to 5-3.
North Carolina responded within a minute as Humphrey picked up her third goal of the game before scoring again with eight minutes left in the quarter to reclaim a four-goal lead.
Hansen caused her fifth turnover midway through the third frame, setting up junior attacker Lucy Munro to score a goal in transition to make the game 7-4 as the quarter expired. Hansen finished with 49 caused turnovers this season, the nation’s seventh-highest mark.
“(This program) has meant everything to me,” Hansen said. “I feel like I’ve learned so much about myself and about life and I credit (Amonte Hiller) for that a ton. I’m just really grateful for my experience.”
However, a three-goal Tar Heels outburst extended their lead to 10-4 with half a quarter left to play.
Four minutes after Munro scored her second goal of the game, Hansen punched in her second goal of the season, catching a pass from freshman defender Mary Carroll and finding the back of the net. Hansen, like Sweitzer, capped off her career with a stellar performance.
After missing her junior season with a torn ACL, Hansen rallied back and started every NU matchup in both 2024 and 2025 as a stalwart on the ’Cats’ shot-stopping unit. She concluded her career at Gillette Stadium, 30 miles from where it began in Cohasset, Massachusetts.
“These girls and the coaching staff are just so incredibly special,” Hansen said. “This is an experience that I’ll never forget and I’ll never take for granted.”
Smith and freshman attacker Aditi Foster added goals, but North Carolina pulled away in the final minutes to secure its fourth national championship in program history.
NU took the field before a record crowd of 14,423 fans, the most to ever attend a women’s lacrosse national championship. Next year, the Final Four and national championship will be on its home turf at Martin Stadium.
The ’Cats made it to the championship game after a fourth-quarter, five-goal comeback and upset over No. 2 Boston College in the semifinal round. The team demonstrated resilience and determination as it found itself in its third straight national title game.
“Just really proud of my team this year,” Amonte Hiller said. “They played with a lot of togetherness, a lot of heart.”
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