No Hype Needed For Final Four Matchup
May 23, 2025 | Lacrosse, #ForBoston Files
Beyond everything, BC and Northwestern is a great matchup.
The hype machine loves a high-profile rematch.
In a parallel universe, on any other plane, a matchup between Boston College and Northwestern is a battle between two teams with national reputations and insanely talented rosters. Each was on a collision course with one another when the tournament's natural chalk placed the teams ranked No. 2 and No. 3 onto adjacent paths. The natural idea, the order of totality, had them facing one another in Friday's 2025 NCAA Division I Women's Lacrosse Championship semifinal unless either team – or both – suffered a catastrophic upset.
It's all normal order of business, but the hype machine's insatiable hunger needed to conflate storylines from last year's national championship and Boston College's dramatic comeback win over the Wildcats. It needed the relationship between Walker-Weinstein and Amonte Hiller to seed a rivalry between two national championship-winning coaches, the former of which was an underling to the latter during her career's infancy.
It required a homecoming for the Northwestern head coach and a virtual home game for BC. Two teams featuring Tewaaraton Award finalists potentially battling for award supremacy found each other for a rematch of the early season rematch between those national championship-caliber programs.
Simply put, it needed Friday.
"We've studied every game," said Walker-Weinstein during her pre-Final Four media appearance. "We've studied the changes and the evolution of Northwestern, and there is a lot that is different. They're way better than they were [in February]. I always think that past success or past failure never determines future success or future failure, so we really are just looking at this game as an individual [matchup]. The film is really helpful to leading us to our gameplan, but we will look at tendencies from the beginning of the year as opposed to schemes because they're so different."
BC and Northwestern first encountered the hype machine during their first encounter of the season, but the sizzle quickly fizzled during the Eagles' 13-9 victory in early February. Whatever meat was left on the bone from 2024's national championship game dissipated alongside a home-winning streak that stretched nearly 50 games for the Wildcats, but little remained beyond a regular season game between the two top-ranked teams in the nation.
The Wildcats arguably entered that game with a home field advantage, but Friday is impossibly reticent to flip that storyline to a return bout in front of a partisan BC crowd because of their championship resume. Having won the Big Ten, even in a world where the Atlantic Coast Conference claimed the top two national spots, is that much of a power booster, at least.
Both teams enter Friday afternoon with differences stemming from that first matchup. Northwestern is one of the few teams within range of BC's offensive output, and the defense is every bit as competitive as the Eagles' stalwart alignment. The team's shooting percentage aligns right alongside the better-ranked team while concurrently adding more ground balls and more caused turnovers that in turn required goalkeeper Delaney Sweitzer to make 60 fewer stops than BC's Shea Dolce.
Madison Taylor's 105 goals and 41 assists complement the back end with one of college lacrosse's best all-around players, and Niki Miles, Riley Campbell, Emerson Bohlig and Taylor Lapointe are all secondary options with 20-plus goals. Basing things strictly off numerical statistics dictates stopping Taylor from scoring, but the danger then trickles down to the rest of the roster once she converts into a distributive presence.
"There's a lot more maturity [from that first matchup]," said Amonte Hiller. "There has been so much growth in all areas, from the back to the front, but I think Boston College has had growth, too. It should be an exciting matchup because neither team is all that similar to where we played before. I think we had a good battle before they had a strong start, and I think we've learned from that."
Amonte Hiller is right to mention the differences in BC's approach from that first game after Rachel Clark was held to two goals on a cold winter day in Illinois. Her eight-goal outburst against Yale was a classic performance for the Eagles, and her scoring prowess ranks atop BC's record books. Strange as it sounds, Clark supplanted Charlotte North, who was the all-everything to the BC program, and has a chance to end her season with more points than Sam Apuzzo, who was the original superstar entrenched in the program's first runs through the NCAA Tournament.
Emergences behind Clark likewise make it impossible to stop BC without a well-thought and well-executed gameplan. Even if Northwestern stops, halts or limits the leading scorer, BC, unlike its No. 3-ranked counterpart, has several other options floating around the attacking zone in players like Emma LoPinto, Mia Mascone and Molly Driscoll.
Driscoll scored three goals in that first game against Northwester, but Mascone's development into a third option gave BC the added weaponry it sought when she transferred from Brown. LoPinto, meanwhile, is one of the nation's best scorer but remains overlooked because of Clark's exploits; her 76 goals are eighth-most in the nation and provide BC with two scorers in the top-10 nationally, the only such program with that accomplishment.
"Mia is a championship-caliber player," said Walker-Weinstein. "She has so much intensity and raw intensity that you'd think she played in Final Fours for her whole life. The moment is never too big for her, which I love, and even though she's never had the experience, the moment is never too big for her. When these big games happen, she plays just as well as she does in the lesser games, and her leadership is off the charts."
No. 2 BC and No. 3 Northwestern face-off in the 2025 NCAA Division I Women's Lacrosse Championship national semifinal at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, May 23, 2025, from Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. The game can be seen on national television via ESPNU with online streaming available for cable subscribers with access to the network.
