Latest news with #AmonteHiller
Boston Globe
25-05-2025
- Sport
- Boston Globe
Northwestern, North Carolina will provide local flavor to NCAA women's lacrosse title game in Foxborough
'We got it the night before our game and we've been wearing it ever since, so we thought it was right to wear it now,' said record-setting attack Madison Taylor. Though BC's season ended before the championship game for the first time since 2016, Sunday's title tilt between Northwestern and top-seeded North Carolina will have plenty for locals to root for. Four Wildcats have Massachusetts roots, including one of their defensive leaders, Cohasset's Jane Hansen, who has 44 caused turnovers this season (including two Friday.) Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up For Amonte Hiller, Hansen, and fellow Massachusetts natives Alex Blake (Medfield), Cara Nugent (Byfield), and Kate Keller (Newburyport), playing for a national championship at the home of the New England Patriots is meaningful. Advertisement 'This is pretty surreal, pretty exciting,' said Amonte Hiller. 'We didn't make it here the last time Foxborough hosted (in 2018). We're just so grateful to be here in the first place.' The Wildcats (19-2) won't settle for just an appearance, however, and thanks to the offensive capabilities of Taylor, a junior from Long Island, they stand a chance against the juggernaut that is undefeated North Carolina. Taylor has 154 points, and the national NCAA single-season goal record with 109. Advertisement North Carolina (21-0) has a talented scorer of its own in redshirt freshman Chloe Humphrey, who scored seven goals in the The Tar Heels defense — what defender Sam Forrest calls a 'velociraptor defense' — is stifling. They have outshot opponents 773-466 and outscored them 372-143. With injuries leading to an early postseason exit for North Carolina last year, the three-time national champions are eager for a chance to win their first title since 2022. They are healthy and have plenty of new players, including Andover's Haley Carver, who want to return to the top. 'We have one more game and we are going to give it everything that we have,' said Humphrey. 'This team, I'm telling you, has a lot to give.' A large crowd should be on hand to see the duel between North Carolina and Northwestern. Friday's semifinals brought 10,080 fans to Gillette, the highest total for the women's tournament since 2022. Sunday should be even better despite BC's absence. Much of that is thanks to the legacy the Eagles have established through their consistency and style of play. 'I think the girls in our program play the right way,' said BC coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein. 'They play unselfishly. They play really gritty. They play really tough, and I think they have captured the hearts of a lot of young lacrosse players. Advertisement 'The game is electric and the game is fun to watch, and I think we've captured a lot of fans.' Interest in women's lacrosse has always run high in Massachusetts, thanks to the quality of high school and club programs, but BC's run to the last eight Final Fours spurred on a new generation of lacrosse players and fans who will fill the stands on Sunday. Amonte Hiller is pleased that her team will be who they watch. 'I think it brings a lot of attention to our sport at a critical time in college athletics,' said Amonte Hiller. 'I'm just really grateful to be a part of it in my hometown.'
