Three hat tricks, two career-first goals and one NCAA scoring leader, No. 4 Northwestern’s match-up with Marquette lived up to its “Legends Night” name.
The Wildcats (4-1, 0-0 Big Ten) outscored the Golden Eagles (3-1, 0-0 Big East) 25-7 Friday night at Ryan Fieldhouse, a fitting tribute to the former players honored at the game.
The ’Cats gave attacker Erin Coykendall (Communication ’23, SPS ’24), defender Jane Hansen (Communication ’23), attacker Izzy Scane (Communication ’22, Kellogg ’24) and defender Sammy White (Communication ’25) something more than just video dedications — a glimpse at the new generation of Lake Show legends.
NU’s scoring offense started the game ranked second to Marquette’s first in the NCAA, but it still ran up the score in its favor. Ten different ’Cats lit up the scoreboard, five doing so at least twice.
NU had learned the danger of overrelying on senior attacker Madison Taylor, the NCAA’s leading scorer, to rack up goals when the team lost 10-9 to Colorado on Feb. 9 despite her scoring six times.
In each of NU’s games since then, at least 10 ’Cats have scored, with at least four scoring twice or more.
Taylor, graduate student attacker Olivia Adamson and sophomore attacker Aditi Foster both played their individual highest-scoring games of the season. Freshman midfielders Kate Ratanaproeksa and Reese Hansen each scored their first goal as ’Cats.
“It makes a big difference when they (freshmen) can get those minutes and get that confidence because we’re gonna need that depth,” coach Kelly Amonte Hiller said.
NU and Marquette ended the first quarter 6-5 in shots on goal, but the former had a higher conversion rate. Four of the ’Cats’ shots made it to the back of the net, compared to just two of Marquette’s.
In the second quarter, the ’Cats scored their season-high number of goals in a single period.
Taylor added five goals to her tally, and Adamson scored twice, earning her first hat trick of the season. Foster, senior attacker Maddie Epke and junior midfielder Taylor Lapointe also contributed to the scoreboard.
“We’re being able to be adaptable on offense,” Taylor said postgame. “It’s just being connected, just playing all together and just moving on a string. That got a lot better, and we were able to showcase that tonight.”
At halftime, the ’Cats led Marquette 14-4. And yet, the team kept improving its third- and fourth-period play.
NU controlled every single draw in the second half of the game. Epke and redshirt sophomore midfielder Madison Smith rotated taking the center position. Individually, they controlled a combined eight of the 14 draws taken by the ’Cats in the third and fourth periods.
After expressing unhappiness with NU’s performance on the draw in the season opener against Boston College on Feb. 6, Amonte Hiller said the team has been working to improve its draw circle play.
“Now, I think we’ve got the communication going,” she said. “Everybody’s working together and really asserting themselves on the field, so that’s huge.”
NU is now ranked third in the NCAA for draw controls per game, as well as seventh in draw control percentage. Epke and Smith have emerged as the team’s designated draw takers, with the latter having the 17th-most draw controls per game of all players in the NCAA.
NU returns to action Saturday for an away game against Stony Brook.
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