The Sunday Slide: Welcome to the Goalie Show

It was a great weekend to be a goalie.

Well, it was not a great weekend to be a goalie if you factor in the frigid temperatures that made putting your body in front of a shot a less-than-ideal experience. But goalies are wired differently. They probably thrive in this environment.

Two Big Ten goalies were outstanding.

In her Northwestern debut, Jenika Cuocco dazzled with 15 saves in a 20-12 win over Boston College. The Drexel transfer showcased everything she did with the Dragons that probably flew under the radar. But she’s been doing this her entire career on a quieter stage.

For Maryland, JJ Suriano made 16 saves in a 9-5 win over Syracuse in the JMA Wireless Dome. She really came on strong toward the end of 2025 and continued that momentum through game one. Maryland head coach Cathy Reese is really, really high on Suriano, and how could she not be?

I’m admittedly big fans of both Cuocco and Suriano. Cuocco gave Drexel everything she had over four years and entertained the transfer portal before last season. She chose her Dragons teammates over another opportunity. Suriano, on the other hand, is an up-and-comer with the Terps looking to carve out her own successful career. She’s small in stature but has a commanding presence in the cage.

To put a bow on a fun goalie weekend, UMass’ Bayley Duffy stuffed a shot and channeled her inner Dikembe Mutombo with the “no, no, not today” finger waggle. More of that from goalies across the country, please.

And with that, welcome back to The Sunday Slide. It’s year three of this every-Sunday column. Hope you enjoy, and thanks for reading.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS

Won and 0. Congratulations to both Austin Peay and Florida State, which won their first-ever NCAA contests this weekend. New programs with resources behind them have seen early success in the last half-decade, and it’s nice to see that continue.

Notre Dame growing up fast. The Irish were remarkably young last year, and I was impressed by their season-opening win over Michigan (a team also plugging in some new faces, but a talented team nonetheless). Notre Dame then went on to dismantle Central Michigan on Sunday. Madison Rassas and Kate Timarky have been a lethal 1-2 punch through two games.

Are we forgetting something? I’ve seen a lot of Northwestern chatter online these past few weeks. And zero discredit to the Wildcats here. They’re awesome, Madison Taylor is awesome and Kelly Amonte Hiller is on the Mount Rushmore of lacrosse coaches. Many seem to be saying Northwestern is unbeatable. Are we forgetting we had a literal unbeaten team last spring that returns nearly everyone? North Carolina is my NCAA championship pick until the end of Memorial Day weekend, no matter what happens up until that point.

I have zero say in the Tewaaraton Award. That’s something I need to get out of the way before saying this: I am unofficially campaigning hard to see Army’s Brigid Duffy as a Tewaaraton Finalist in May. She started her season with five goals, one assist and five draw controls as who I believe to be the best midfielder in the country. I’ll be watching.

Navy impressed me on Friday. It’s not easy to open the season against a top-10 ACC team, and the Mids did more than just hang around. After going down 3-0, Navy ripped off seven unanswered and didn’t give it a second thought in a 12-10 win. The Mids spread the ball around admirably and won the draw battle 16-7. Side note: There’s already a goalie battle brewing in Virginia between Mel Josephson (the incumbent) and Elyse Finnelle (a former Florida starter).

FUN WITH NUMBERS

8 • Goals for Ava Angello in Johns Hopkins’ win over Liberty. Tim McCormack told me in the preseason it’ll be a team effort to replace Ashley Mackin, who graduated. This weekend, it was Angello.

10-0 • Oregon is undefeated in home openers at Papé Field. Getting that 10th wasn’t easy, but Anna Simmons’ overtime free position finished off Arizona State on Saturday.

50 • Wins for Michelle Tumolo at Army, the most in program history for a head coach.

200 • Wins for Elaine Jones after Akron’s win over Duquesne. Jones has split those wins between Akron, UIndy, Longwood and UC Davis.