Northwestern field hockey enters the 2025 season as reigning national champions.
The Wildcats capped off a program best 23-1 season after defeating Saint Joseph’s in the championship game, sealing their second title in the last four seasons.
NU was led by two Olympians, then-sophomore forward Ashley Sessa and then-senior midfielder Maddie Zimmer. Sessa, the Offensive Player of the Year award winner, led the nation in points with 67. Zimmer won both the Player of the Year Award and the Honda Award, an honor given to the top collegiate female athlete in each sport.
The ’Cats are coached by 2024 Coach of the Year Tracey Fuchs, who has led the program since 2009 and signed a long-term contract extension this offseason. Fuchs is the winningest coach in program history and has taken NU to eight NCAA tournaments.
Many key pieces from the championship squad are returning for this season, including the top four in points. Zimmer will use her final year of eligibility while pursuing a graduate degree.
However, a big loss for this NU squad is graduate student goalkeeper Annabel Skubisz, who spent five seasons with the ’Cats and served as the primary goalkeeper for both national championship teams.
The biggest additions of the offseason come to NU by way of the transfer portal. The ’Cats picked up Princeton transfer and rising graduate student forward Grace Schulze, who had the second-most points on her team en route to an All-Ivy Honorable Mention. Schulze is joined by rising junior back Kerry McCormick from Old Dominion and rising sophomore midfielder Kate Janssen from Delaware.
NU’s conquest for consecutive championships includes 12 teams that finished in the top 25 of last year’s final rankings, including top-10 finishers Boston College, Duke and Princeton. The ’Cats will play just five of their 17 matchups at Lakeside Field, adding to the difficulty of this season’s schedule.
Regular season play begins on Sunday when the ’Cats face Richmond in Richmond, Virginia.
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