The Eagles were no match for NU’s new-look offense.
No. 2 Northwestern (1-0, 0-0 B1G) began its season in Chestnut Hill on Friday in a rematch of the 2025 NCAA Final Four. No. 3 Boston College (0-1, 0-0 ACC) sought vengeance, while the ‘Cats looked to solidify their positioning above the Eagles in the polls.
In a battle of Tewaaraton finalists, Madison Taylor got the better of Shea Dolce in a dominant 20-12 Northwestern victory. The senior attacker led both teams with five goals in the contest, while Dolce struggled to contain a dynamic Northwestern offense, ending the day with a sub-.300 save percentage.
Aditi Foster posted a career-high four goals in her first start as a Wildcat, Taylor Lapointe contributed three, and Olivia Adamson, Maddie Epke, and Hannah Rudolph pitched in two apiece. Defensively, Jaylen Rosga led the charge with three caused turnovers and two ground ball pickups, while Madison Smith recorded seven draw controls in her return to the NU lineup. Jennika Cuocco stood out with 15 saves in her NU debut.
Abbey Herod won the draw for the Eagles, ripping off three shots within the first minute and a half of the contest. A yellow card against Maddie Epke put BC at an early advantage, but their efforts inside the arc came up short.
Jenika Cuocco then logged her first save as a Wildcat, denying Molly Driscoll her first score of the season. Epke was the first to find the netting for NU in 2026 with a sidearm shot from the middle of the arc to the left of Eagles goalkeeper Shea Dolce.
Madison Smith gave NU an opportunity to extend its lead by winning the subsequent draw, but Dolce denied Madison Taylor on her first shot attempt of the afternoon. Giulia Colarusso then tried to even the score for the Eagles, but to no avail, with Cuocco making her second stop of the day. Former Syracuse attacker Olivia Adamson followed up her JMU counterpart and got into the scoring column, with Taylor picking up the assist on the play.
Following two Boston College misses, Taylor connected with Taylor Lapointe to get the ‘Cats a third straight goal as the clock ticked just past the nine-minute mark. It took a minute and a half for BC to respond, but Kelly Blake finally got the Eagles on the board with 7:37 remaining, beating Jaylen Rosga to her right for great positioning against Cuocco near the crease. BC’s Brooke McLoy found herself in the right place, at the right time in the arc, to scoop up a free position shot deflection and make the score 3-1.
Maddy Taylor padded Northwestern’s lead to 4-2 at the 3:16 mark, getting defender Kaitlyn Cole in isolation and using her speed to beat her to the arc and get her shot off. That lead became 5-2 after a Taylor pass to Lapointe ricocheted off Lapointe’s body, then off Dolce’s stick, and into the mesh.
Annabel Child made her presence felt with two minutes remaining in the quarter, altering a Devon Russell free position shot and sending it over the net, leading to Aditi Foster’s first goal of her season. Child immediately added on to the Northwestern lead on a fastbreak after winning the next draw, as the ‘Cats poured it on in the first to start with a 7-2 lead.
Cuocco ended the first 15 minutes with six saves, including a denial of McLoy’s last-second shot. She got her seventh 34 seconds into period two.
Rosga made up for her first-period errors by causing an early turnover on BC’s second entry into the attacking third on the field, intercepting a Hanna Davis pass to begin the second quarter. Avery Hudson then ended the Eagles’ 10-minute scoring drought with the first free-position goal of the game. Marissa White tried to cut the ‘Cats lead to three, but was called for a yellow card for a dangerous follow-through, despite finding the net. She’d capitalize on her next opportunities, getting her first goal with 4:30 left in the half, and her second coming 80 seconds after with a shot over Child. Davis drew the Eagles within one by faking out Cuocco with 3:07 to go, turning a 7-2 deficit into a 7-6 one.
With their five-goal lead now reduced to one, Adamson found her second goal of the contest on a free position — NU’s first on the day. Cuocco held firm between the pipes in the final minute, stopping a point-blank fastbreak shot from Davis to keep the score 8-6 heading into halftime.
Adamson, Lapointe, and Davis all walked away with two goals apiece. Taylor, who only ended with one, had a game-high of four points through the first 30 minutes, picking up three assists in the first quarter. Driscoll was the only Eagle to record an assist in the first half – five of BC’s six goals came unassisted.
Third-quarter action kicked off with a bang, with Taylor and Foster going back-to-back to re-establish NU’s sizable lead. Taylor took advantage of a sleeping BC defense, with Lauren Archer cutting through the middle as a decoy to free up Taylor. Foster faked out Michaela O’Connor to free up a lane for her high-percentage shot to beat Dolce.
Colarusso entered the Eagles into the scoring column at the 11:02 mark on a free position, firing a shot that bounced past Cuocco. Taylor responded on a Northwestern power play, being the first player to log a hat trick Friday afternoon. Foster snuck past the Eagle defense to join Taylor in the hat trick club. NU led 12-7 halfway through the third.
Hannah Rudolph got involved in the scoring with a rocket shot from outside, while Epke notched her first assist as a Wildcat at the 7:24 mark. Colarusso got her second shortly after, shooting between the legs of Cuocco, but another Northwestern power play gave Lapointe and the ‘Cats a score. Lapointe became the third Wildcat to reach the three-goal mark, and Epke found her second on a free position inside two minutes remaining. At the end of the third quarter, the Wildcats led 15-8.
Taylor’s fourth goal of the contest was found five minutes into the fourth quarter, as she used multiple fakes to put Dolce in limbo. Blake, who scored BC’s first goal of the game, got it a ninth on the day with 8:45 remaining. Colbert’s high shot that hit the cage’s right corner brought the Eagles to 10 with six left to go. Taylor let off a high shot of her own to beat Dolce for the fifth time.
In the dying moments of the game, Molly Driscoll got free on a fastbreak and snuck a shot to the left of Cuocco. Also getting her first goal of the game – the first of her career, in fact – was redshirt first-year Jenna Soto on NU’s next possession, finding a wide-open lane on a high-low cut and receiving a pass from Adamson for her shot.
Driscoll’s second goal was the result of a ground ball pickup, off a blocked free position shot, as she bounced the shot off the turf and into the net.
Boston College elected to pull Dolce from between the pipes to enter another defender, in hopes of gaining extra possessions in the final 70 seconds of the game. Foster took advantage of the empty net by beating the double-team with her speed for her fourth goal. Hannah Ruldolph was also a beneficiary of the empty net and dropped in her second goal, bringing Northwestern to a 20-12 win to end it.
The Wildcats will next play at Ryan Fieldhouse on Feb. 9, when they take on Colorado at 7 p.m. CT. Their matchup with the Buffaloes marks the start of a four-game homestand, with Army, Central Michigan, and Marquette to follow.
Category: General Sports
