Northwestern Lacrosse Wins Dramatic Big Ten Championship Game
The Wildcats have done it again, winning their third straight Big Ten Tournament Championship today against Maryland. Northwestern peppered shots on net all night long but struggled to find pay dirt. Even still, the 'Cats managed to grind their way to victory over the Terps by a score of 8-7.
Northwestern went through a lot of adversity this afternoon en route to the win. Leading scorer Madison Taylor was issued two yellow cards and ejected late in the contest. Maryland goalie JJ Suriano was dynamite between the pipes, making 18 saves.
The shots weren't finding the netting at all in the first half, and Maryland held a 6-2 advantage early in the third quarter. But the 'Cats came storming back, scoring five straight goals to take a one-goal lead in the fourth.
Taylor accounted for Northwestern's final goal in that stretch to give it the lead, but Maryland's Kori Edmondson found the equalizer with just 1:04 to play. As the game crept into its final minute, overtime loomed on the horizon.
It never got there, though, because Aditi Foster scored with just 15 seconds left to give the Wildcats the lead. Northwestern was able to shut things down the rest of the way, and the trophy was officially headed back to Evanston for the third straight year.
There was a wide shot discrepancy in this game as Northwestern fired 12 more shots on net than Maryland (26-14). The 'Cats also won the draw control battle by a 12-7 margin.
Given those stats, it would have been understandable if Northwestern got in its own head a little bit. The 'Cats were the better team all game, but things just refused to go their way early. Instead of letting it affect them, nobody panicked, and it led to yet another championship in the record books during this dominant era of Northwestern lacrosse.
Now, the Wildcats will wait to see their draw in the NCAA Tournament which begins on May 9. Make no mistake, Northwestern has a national championship on its mind.
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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.