Northwestern battled valiantly, but came up well short against Maryland in the Big Ten Championship. The No. 1 team in the country executed flawlessly on offense and captured its third consecutive Big Ten title behind 4 goals from leading scorer Caroline Steele.
Earlier this year, Maryland (19-0) defeated Northwestern (10-0) by 11 goals in Evanston. The Terrapins were just too good for the Wildcats once again. Northwestern’s offense just could not get anything past Maryland’s swarming defenders in the early going. Meanwhile, Maryland ground out four goals past Mallory Weisse, putting Northwestern down 4-0 after 15 minutes.
Nicole Beardsley finally put Northwestern on the scoreboard to make it 4-1, but Maryland continued to dominate, immediately picking up another goal from Zoe Stukenberg.