Chicago Tribune
15-05-2025
- Sport
- Chicago Tribune
Broken records and good vibes as Northwestern advances to its 16th Final Four in women's lacrosse
Norhwestern is in the Final Four once again. After a 17-12 NCAA quarterfinal win over Penn on Thursday at Martin Stadium in Evanston, the third-seeded Wildcats women's lacrosse team is heading to its sixth straight national semifinals and its 16th in the last 21 years under coach Kelly Amonte Hiller. Northwestern (18-2) will seek its ninth national championship May 23-25 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. 'In these types of games where it ends one team's season, there's going to be some up and downs,' Amonte Hiller said. 'It wasn't a perfect performance by any means, but we were able to battle through and make plays when we needed to. 'It will be a good opportunity for us to assess how we can be better next time out and just go out there and play fearless (next) Friday.' The Final Four will be a homecoming for Amonte Hiller, a Boston-area native. 'It's pretty awesome,' she said. 'I've gotten a lot of text messages (about) coming home. That's a pretty big deal.' With eight of the university's 11 all-time NCAA team championships — including five straight from 2005-09 — the women's lacrosse program has been easily Northwestern's most successful. Even with an 11 a.m. start Thursday, which the team itself labeled as not ideal, fans came out to support. A few feet from the stadium, parents of players gathered in their purple gear and waved at other fans walking in. The families spoke highly about the program. 'The coaching at Northwestern is top 10 in the country,' said Glen Miles, who has two daughters on the team who transferred in this season in senior Jordan Miles (High Point) and graduate student Niki Miles (Penn). 'Kelly does a phenomenal job supporting the girls. (And) it's a lot of talent, so as a kid wanting to play, you're getting to play with some of the best players in the country.' Glen Miles was a three-time All-American in lacrosse at Navy, was named the nation's top midfielder in 1986 and earned a gold medal with Team USA in the 1990 world championship. So he knows a thing or two about good lacrosse — and he sees it in Amonte Hiller's program. The Wildcats started hot with two quick goals from junior Lucy Munro, and junior Madison Taylor scored the first two of her six goals for a 5-1 lead. The Quakers cut it to 5-3 at the end of the first quarter. Northwestern expanded its lead to 10-5 at halftime, but the Quakers started the third quarter on a 5-1 run to cut the lead to one. Niki Miles' goal stopped the run, and the home team entered the fourth with a 13-10 cushion. Niki Miles finished with two goals to give her 40 for the season — but she saw her Penn single-season scoring record of 63 goals in 2023 broken by Anna Brandt, the Ivy League midfielder of the year, who scored five goals Thursday to increase her total to 68. The match would remain competitive in the fourth as Brandt's fifth goal cut the lead to 15-12 with 3:13 left. Northwestern kept Penn at arm's length, and freshman Aditi Foster's goal ended the Quakers' comeback hopes. 'We really fought for it (and) really wanted it,' senior Sammy White said. 'We have a lot of pride in playing for each other and having each other's backs.' Taylor joined the record-breaking party at Martin Field. Her six goals gave her 105 — and counting — for the season, breaking the NCAA Division I, Big Ten and Northwestern records. 'I just feel really grateful to be in the position where I am today,' Taylor said. 'I have the best teammates in the world and they help me be a better teammate and person every day. It's been an amazing experience, and I would never imagine being in the position that I am in today.' Four days earlier Taylor set an NCAA Tournament single-game record with 10 goals against Michigan. The Long Island native's mom, Georgette, was in attendance for both performances. 'That was unbelievable,' Georgette said about the 10-goal performance. 'She said it right: If you play in the moment and live in the moment, good things will happen and you'll play your best lacrosse.' Northwestern played its last home game of the season Thursday, but Georgette Taylor wants students and fans alike to continue to support the Wildcats. She thinks people are missing out by not coming to watch Amonte Hiller's team play. 'I don't know how anyone could not want to come to this facility,' Georgette said. 'You're going to remember the memories that you share with these people, as well as what they did off the field.'
Chicago Tribune
17-04-2025
- Sport
- Chicago Tribune
Northwestern lacrosse and star Madison Taylor want to create ‘something special' for Thursday's game
Northwestern attacker Madison Taylor had a big afternoon Sunday, even by her own NCAA Division I-leading standards. In the Wildcats' first game this season outside at the upgraded Northwestern Medicine Field at Martin Stadium, Taylor had seven goals and four assists in the first half to lead No. 3 Northwestern's 19-10 win over Oregon. Taylor, who leads the nation with a 5.07 goals per game average, called it 'a really cool experience' — and she's expecting an even better one Thursday night at Northwestern's lakefront stadium. When Northwestern hosts No. 13 Michigan in an event it's calling 'Lacrosse Night in Chicago,' the Wildcats hope to set a program attendance record at Northwestern Medicine Field, also the temporary home of the football team in 2024 and 2025 as Ryan Field is rebuilt. Northwestern expanded capacity at the stadium to about 12,000 and made upgrades such as video boards and premium seating. 