The Lake Show Goes On: Northwestern Wins 2026 NCAA Championship

EVANSTON, Ill. — Four years ago, Madison Taylor was a spunky freshman beginning to carve out her own legacy behind the likes of Northwestern luminaries Izzy Scane and Erin Coykendall.

She took up the mantle upon their graduation in 2024. This was her team. But the 2024 and 2025 seasons ended in disappointment, both losses in the NCAA championship game.

This year, as the host school, Northwestern made sure Taylor bookended her career with titles. Taylor had one goal and six assists, fittingly tying Izzy Scane at the top of the program’s all-time points leaderboard (483), as top-seeded Northwestern outlasted second-seeded North Carolina 14-11 in front of 8,316 at Martin Stadium — many of whom were Lake Show faithfuls.

And like four years ago, when Taylor scored four goals to help beat Boston College, a star may have been born in front of our eyes.

“Welcome to the big stage, Gaby,” Northwestern head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller said as Gabriella McCollester entered the postgame press conference.

The 5-11 freshman scored four goals on four shots (after having six goals all year) as essentially an injury replacement for Lucy Munro, who left in the first quarter with a non-contact left leg injury.

It was the type of injury that left Northwestern players visibly shaken — but also visibly motivated.

“I'm going to get emotional,” Taylor said. “She’s like my best friend. … She was literally on the ground, and she was in so much pain and was like, ‘Maddy, you got this.’ I looked at her like, ‘We're going to do this for you’ — and we did.”

Northwestern led 4-1 at the time of the injury. The Wildcats played like they were shot from a cannon, riding an early draw edge to a clear possession advantage.

A warrior-like performance by Sarah Gresham, who tore her ACL against Stanford but willed her way onto the field to help balance the draw edge on Sunday, allowed North Carolina to work its offense enough to chip away.

Two right-handed blasts from Eliza Osburn slicing through the middle cut the Northwestern lead to 4-3 by the end of the first quarter. After Aditi Foster dodged from X and scored low to beat Betty Nelson for a 5-3 Northwestern lead, Darcy Felter finish a nifty twizzler and Addison Pattillo finished not long after, knotting things at 5.

It was an old-school boxing match befitting two heavyweight programs from there, as the scoreboard flip-flopped one-goal leads until Kate Levy’s free-position goal because of a non-reasonable two-minute penalty gave North Carolina a 9-7 edge.

The Tar Heels, the undefeated 2025 national champions that lost to Northwestern 17-16 in overtime on March 25, were clear on Friday who they wanted to play. They wanted another shot at the Wildcats.

For a split second, it looked like they would again make good on cashing in receipts like they did to win it all a year ago. Caroline Godine found Reese King for what appeared to be a goal, but a replay determined she stepped in the crease.

Maddie Epke almost immediately scored on the other end, a pivotal two-goal swing in Northwestern’s favor. It was not the last time a coach’s challenge took the air out of the North Carolina sideline.

The Tar Heels took an 11-9 lead into the fourth quarter, with Chloe Humphrey tying Madison Taylor’s NCAA Division I single-season goals record of 109. Standout work by Mary Carroll, who marked the 2025 Tewaaraton Award winner for most of the game, kept Humphrey quiet from there.

“I expected nothing less from Mary,” said Jenika Cuocco, who made 11 saves. “She's a beast and a dog.”

As Northwestern’s zone gave North Carolina fits, the Wildcats offense reclaimed control. Taylor Lapointe, McCollester and Aditi Foster scored to open the final quarter, giving the Wildcats a 12-11 edge.

North Carolina needed to stop the bleeding. It finally got into the middle of the Northwestern zone, with Kate Levy’s entry pass landing in the pocket of Godine. She shot. She scored. Or did she?

Amonte Hiller again challenged and won. Godine was charged with a dangerous follow-through and a yellow card. With the goal erased, Northwestern again responded immediately when Taylor found Foster for an energizing strike with 6:03 remaining. Taylor iced it herself with 1:18 to go.

“I just have to give credit to Eric Winchester from our IT department,” Amonte Hiller said. “Our first two rounds, we had a heck of a time with that replay, and I didn't have access to it. And we got it figured out in the week off.”

Amonte Hiller said she was confident in both challenges. UNC head coach Jenny Levy was less so.

“Haven't looked at the video or the film, but it seems to me that we have a lot of work to do with our game,” she said. “I think it's unfortunate. They didn't give us an explanation on what it was. We clearly saw on our iPads what it was. So, we probably disagreed with that.”

The Tar Heels struggled all game to crack the Northwestern zone, especially in what ended as a scoreless fourth quarter following the goal reversal. Jenny Levy said Friday her team was excited to be aggressive against Maryland’s man-to-man defense.

The Wildcats presented a different, more difficult challenge with Carroll, Jaylen Rosga, Madison Smith, Kathryn Welch, Mckenzie Brown and everyone else on the unit operating on a string.

“Well, it's a zone,” Levy said, addressing her team’s fourth-quarter output. “And there's a lot of traffic and congestion inside the critical scoring area. … The times we were aggressive, we had a goal taken back. So, congrats to the zone defenses out there.”

By winning a national championship at home, Amonte Hiller improved to 40-0 in NCAA tournament games in Evanston. She also captured her ninth NCAA championship, passing Cindy Timchal — her mentor — for the most in Division I women’s lacrosse history.

Timchal was present to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the 2001 Maryland championship. She beamed with pride talking about her protégé-turned-peer.

“This is truly a statement of excellence,” Timchal said as she watched gold confetti shoot out and land on the shoulders of celebrating Northwestern players.

Amonte Hiller crafted this team through meaningful recruiting and intentional transfer additions to bolster a team clearly led by Taylor. Cuocco, a Drexel transfer, was a difference-making stopper in the cage. Epke, from James Madison, pitched in on offense and the draw. Annabel Child, a Harvard import, was a Swiss Army knife. And Olivia Adamson, an addition from Syracuse, led the energetic bench as she recovered from a leg injury.

Munro, on crutches, was also part of that sideline squad despite being in clear pain.

While each of those players will depart as a graduates, McCollester represents the next in a line of Wildcats ready to carry the mantle. The show goes on — rather, the Lake Show goes on.