Three takeaways from Northwestern’s 17-5 thrashing of JMU

The core defenders of Kelly Amonte Hiller’s defense — players like Mary Carroll, Jaylen Rosga and Mckenzie Brown, who combined for six of the ‘Cats’ 10 caused turnovers — were phenomenal all afternoon against JMU, forcing the Dukes’ out of their offensive identity. The gold and purple were held to just five scores, its lowest offensive output all season-long, in large part because they couldn’t get the ball in the vicinity of the cage. JMU averaged 20.4 shots on goal throughout the season, but had just 12 against Northwestern on Sunday.

Northwestern’s defensive shutdown was independent of Cuocco’s goalkeeping abilities, as ‘Cats defenders worked to take away James Madison’s key players. The Dukes’ offense has ran through three players all season long: Payton Root, Jordan Peterson and Olivia Matthews. JMU’s triangle of attack averaged 9.48 points per game this year, while accounting for nearly half of their goal scoring. Against the ‘Cats, Root, Peterson and Matthews combined for just two points and one goal and were completely neutralized by head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller’s back line.

Performances like these fall in line with stalwart defensive games against Oregon, Syracuse and Michigan and show that the ‘Cats don’t need Cuocco to have a save percentage over .600 to have a good day.

Cuocco may be the best in the country, but it’s also important to remember that Northwestern has defensive depth beyond the Drexel transfer.

Northwestern is barreling towards its ninth national title

Don’t worry, I knocked on wood.

But with its dominant win against JMU, Northwestern firmly established itself as the favorite to win the national championship (if they hadn’t already).

Just two days prior to Northwestern’s tilt against the Dukes, No. 22 JMU had taken down No. 16 Notre Dame (according to the IWLCA rankings) 13-12. The Dukes’ win was a statement in its own right, considering that the Fighting Irish are one of the few teams in the country that can claim better results than Northwestern against two common opponents — Central Michigan and Syracuse.

With the win, James Madison entered the draw circle against the ‘Cats as one of the hottest teams in the nation, with an eight game win streak spanning the entire month of April.

On Sunday, all of the Dukes’ momentum met a brick wall. The ‘Cats were in a stratosphere of their own, completely dominating end-to-end for all 60 minutes.

Sure, Northwestern was favored to beat James Madison. But the 12-point victory — four goals more than any other defeat JMU suffered this season (closest margin of victory an opponent had to that point being UNC, who won 19-11 in February) — marked a new level of dominance for this year’s rendition of the Lake Show.

The Big Ten champions flexed their muscles, scoring the second highest total JMU’s defense had surrendered all season, while the NU’s defensive group played one of its best games of the season, posting the lowest tally of points its allowed against a ranked opponent in 2026. As Maddie Epke put it:

What’s next

With its win over the Dukes, Northwestern advances to face one of the three teams it lost to in the regular season: the no. 8-seeded Colorado Buffaloes.

While the ‘Cats soared to victory at Martin Stadium, the Buffaloes won an in-state Second Round matchup against No. 15 Denver, punching their ticket to their first NCAA quarterfinal in program history. After trailing 4-1 in the early going, Colorado finished the game 10-5, riding three goals from Teagan Ryan to a historic victory.

After slaughtering Colorado 20-5 in their 2025 tilt, the ‘Cats were heavy favorites entering the second game of their season against the Buffaloes. However, Colorado’s nation-leading scoring defense got the best of Northwestern’s high-flying offense, shutting out Amonte Hiller’s squad for the final 9:17 of the game for a 10-9 victory.

94 days later, Northwestern gets a crack at revenge.

The ‘Cats and the Buffaloes will enter the draw circle on Thursday, May 14 at 1:30 p.m. CT. The game will televised on ESPNU.