To wrap up the 2024 field hockey season, we wrote about how Northwestern concluded its greatest year in program history, posting an undefeated regular season, a 23-1 season overall and winning the national title. At the time, matching the results of 2024 was undoubtedly a tall task. But a year later, Northwestern may have just pulled off the feat.

In 2025, the Wildcats nearly equalled their win percentage from the season prior, finishing 20-1 while winning their second consecutive (and third overall) championship — going back-to-back for the first time in program history. They also swept the Big Ten regular-season and tournament titles, the first time they’ve done that while also winning the national title. By contrast, NU lost in the Big Ten Tournament final before its 2024 national championship and it won neither conference trophy in 2021.

There’s also an argument to be made that Northwestern’s path to the NCAA title in 2025 was more difficult compared to 2021 and 2024. To clinch its third trophy, it had to defeat No. 1 North Carolina and No. 2 Princeton in back-to-back games, while it beat two unseeded teams in the 2021 Final Four and unseeded Massachusetts and No. 4 Saint Joseph’s in 2024. 2025 had the most top-tier talent in college field hockey for quite some time, including five teams with three or fewer losses (compared to just two in 2024), so Northwestern’s ability to buzzsaw through many of these squads is very telling.

All that goes to say, Northwestern may have very well outdone its 2024 self, putting up its most impressive run of all time in 2025.

With the return of several 2024 stars like Maddie Zimmer, Ashley Sessa and Ilse Tromp, Northwestern was ranked No. 1 in the NFHCA preseason coaches’ poll. But the makeup of the lineup was a lot different: on championship Sunday, seven players on Northwestern’s starting 11 weren’t there the year prior. That included starting goalie Juliana Boon, a redshirt first-year tasked with replacing two-time first-team All-American Annabel Skubisz.

To begin the season, Northwestern met expectations, starting with an 11-game win streak. There were some bumps on the road, like a 2-0 win against Boston College, where Sessa was handed a late-game red card, and a 2-1 overtime showing against Louisville, which relied on an Aerin Krys goal with under three minutes left in regulation to save the ‘Cats. The team also struggled massively with executing penalty corners, converting just 8% of its attempts in the first three weeks. But on the surface, there was not a blemish on its undefeated record.

That all changed on Oct. 13, in a game that would define the second half of Northwestern’s season. The Wildcats fell 3-2 to then-No. 8 Princeton, losing their first regular-season and home match since August 2023, and their first overall match since playing Michigan in the 2024 Big Ten Tournament. That contest tanked Northwestern’s RPI ranking to No. 5 overall, and raised the question: was it about to miss out on an NCAA Tournament hosting spot for the first time in four years?

Northwestern never looked back after falling to the Tigers, sweeping its Big Ten competition and clinching the conference regular season title in a 3-1 win to Michigan on Oct. 24. It then avenged last year’s result and beat the Wolverines in the Big Ten Tournament semi-finals, before dominating Iowa 3-0 for its second tournament championship in three years.

In many eyes, that should have been enough for Northwestern to earn a hosting spot. But the RPI rankings said otherwise. In a weak year, the next-best Big Ten team posted a 5-3 conference record, and the Wildcats’ only top-ten RPI win ended up being against No. 8 Duke. Meanwhile, Princeton capitalized on its win over NU to go on a win streak that lasted until the NCAA title game. All those factors had Northwestern unseeded and heading to Charlottesville, Va., for the opening rounds of the NCAA Tournament.

But as self-proclaimed “road warriors” who played just five home games in 2025, the Wildcats embraced the challenge. After trailing just twice before the 2024 NCAA Tournament, they trailed in four different 2025 contests and had several other nailbiters. All that ended up helping them in the elimination games.

After breezing by Yale 5-1, Northwestern persevered in an Elite Eight against Miami-Ohio with a last-minute Grace Schulze goal to qualify for the Final Four. But the real show came on championship weekend, which gave ‘Cats fans two games that will forever be etched in team lore. First, the Wildcats overcame 2-0 and 3-1 deficits against North Carolina, scoring goals with 1:10 left in regulation and then in overtime to get past their rivals at the top of college field hockey. They then trailed again in the fourth quarter to Princeton in a revenge title game, before tying it up and scoring in double overtime to clinch back-to-back championships — capping off a storybook season.

(Side note: Northwestern’s early-season corner struggles are now ironic looking back, given that four of its six Final Four goals were off of penalty corners.)

Zimmer won the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player award for the third time in Northwestern’s three title wins. She’ll be favored to win the NFHCA National Player of the Year award in two weeks, concluding one of the greatest careers in Northwestern athletics history. She also won the Big Ten Player of the Year award, while Sessa, Tromp and Boon took home the conference’s Offensive Player, Defensive Player and Goalie of the Year awards, respectively. Many All-American honors should be coming the ‘Cats way in the coming days as well.

In a year when Northwestern was supposed to be the hunted and not the hunter, a major turn of events flipped the script on the team. Instead, it rode the underdog mentality as defending champions to win it all over again.