In the preseason, our panel chose the game we were most excited about. Some said Boston College. More chose the North Carolina rematch.
I said this one. Northwest in Maryland. April 9.
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Turns out I was right to believe the hype.
Kelly Amonte Hiller returns to her old stomping grounds on Thursday. She was a four-time All American and two-time national champion at Maryland. She is now the winningest coach in Northwestern history with eight national titles.
His No. 4 Northwestern team heads to College Park on Thursday to take on an undefeated and top-ranked Terrapins team. The Wildcats have won five straight in this series. Maryland hasn’t beaten Northwestern since 2022. The Wildcats are the only team the Terrapins have an all-time losing record against. That’s 13-12 in Northwestern’s favor, according to the Terps’ own history page.
But this is a different Maryland team. 13-0. At home. The one-goal loss in last year’s Big Ten Championship still lingers. The Terrapins had a 6-2 halftime lead in that game and watched it slip away.
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They will have a grudge to try to prevent that from happening again.
Here are three keys for the ‘Cats to repeat history at SECU Stadium.
1. The draw circle decides everything.
Northwestern leads the Big Ten in draw controls per game at 17:25. Maddie Epke is the active NCAA leader in career ties with 525. She is tied for seventh all-time among NCAA Division I players with UConn’s Sydney Watson. He recorded a season-high 15 draws against North Carolina on March 25. That’s the same game Northwestern beat the then-No. 1 team in the country.
Not to be outdone, Madison Smith has 89 draws in 12 games this season. He missed most of 2025 after an injury ended his sophomore campaign in six games. Now he’s back and averaging 7.42 draws per game, and his work as a draw specialist has been a big part of NU’s recent success. He has recorded double-digit ties three times, including 10 at Oregon on March 21. As a team, the Wildcats have 209 total ties, which is best in the conference.
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However, Maryland is not far behind. Kayla Gilmore has 78 ties. Kori Edmondson, the reigning Big Ten Midfielder of the Year and former No. 1 overall recruit in the class of 2022, has 47 more. The Terrapins rank second in the Big Ten in drawing percentage.
The last time these two met, Northwestern won the tie battle enough to escape with an 8-7 victory in the Big Ten Championship. That margin is very fine. If the Wildcats consistently lose possession against a Maryland offense that scores 14.46 goals per game, they will be in trouble.
Smith needs another double-digit tying performance. Epke needs to be everywhere. This is the most important matchup on the field.
2. Both teams have a statistical weakness, but fixing one will attack the other.
Northwestern’s flaw is the accuracy of its shooting. The Wildcats rank seventh in the Big Ten in shots on goal percentage at 70.7 percent. That’s not ideal for a team that takes 34 shots per game. Against USC in front of a program record 5,805 fans on Lacrosse Day in Chicago, free-position shots rattled off the crossbar. Annabel Child, a mid-season All American, saw her free position shoot up from the iron. Madison Taylor hit the post. The offense scored the first six goals of the game and then spent the next three quarters finding a rhythm. That can’t happen against JJ Suriano.
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But here’s the thing. That can be fixed. Better shot selection. Slowing down. Choose corners. This team has the talent to clean that up overnight. They have done it before. They scored 17 goals against North Carolina just two weeks ago.
Maryland’s weakness is different. The Terrapins have allowed 12 goals per game in their last three games against Rutgers, Ohio State and Penn State. None of those teams have Madison Taylor.
Taylor leads the Big Ten with 78 points and 58 goals. He ranks second in the country in goals per game with 4.83. She just became the second player in program history and Big Ten history to reach 300 career goals, joining Izzy Scane. She is the consensus number one overall pick in the upcoming WLL Draft. She is the game plan and no one has stopped her yet. He has 422 career points, the most among all active NCAA Division I players, and is 61 points shy of Scane’s program record of 483.
If Northwestern shoots on frame, Maryland’s defense will crack. They have already shown that they can.
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3. The goalkeeper who makes the great save wins.
This is the key within the key. Two of the best goalkeepers in the country. Two different stories to get there.
Jenika Cuocco has 102 saves this season, second most in the conference. He has 684 career saves, the most among all active NCAA Division I players. He recorded 64.3 percent saves against USC, his second-highest mark of the season. He has 32 saves in his last three games. She was named IWLCA Defensive Player of the Week and Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week on March 31 after making 23 stops in the Wildcats’ two top-10 wins over North Carolina and Johns Hopkins. They’ve already beaten the No. 1 team in the country once this season, making 12 saves in the overtime win over North Carolina, including a crucial stop in overtime. In his Wildcat debut, he set a new program record for saves in a season opener with 16 against Boston College.
JJ Suriano leads the Big Ten and the NCAA with a 53 percent save percentage. He ranks third in the country with 133 saves. She is the reason Maryland is undefeated. He has faced and beaten ranked opponents such as Syracuse, Virginia, Princeton and Johns Hopkins. She is statistically the best goalkeeper in the country right now.
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But this is what makes this interesting. Cuocco has had a more complicated schedule. She has faced Boston College, North Carolina, Syracuse, Johns Hopkins, among others who tested her late. He has seen elite shooters in big moments. Suriano has been great, but he hasn’t faced anyone like Madison Taylor.
When the game is close in the fourth quarter and Maryland’s Taylor or LaPointe is cutting down the alley, which goalie saves? Cuocco has done it before against North Carolina. Suriano also has the numbers to do it.
Thursday night tells us who gets up.
The final result
These two programs have combined for nine of the last ten Big Ten tournament championships. Northwest has five. Maryland has four. Between them they have won 22 NCAA titles. Northwestern trails Maryland by six. Every time they play, it matters.
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The Wildcats are 3-2 against No. 1-ranked teams since 2023, the most wins in the nation. They already beat North Carolina when the Tar Heels were at the top of the standings. They can do it again.
But the streaks don’t matter when the stopwatch starts. This is a different team from Maryland. Unbeaten. At home. With something to prove.
The Wildcats need to win the toss. They need to shoot better than they did against USC. And they need Cuocco to be the best goalkeeper on the field.
I picked this game back in February because I knew it would be important. It matters even more than I thought.