No. 1-seeded Northwestern has been in this situation before: For the seventh consecutive NCAA Tournament, the Wildcats are hosting an NCAA regional. However, for the first time in program history, NU has a chance to host all of its tournament games on a hypothetical run to the championship.
The top overall seed gives the team home-field advantage through the quarterfinals, and Northwestern Medicine Field at Martin Stadium was named the host for the semifinals and finals of this year’s NCAA Division I Women’s Lacrosse Championship.
But, to get to that point, the ’Cats must advance past one quarter of the bracket, which includes Florida, a team with the fourth-best scoring offense in the country, and No. 8-seed Colorado, which beat NU at Ryan Fieldhouse on Feb. 9.
However, the ’Cats are much improved since their loss to the Buffaloes, boasting an active 10-game win streak while claiming the Big Ten regular season and tournament titles. Senior attacker Madison Taylor leads the team with 80 goals, and graduate student goalkeeper Jenika Cuocco has come up clutch several times for NU, including when she tied the Big Ten Tournament record with 18 saves in the championship game against Maryland.
Martin Stadium will host a first-round game between Notre Dame and James Madison, and the ’Cats face the winner in the second round Sunday. In the Boulder regional, Florida, Colorado, Denver and Jacksonville will fight to play the winner of the Evanston regional in the quarterfinal round.
In terms of adjusted scoring offense and defense, only NU is ahead of the median NCAA Tournament team, led by consistently strong performances by Taylor and Cuocco, as well as 43 goals from sophomore attacker Aditi Foster.
Colorado and Denver are stronger than the ’Cats defensively but are lacking in offensive dominance. The two teams have the top two scoring defenses in the country.
For the Buffaloes, goalkeeper Elena Oh has led the way with 6.32 goals against average, the lowest mark in the country. For the Pioneers, goalkeeper Lexi Gwaku is second in the country with a .524 save percentage.
The ’Cats have the most turnovers caused and the fewest turnovers committed in their quarter of the bracket, with Colorado joining them above the tournament median this time around.
James Madison causes turnovers at a high rate, led by defender Olivia Rongo, who averages 2.95 per game, the sixth-most in the country.
Florida causes turnovers at the sixth-lowest rate in the country, but turns the ball over the second least. Winning the draw control will be crucial for NU if it crosses paths with the Gators.
These numbers are encouraging for the ’Cats, who had their two worst turnover margins in losses to Colorado and Syracuse.
As with the other metrics, NU has a solid lead at the top of its region in Rating Percentage Index, with Notre Dame and James Madison well below. The ’Cats also lead in RPI nationally.
NU will open its tournament run Sunday at 1 p.m. Should they win, the ’Cats would play in the NCAA Quarterfinals against the winner of the Boulder regional on May 14.
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