Madison Taylor and Maddie Epke scored four goals apiece, and Northwestern’s women’s lacrosse team beat Johns Hopkins 16-11 in the national semifinals Friday in Evanston to return to the NCAA championship game. The Wildcats will face North Carolina, which beat Maryland 16-6 in the first semifinal, at 11 a.m. Sunday at Martin Stadium.
Northwestern (17-3), the first school to host the women’s lacrosse championship outside the Eastern Time Zone, lost to the Tar Heels in the national final last year 12-8. The Cats are looking for their first national title since 2023 and ninth under coach Kelly Amonte Hiller.
Aditi Foster scored three goals, and Taylor Lapointe and Kate Ratanaproeksa had two each for the Wildcats, who outshot the Blue Jays 40-22. Ava Angello led the Blue Jays (17-4) with three goals.
Northwestern trailed 1-0, tied the score almost two minutes later and never trailed again. The Wildcats led 10-3 at halftime before the Blue Jays cut the deficit to three late in the third quarter. After Epke and Lapointe scored about a minute apart, the Blue Jays never got closer than within four again.