Colorado’s women’s lacrosse team opened its season with a historic win over No. 2 Northwestern in Evanston, Illinois, on Monday night. The Buffaloes’ 10-9 victory marks the program’s highest-ranked win to date and their first-ever road win against Northwestern.
Colorado trailed 9-8 in the fourth quarter but scored two late goals to secure the upset. Head coach Ann Elliott Whidden reflected on the achievement: “I think we’ve always believed in ourselves, but it’s hard when for five weeks, the only people you play are yourself to know where you’re really at,” Whidden said. “We knew coming in here was going to be a huge test for us, especially after last year coming in and what happened [20-5 loss]. But I think we remained focused on ourselves. And I think when this team can focus on themselves, a lot of great things can happen.”
Senior Maddie Shoup led Colorado with five goals from six shots. Rachel Kennedy returned to action for her first game since 2024, contributing two goals and an assist. Sophomore goalkeeper Elena Oh made eight saves—three in the final three minutes—to hold Northwestern under ten goals at home for the first time since February 15, 2025.
“It just comes down to trusting in our goalie and trusting in our defense,” Shoup said. “We know what our defense is capable of, so we need to rely on them at the end of the game. We know they’re going to make the stop. I mean, Elena came up with three great saves. Jess [Peluso] had a ton of knockdowns. We had some checks and everything, but at the end of the day, we know we can rely on our defense for anything.”
With this result, Colorado improves its all-time record against Northwestern to 2-5 while Northwestern drops to 1-1 after previously defeating No. 3 Boston College.
“I think this is huge for us,” Whidden added. “I think just building off of the seasons we’ve had, we’ve had some great seasons, we’ve been in games, we’ve had some tough moments and things we can’t control. To come out here, focus on ourselves, and get this win, it’s huge.
“Rankings aside, I think we just have so much respect for Northwestern and the type of team we are. I mean, they’re a team that’s played in more Final Fours than most teams. With that in mind, this is a great opportunity for us to come here and obviously a great result for us. We know this is a long season too and we’ll enjoy it now but then we’ll refocus.”
The Buffaloes started strong by scoring three early goals before allowing Northwestern onto the scoreboard late in the first quarter. Colorado extended its lead early in the second period before Northwestern narrowed it by halftime.
Northwestern took its first lead during Madison Taylor’s run—she finished with six goals—but Colorado responded through Shoup’s efforts and Lily Assini’s man-up goal late in regulation.
Shoup described her performance: “I feel like I played off of the rest of the team’s energy, and it really helped me,” she said. “I think everyone had a role in this game whether you’re on the field or not…we just came up with the win.”
The decisive moment came when Shoup scored her fifth goal—the eventual winner—with just over four minutes remaining as Colorado’s defense preserved their lead until time expired.
Additional notes from Monday’s match include: Colorado is now 2-4 all-time against ranked opponents at season openers; Shoup recorded her eighth career hat trick; freshman Rowan Edson made her debut start; Molly Reed collected a career-high five ground balls; despite losing draw controls by a wide margin (17-4), Colorado outperformed Northwestern on groundballs (20-12).
Season tickets are available via CUBuffs.com/WlaxTix while further information about Colorado Lacrosse can be found at cubuffs.com/wlax.