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In a parallel universe, on any other plane, a matchup between Boston College and Northwestern is a battle between two teams with national reputations and insanely talented rosters. Each was on a collision course with one another when the tournament's natural chalk placed the teams ranked No. 2 and No. 3 onto adjacent paths. The natural idea, the order of totality, had them facing one another in Friday's 2025 NCAA Division I Women's Lacrosse Championship semifinal unless either team – or both – suffered a catastrophic upset.
It's all normal order of business, but the hype machine's insatiable hunger needed to conflate storylines from last year's national championship and Boston College's dramatic comeback win over the Wildcats. It needed the relationship between Walker-Weinstein and Amonte Hiller to seed a rivalry between two national championship-winning coaches, the former of which was an underling to the latter during her career's infancy.
It required a homecoming for the Northwestern head coach and a virtual home game for BC. Two teams featuring Tewaaraton Award finalists potentially battling for award supremacy found each other for a rematch of the early season rematch between those national championship-caliber programs.
Simply put, it needed Friday.
"We've studied every game," said Walker-Weinstein during her pre-Final Four media appearance. "We've studied the changes and the evolution of Northwestern, and there is a lot that is different. They're way better than they were [in February]. I always think that past success or past failure never determines future success or future failure, so we really are just looking at this game as an individual [matchup]. The film is really helpful to leading us to our gameplan, but we will look at tendencies from the beginning of the year as opposed to schemes because they're so different."
BC and Northwestern first encountered the hype machine during their first encounter of the season, but the sizzle quickly fizzled during the Eagles' 13-9 victory in early February. Whatever meat was left on the bone from 2024's national championship game dissipated alongside a home-winning streak that stretched nearly 50 games for the Wildcats, but little remained beyond a regular season game between the two top-ranked teams in the nation.
The Wildcats arguably entered that game with a home field advantage, but Friday is impossibly reticent to flip that storyline to a return bout in front of a partisan BC crowd because of their championship resume. Having won the Big Ten, even in a world where the Atlantic Coast Conference claimed the top two national spots, is that much of a power booster, at least.
Both teams enter Friday afternoon with differences stemming from that first matchup. Northwestern is one of the few teams within range of BC's offensive output, and the defense is every bit as competitive as the Eagles' stalwart alignment. The team's shooting percentage aligns right alongside the better-ranked team while concurrently adding more ground balls and more caused turnovers that in turn required goalkeeper Delaney Sweitzer to make 60 fewer stops than BC's Shea Dolce.
Madison Taylor's 105 goals and 41 assists complement the back end with one of college lacrosse's best all-around players, and Niki Miles, Riley Campbell, Emerson Bohlig and Taylor Lapointe are all secondary options with 20-plus goals. Basing things strictly off numerical statistics dictates stopping Taylor from scoring, but the danger then trickles down to the rest of the roster once she converts into a distributive presence.
"There's a lot more maturity [from that first matchup]," said Amonte Hiller. "There has been so much growth in all areas, from the back to the front, but I think Boston College has had growth, too. It should be an exciting matchup because neither team is all that similar to where we played before. I think we had a good battle before they had a strong start, and I think we've learned from that."
Amonte Hiller is right to mention the differences in BC's approach from that first game after Rachel Clark was held to two goals on a cold winter day in Illinois. Her eight-goal outburst against Yale was a classic performance for the Eagles, and her scoring prowess ranks atop BC's record books. Strange as it sounds, Clark supplanted Charlotte North, who was the all-everything to the BC program, and has a chance to end her season with more points than Sam Apuzzo, who was the original superstar entrenched in the program's first runs through the NCAA Tournament.
Emergences behind Clark likewise make it impossible to stop BC without a well-thought and well-executed gameplan. Even if Northwestern stops, halts or limits the leading scorer, BC, unlike its No. 3-ranked counterpart, has several other options floating around the attacking zone in players like Emma LoPinto, Mia Mascone and Molly Driscoll.
Driscoll scored three goals in that first game against Northwester, but Mascone's development into a third option gave BC the added weaponry it sought when she transferred from Brown. LoPinto, meanwhile, is one of the nation's best scorer but remains overlooked because of Clark's exploits; her 76 goals are eighth-most in the nation and provide BC with two scorers in the top-10 nationally, the only such program with that accomplishment.
"Mia is a championship-caliber player," said Walker-Weinstein. "She has so much intensity and raw intensity that you'd think she played in Final Fours for her whole life. The moment is never too big for her, which I love, and even though she's never had the experience, the moment is never too big for her. When these big games happen, she plays just as well as she does in the lesser games, and her leadership is off the charts."
No. 2 BC and No. 3 Northwestern face-off in the 2025 NCAA Division I Women's Lacrosse Championship national semifinal at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, May 23, 2025, from Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. The game can be seen on national television via ESPNU with online streaming available for cable subscribers with access to the network.
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