WALLIS ROGIN: As one of Northwestern’s standout teams, the women’s lacrosse team continues to see success as the No. 2 team in the country. On this episode, Newsletter Editor Yoni Zacks breaks down the team’s key strengths and underscores what he believes will be crucial for a successful postseason run. Yoni is a sports beat reporter who writes The Daily Draft, our newsletter covering the sports of the week.  

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WALLIS ROGIN: From The Daily Northwestern, I’m Wallis Rogin. This is Cats Corner, a podcast about all things sports and Purple Pride.

Northwestern’s women’s lacrosse team has been performing well recently, led by senior attacker Madison Taylor. What do you think is the key to this Northwestern team?

YONI ZACKS: So, I think that one thing that’s really key, Wallis, is the depth scoring beyond senior attacker Madison Taylor. In the early season losses to Syracuse, Ohio State and Colorado, only two players not named Madison Taylor had games where they scored more than one goal. You really can’t have that in lacrosse, because lacrosse, it’s very easy to trap one player. 

And yes, Madison Taylor can break that, but you got to rely on your depth scoring. So sophomore attacker Aditi Foster and junior midfielder Taylor Lapointe, they both scored more than 20 goals this season, and they need to continue their strong performances this season if Northwestern wants to make it back to the Final Four. 

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WALLIS ROGIN: NU’s new graduate transfer goalkeeper Jenika Cuocco has had some standout performances, like her 15-game save against Boston College. How far can she help take this team?

YONI ZACKS: Cuocco was one of the top goalies in the country. She was a standout player at Drexel for three years, and has continued for the ’Cats. She’s 16th in the country in save percentage, which ranks her third in the Big Ten. 

There was one goal against Maryland where I thought she got a little too aggressive and she gave up position, which led to a goal against, but she was pretty strong in that win, especially against the really strong Maryland team. If she continues to perform like she did in the back half of that game, especially that fourth quarter, this team could find itself celebrating a national title at Martin Stadium.

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WALLIS ROGIN: Another transfer, senior attacker Maddie Epke, has been on fire for the ’Cats, scoring 24 points with seven of them coming against Johns Hopkins in a pivotal conference matchup. How important is Epke’s ability to create for this offense? 

YONI ZACKS: Like I said before, I think depth scoring is one of the things that matters most in lacrosse, and Epke’s provided a lot of that. Her 16 goals are fifth on the team, and she makes the same in points. But, another aspect that she’s really heavily impacting this year is the draw. She’s second on the team in draw controls, and 15 of those came in the ’Cats upset win over North Carolina. Her ability to impact the offense and really impact the game in multiple ways is something that’s gonna benefit Northwestern as it continues deeper into the postseason and it plays those stronger teams again.

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WALLIS ROGIN: Moving to the No. 1 weapon on the offense is, of course, senior attacker Madison Taylor. Considering her impact on the team and her record-breaking season, what do you think her odds are of winning the 2026 Tewaaraton Award? 

YONI ZACKS: I think that last year was really her year to win. She set the NCAA goals record and Northwestern points scored record, which really should have put her in strong contention. And she was a finalist, but she’s not going to pass that goals number this year, and last year’s winner, North Carolina’s Chloe Humphrey, is averaging more goals per game than she did last year when she beat Taylor out for the award. So I think that it’s really Humphrey’s trophy to lose this year, and I think Madison Taylor is going to be a finalist once again, but I don’t think she’ll take it home. 

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WALLIS ROGIN: This Northwestern lacrosse team has been a standout team for a while. I’m wondering, are there any other teams you think fans should be paying attention to?

YONI ZACKS: Yeah, so I’m personally a huge baseball fan, and Northwestern baseball hasn’t had the strongest season this year, but they’ve had some pretty strong games. Their offense is getting back into that home run hitting stretch that they had in the fall. They got swept by Purdue, unfortunately, last weekend. But before that, they won this series against Michigan State. I was at the last two of those three games for The Daily and those were some of the greatest moments that I’ve seen from the baseball team. 

Owen McElfatrick hit a walk-off single the inning after hitting a home run that put him third all time in program history with home runs, and then he later got moved to second after a home run against UIC. But those last four games really showed this baseball team how strong they were. I don’t think Purdue was a good example of that, but they take on Michigan this weekend.

Home this weekend is going to be our softball team, and they have some big names. They’re a team that has had some up and down moments, but Emma Raye was named Big Ten Player of the Week for this previous week. The team just swept Penn State, which is a pretty big feat. 

Marina Mason — she’s a pitcher. She’s just a first year, and yet, she is already one of the strongest pitchers in softball.

This tennis season is kind of wrapping up, but in the fall, you’re gonna see a lot more of Northwestern football. With all that optimism, field hockey is going to be back. They won the national championship last year, and then the women’s soccer team lost in penalties in the first round of the NCAA tournament last year. It was a very close game. They could pull out again. A lot of the players, including goalie Nyamma Nelson, are going to be back, and then men’s soccer should be on the come up. They got some good young players coming in. It’s a good time to be a Northwestern sports fan.

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WALLIS ROGIN: From The Daily Northwestern, I’m Wallis Rogin. Thanks for listening to another episode of Cats Corner. This episode was reported and produced by me, Wallis Rogin.

The audio editor is Wallis Rogin. The multimedia managing editors are Ruby Dowling, Isabella Jacob and Matt Wasilewski. The editor in chief is Anavi Prakash.

Follow us on X and Instagram @thedailynu. 

Email: [email protected]

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