Annabel Child Ready and Willing to Be Everywhere for Northwestern

Harvard women's lacrosse coach Devon Wills remembers recruiting Annabel Child out of Canada’s Hill Academy. She had body control, knew how to pace herself and recover and had a high lacrosse IQ. Child could play anywhere — midfield, defense and even goalie. During an international tour in 2024, Wills stuck Child in the cage.

“She wanted to be the goalie, and she had the highest save percentage of anybody,” Wills said.

But Harvard opted instead to build its defense around Child, who went on to become a first-team All-Ivy League selection in 2025. Now at Northwestern as a graduate transfer, she’s played a mix of defense and midfield, notably scoring the game-winning goal against Maryland to lift the Wildcats to a Big Ten championship and the No. 1 seed for the NCAA tournament, which concludes this weekend in Evanston, Ill.

Northwestern and Harvard were Child’s final two contenders during her high school recruiting process. She chose Harvard as a teenager. It was her dream school since second grade. Wills knew Child could score — “Her first career goal was behind the back, and I was like, ‘Classic Canadian,’” quipped Wills — but she found her home on defense.

“She didn’t want to come off the field, and this was the best way to keep her on the field,” Wills said. “We didn’t want her off the field either.”

Child had to come off the field when she tore her ACL and missed her entire sophomore season, opening the door for her to one day play at Northwestern because of the Ivy League’s eligibility rules.

Child wrapped up her Crimson career with 14 goals, five assists, 59 caused turnovers and 85 ground balls. With the staff’s blessing, she entered the portal during her senior year.

“I love college lacrosse,” Child said. “There’s nothing better. If you gave me unlimited years, I would have a hard time not coming back every single time.”

Kelly Amonte Hiller remembered Child well. She also looked at her outgoing class. The Wildcats were losing a defensive midfielder in Sammy White. Defensive stalwarts Jane Hansen and Grace Fujinaga also were gone. Though the Wildcats would get Madison Smith back from injury, and Mary Carroll and Jaylen Rosga were set to return, Amonte Hiller knew she had holes to fill to rebuild the defense and keep Northwestern at its best.

Child was one of several transfers Northwestern brought in for the 2026 season. The haul included goalie Jenika Cuocco (Drexel), midfielder Maddie Epke (James Madison) and attacker Olivia Adamson (Syracuse). Child wasn’t the splashiest of the bunch, but Amonte Hiller didn’t see her as the fourth wheel of the group in the slightest.

“We felt like we needed Annabel’s leadership because she had been a captain, she had been a leader, she knows what it takes,” Amonte Hiller said.

Even with Amonte Hiller’s confidence in her and the need to fill starting spots in the midfield and on defense, Child came in without expectations of starting for the perennial power. She was pleasantly surprised when the staff told her she’d get the nod in Northwestern’s opener against Boston College, a rematch of a 2025 national semifinal. It was a second homecoming of sorts for the Harvard alum.

“I was back in Boston, so there were a lot of hometown fans,” Child said. “I was trying to take every moment all in. If you told my high school self that I was starting at Northwestern against Boston College, it would blow their mind. I had that perspective and was grateful but still hungry for more at the same time.”

Child scored a goal and added an assist. But it hasn’t been smooth sailing like a pristine day on the Charles River or Lake Michigan ever since. The Wildcats’ 10-9 loss to Colorado on Feb. 8 was among several head-turning upsets across Division I this season.

In retrospect, Amonte Hiller noted that the loss was “not a fluke.” Colorado upended Florida for the Big 12 tournament crown and pushed the Wildcats to overtime in the NCAA quarterfinals last Thursday.

Northwestern also suffered consecutive losses to Ohio State and Syracuse in March. It hasn’t lost since.

“The back-to-back losses to Ohio State and Syracuse knocked us down, but they didn’t knock us out,” Child said. “We had to step back as a group and understand what was happening. We came together, and as a group, committed to being grateful for the moment and to play for each other. That mindset switch and mental work is what it took each of us individually and as a team to commit wholeheartedly, and that’s when we hit our stride.”

The Wildcats enter the season’s final weekend on a 12-game winning streak that included a 17-16 overtime win over North Carolina, a potential opponent in Sunday’s NCAA championship game should both teams advance.

Child has evolved as a player, too, serving as a versatile piece in the midfield and on defense. But she still rolls up her sleeves and makes plays that don’t always show up in the box score, though she does share the team lead in ground balls (36) with Cuocco. She’s a vocal leader, but it’s the example that she sets for the rest of the team that Amonte Hiller says has been invaluable for the Wildcats this year.

“Anytime that you have players like that, that are willing to do the dirty work and don’t need all the attention — that’s your heart and soul,” Amonte Hiller said. “Our D has been like that all of the season, and she and Jaylen have been the leaders of it.”

For Child, the ability to be a Swiss Army knife and slide into defensive or midfield roles is something she’s enjoyed and honed while playing sixes with the Canadian national team.

“It builds confidence within me to understand I am valuable on both ends,” Child said. “I played a midfield role at Team Canada, so that’s helped. Plus, playing against tough opponents — Australia, England, the U.S. — with incredible talent gave me a chance to learn from those experiences and about not letting the pressure get too big.”

The pressure wasn’t too big in the Big Ten championship game. Rival Maryland mounted a four-goal fourth-quarter rally to send the game into overtime.

The game was a classic, and Child’s role was classic Annabel. She started the game on defense, where she stayed for most of the contest, but she still scored two goals in regulation. And she leaned on her lacrosse IQ (and Canadian gumption) for the final play.

“There was no question we were going to have her out there for that last possession, and I didn’t say anything to her,” Amonte Hiller said. “She just picked up the ball and was like, ‘I’m going to do this, I’m gonna throw it to the cage and finish the job.’”

Finish, Child did. She took a feed from Mckenzie Brown and buried it to secure the Wildcats’ sixth Big Ten tournament title since 2019 and the top seed in the NCAA tournament.

Child has since tallied two points and four ground balls in Northwestern’s wins over James Madison and Colorado in the NCAA tournament. Now it’s onto Johns Hopkins in a game that will be played at Northwestern Medicine Field at Martin Stadium, marking the first time in NCAA Division I lacrosse history that championship weekend is being played outside of the Eastern time zone.

The Canadian national team member and Harvard graduate is all-in on Wildcat pride.

“It shows the growth of the game,” Child said. “As an international, the more the game grows, the more exciting it is, and [playing championship weekend] here shows the growth of the game,” Child said. “It gives more young girls and boys exposure to it. They can come in person and see how amazing these teams are, how cool the atmosphere is, and what to strive for. It’s special that this is the first time outside of the Eastern time zone, and it’s not something we’re taking for granted.”

Child isn’t taking her Harvard or Northwestern degrees for granted either. She majored in biology with an economics minor at Harvard and is pursuing a master’s degree in management at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. She has a job lined up in social sciences in New York City. But both of her college coaches would love to see her play in the Women's Lacrosse League.

“It’s shocking to me that she hasn’t gotten picked up yet by the WLL,” Amonte Hiller said. “I’m hoping that she will after the season because she’s an asset to every team, and you see it most on Team Canada. She’s a big leader for them, and she has done an amazing job in our program.”

Wills would gladly provide another reference.

“She’s the type of player that they need to have [in the WLL],” Wills said. “She’s so steady. She’s going to make teams better, leagues better. She’s always going to help develop the game.”

But first, Wills looks forward to seeing her former defensive star play all over the field this weekend.

“We’re rooting for her 100 percent,” Wills said.