Northwestern Lacrosse Coach and Superstar Earn Big Ten Awards
It's becoming a yearly tradition in Evanston. The lacrosse team largely dominates all season long and then wins the Big Ten Tournament. Then, head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller wins the conference Coach of the Year, and Northwestern's best players take home awards as well.
This year, it's all happened again. After the 'Cats took down Maryland on Sunday to win the Big Ten crown, the awards were announced today.
Unsurprisingly, Amonte Hiller locked up her third straight Big Ten Coach of the Year, her fifth overall. And Madison Taylor, Northwestern's best player this season, earned Big Ten Attacker of the Year. Over the course of the past six seasons, a Wildcat has now won that award a whopping five times. It's utter domination.
Amonte Hiller has had some really good teams during her tenure at Northwestern, but this was perhaps one of her most impressive coaching efforts. After losing a whole host of seniors, including superstar Izzy Scane, many expected this year's team to have some growing pains.
While there were a few, there certainly weren't many. The 'Cats continued to run the conference, finishing with a perfect 8-0 record in the regular season. They are currently 16-2 overall heading into the NCAA Tournament.
Ultimately, Amonte Hiller led a squad this season that should have taken a much more noticeable step back than it did. Instead, folks are talking about another potential National Championship in Evanston.
Taylor's production spoke for itself as the nation's leading point getter with 125. She's second in the country in goals with 89. Without Taylor, Northwestern's offense would have been a lot worse. Losing Scane would have been a much more noticeable issue offensively if Taylor wasn't producing at an elite level.
At this point, winning the Big Ten Tournament and these awards feels like the standard for Northwestern. But, now begins the uncertainty. The NCAA Tournament starts on May 9, and the 'Cats will be looking to put an exclamation mark on an already impressive season.
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Ryan Cole is a writer for Northwestern Wildcats On SI covering every team on campus. He’s currently a junior at NU where he’s studying journalism and previously wrote and edited for Inside NU. He also studies business with an eye towards eventually helping develop business models to revive local news. In his free time, Cole enjoys watching sports, playing sports, reading the news and singing.