'The atmosphere is going to be amazing,' Taylor said. 'I think it's going to be a once-in-a-lifetime type of experience. I think we really are trying to take advantage of the new stadium that's been built here. There's just going to be a lot of special people that have come through Northwestern lacrosse there, and it's going to be really exciting.' Coach Kelly Amonte Hiller, who has led Northwestern lacrosse to eight NCAA championships, said the Wildcats came up with the idea for the event after seeing the larger-scale successes of Iowa women's basketball and Nebraska volleyball playing at football stadiums. They plan to have a FanZone, will welcome back former Northwestern lacrosse stars Izzy Scane and Erin Coykendall — who now play for the new professional Women's Lacrosse League — to sign autographs and hope to draw in hundreds of young players and fans. Amonte Hiller wants the game, which will air on the Big Ten Network, to showcase the program in a stadium that in January was selected to host the NCAA women's lacrosse national championship in 2026. It will be the first venue outside of the Eastern Time Zone to host the NCAA Division I title game. 'We really feel like we have something special here at Northwestern with lacrosse, with the amount of success that we've had over the years,' Amonte Hiller said. 'With the new stadium we have, we felt this was a great opportunity. When we go outside, let's do something special where we can really get a lot of people in the stands and really do something special for the sport of lacrosse, for women's sports at Northwestern and really show that people can show up for a women's game, and really see the beauty of how hard these women work, how athletic they are, how cool this game is.' The game has added meaning because it is against a Michigan team coached by former Northwestern player Hannah Nielsen. And it will feature Taylor, whom Amonte Hiller called 'really a transcendent player in lacrosse.' Taylor hails from Long Island, New York, where she played for the club team of former Northwestern player Shannon Smith, who inspired her to pursue playing at the college level. Now a junior, Taylor has been a difference-maker for the Wildcats since she came in as a freshman and scored five goals in her first game, despite making the switch from midfielder to attacker for the first time. She benefited that season from playing in a dynamic offense and consistently contributed, including becoming the first freshman to score four goals in the NCAA Championship game since at least 2005. For the NCAA runner-up last season, Taylor ranked third in Division I with 83 goals scored and 116 points, behind national leader Scane, who had 88 goals. Using what Amonte Hiller called 'next level' body control that she developed from playing multiple sports, including soccer and basketball, a great sense of the game and a work ethic to back up her talent, Taylor played her way to being named a Tewaaraton Award finalist in 2024. This year has been a different challenge as the Wildcats had to overhaul much of their roster after losing multiple players to graduation, including Scane and Coykendall. Northwestern has counted on Taylor to provide leadership on and off the field for a team that is 12-2 entering Thursday's game and is beginning to find a next level of cohesion heading into the postseason. 'This year has been a huge growth year,' Amonte Hiller said of Taylor. 'She's really the focal point of the offense relative to other teams and scouting, and just her leadership has been amazing. We have a full new group on the offensive end. And just everything that she's done to help the group come together. 'She is really developing other aspects of her game even more. She's really a dynamic player. She's a great cutter, she's a great dodger, you're now seeing she's really an elite feeder too. So it's been fun to kind of see that develop. And I think she's enjoyed taking on that additional responsibility and really lifting up the rest of the offense.' Taylor, who also tops Division I with a 7.14 points per game average, has always been a lead-by-example type, but she has pushed herself into being a more intentional communicator this season. Amonte Hiller said that despite the increased role, she doesn't see Taylor carrying a weight or pressure — but instead enjoying the relationship building. Taylor said she learned that from some of her former elite teammates. 'It's being a really positive communicator and showing everyone I believe in them so much and making everyone feel as confident as they can when they step onto the field,' Taylor said. 'When everyone has trust and confidence in each other, it makes the team play a lot better. '(The older players) showed me you don't have to take everything so seriously and just have a lot of fun. For the most part, what you're going to remember is the memories you have and the friendships you make, not all the little things in between. That's one thing I've been trying to implement to all the new people here now.' Northwestern wants the fun to continue Thursday night in their regular-season home finale. Taylor said the team hopes to host a contingent of young players from local club teams, and college players take pride in interacting with them. 'They'll come to support us every game, so we want to make sure they feel supported back,' Taylor said. 'I think it's just so fun to interact with them after the games. It kind of makes you realize that it's more than just a lacrosse game.'
