Draw Dominance, Timeout Pep Talk Lift Northwestern to Title Game

EVANSTON, Ill. — Friday night’s NCAA semifinal between Northwestern and Johns Hopkins was won in the center circle, where the trio of Maddie Epke, Madison Taylor and Madison Smith combined to win 19 draw controls.

It might have also been won in a timeout.

Northwestern, the championship weekend host, was unstoppable in the second quarter, scoring six times to take a seven-goal lead into halftime. The third quarter, though, started with the kind of run that has become synonymous with Johns Hopkins.

When left for dead, the Blue Jays find a way. They scored four straight goals to put pressure on Northwestern, but Wildcats head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller called a timeout. It settled them down. Taylor said it allowed them to refocus.

Northwestern bounced back to score four of the next five goals and leave little time for another Hopkins comeback. The Wildcats won 16-11 to advance to Sunday’s NCAA championship game against North Carolina at noon Eastern.

Taylor had four goals and four assists, Taylor Lapointe had two goals and five assists, and Epke had four goals and two assists. Jenika Cuocco made six saves.

“We talk about resetting a lot,” Taylor said. “I think it's been a big thing of ours, and we've seen all year that there's so many ups and downs in games, and it's a game of runs. … We usually take like a deep breath and we just kind of try and reset our best and refocus.”

Lapointe assisted Epke not long after the timeout in response to Ava Angello’s goal that made the score 10-7. Epke then returned the favor, assisting Lapointe less than a minute later, pushing Northwestern ahead by five at 12-7.

Another goal by Angello, who became Hopkins’ all-time leading goal scorer in the thrilling NCAA quarterfinal win over Stony Brook, provided a brief spark 26 seconds into the fourth quarter. Northwestern answered. Then when Taylor Hoss scored twice in a row to again narrow the Northwestern lead to four at 14-10, the Wildcats defense hunkered down to allow just one more goal in the final 9:54.

It was far from an easy-going last 10 minutes, however. After Hoss assisted Paige Willard, Hopkins trailed 15-11 with 5:52 to play. Epke brought in the next draw control, but it became a mine field between the 30s. Northwestern committed turnovers on each of its next three possessions, as Hopkins kept up its signature full-field pressure.

The shots generated from those turnovers came up empty, though it took a sprawling save to the far pipe by Cuocco to swat away the second attempt.

After coming up with the ground ball, Cuocco positioned herself behind the cage and motioned her hand down, almost as if to tell everyone to calm down.

“It was, 'Alright, take a breath. We're good. Let just clear the ball,'” Amonte Hiller said. “They were obviously getting really desperate and making some huge plays. … Let's just finish the job. I think that was her messaging.”

The message came through loud and clear. Northwestern successfully cleared, and after Taylor delivered a shot high, Epke netted yet another for a 16-11 lead with 2:07 left.

That hole Hopkins dug itself into by allowing six unanswered goals in the second quarter proved too deep escape, even as the Blue Jays mounted what’s become its signature comeback.

“I think the draw controls is probably a big piece of it,” Hopkins head coach Tim McCormack said. “We didn't have a ton of possession. We were really scrapping for possessions at a point in that second quarter. And then when we did, our spacing wasn't excellent. We were a little bit predictable. We didn't work our offensive actions like we have done.”

The home crowd, with an announced attendance of 6,242, erupted as Amonte Hiller improved to 39-0 all-time at NCAA tournament games played at home. To reach 40-0, her Wildcats will have to beat a team they already beat.

But a team that’s highly motivated to not let it happen again.

“I don’t really care who we play, but these guys might,” said North Carolina head coach Jenny Levy after the Tar Heels beat Maryland 16-6.

Back on March 25, Northwestern beat North Carolina 17-16 in overtime in Chapel Hill. In last year’s national championship game, the Tar Heels got the better of the Wildcats 12-8.

“We have a great rivalry,” Amonte Hiller said. “I've been in their shoes before where you lose to someone and you have a high level of motivation. … We know we have a very strong opponent ahead of us, and a motivated opponent ahead of us, too. But we are a motivated team as well, and I think it will be a good battle.”