EVANSTON, IL – Host and second-ranked Northwestern stymied a Johns Hopkins' second-half comeback to beat the Blue Jays, 16-11, Friday afternoon in the NCAA Semifinals. The Blue Jays end the season at 17-5 with a program record for wins. The Wildcats improve to 18-3 and advance to Sunday's championship game.
Trailing 10-3 at the half, Hopkins came out on fire with four unanswered goals to open the third.
Ava Angello got things going with an eight-meter goal at 11:47. A little over two minutes later,
Taylor Hoss hit a cutting
Lacey Downey, and she scored in-tight while going to the ground.
Samantha DiCarlo and Angello then scored twice in a 40-seconds span to pull the Blue Jays within three with 5:33 to go in the third.
Northwestern answered with a 4-1 run spurt that bridged the quarter break and pushed its lead to 14-8 at the 12:39-mark. Hoss halted the run with back-to-back goals just 31 seconds apart to slice the deficit back to four. She fired a pass from the top of the eight at 10:25 that skipped past NU goalie Jennika Cuocco at 10:25. Hoss then went low off the dodge, and it was a four-goal game with 9:54 on the clock.
Madison Taylor got one back for the top-seeded Wildcats two minutes after Hoss' second goal. But the Blue Jays weren't done yet. After an
MK Lescault takeaway on the other end, Hoss found
Paige Willard slicing down the middle of the arc and she picked the bottom left corner at 5:52. That's as close as JHU could get however, and Maddie Epke tacked on one more for NU in the final 2:07.
Willard opened the scoring just 42 seconds in when she blew a shot under the crossbar off the dodge. Taylor responded with a bouncer at 12:26 to spark a 4-1 run as the Wildcats grabbed a 4-2 lead at the 6:07-mark in the first.
McKenzey Craig then cashed in off a Willard takeaway on the ride, and it was 4-3 at the end of one. NU came out firing in the second, outscoring Hopkins 6-0 to take that 10-3 lead into the half.
Hoss led the Blue Jays with five points on two goals and three assists. Angello added three goals and four points. Craig (2g, 1a), Willard (2g) and Downey (1g, 1a) also had multi-point days. Downey also totaled four ground balls, four draws and two caused turnovers.
Reagan O'Brien closed out her career with five caused turnovers and two ground balls.
Hannah Johnson added three ground balls and a caused turnover and
Ashley Langdon posted seven saves.
Taylor paced the Wildcats with eight points (4g, 4a) while Taylor Lapointe tallied seven (2g, 5a). Epke (4g, 2a), Aditi Foster (3g) and Kate Ratanaproeksa (2g) each notched multi-point games. Madison Smith controlled a game-high nine draws and caused a pair of turnovers.
Notes: Angello finished her career with a school-record 81 goals this season, in addition to a JHU record 239 career goals • Hoss finished with a school single season record 60 assists • O'Brien ended her career with an NCAA record 244 caused turnovers • Angello and
Hannah Johnson played in their school-record 80
th game in the semifinals.
