Michigan
Taylor scores 10 goals as No. 3 Northwestern lacrosse tops Michigan
It only took 50 seconds of game time for junior attacker Madison Taylor to break the seal on No. 3 Northwestern’s NCAA Tournament second-round matchup with Michigan.
By halftime, she’d already scored four goals, and by the end of the third quarter, nine of her shots had found the back of the net.
By converting a free-position goal with five minutes left in the contest, Taylor cemented her place in NCAA history, setting the record for most goals scored in an NCAA tournament game with her 10th goal.
The junior’s milestone mark — which outscored Michigan — propelled the Wildcats (17-2, 8-0 Big Ten) to a 15-7 win over the Wolverines (13-7, 5-3 Big Ten), advancing NU to the NCAA tournament quarterfinals.
“I didn’t know I scored that many goals until I got off the field,” Taylor said. “But I just feel really grateful to be here. … I just love this group, I love this team and I love playing this game.”
Taylor fires a shot and scores in the third quarter.
Taylor wasted no time getting going, charging toward the net and uncurling a shot past Michigan’s Erin O’Grady. After the ‘Cats controlled the draw, she scored her second, wrapping around the goal to score.
Michigan responded with a goal courtesy of Emma Bradbury to trim the deficit to one before Taylor secured a hat trick less than seven minutes into the first quarter.
As time dwindled in the period, Taylor secured a ground ball and passed to sprinting senior midfielder Emerson Bohlig. Bohlig, with breakneck speed, stormed into the fan and connected with senior midfielder Sam Smith. Smith’s shot found nylon to put NU up 4-1.
Freshman defender Mary Carroll caused a turnover as the first quarter expired, a resounding exclamation point on the ’Cats’ defensive domination. Throughout the game, NU caused nine turnovers and snagged 16 ground balls.
Between the pipes, graduate student goalkeeper Delaney Sweitzer stood firm all game, making eight saves and allowing just seven goals. Two Michigan goals came in garbage time.
“(Sweitzer has) a level of confidence, charity, calm, positivity,” ’Cats coach Kelly Amonte Hiller said. “She really brings all those things to the table, and she lifts up the (defense) in that way all the time.”
The Wolverines scratched a goal back before junior attacker Lucy Munro earned a free position. As she started her motion, Taylor blitzed into the fan, receiving the incoming feed and scoring her fourth goal.
Ahead of halftime, Michigan scored another goal to decrease NU’s lead to 5-3. Sweitzer made a save with just seconds left in the half to keep the ’Cats’ lead at two.
Taylor then turned in one of the most dominant quarters in the history of the NCAA tournament.
She ripped off five consecutive goals in a little more than 10 minutes, extending NU’s lead to 11-4, as she made mincemeat out of the Michigan defense. The Wolverines double-teamed her. They tried a face guard. It made no difference for the Tewaaraton Award finalist.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Taylor said. “Having all that prep all week, and then actually being able to do it on the field is a really good feeling.”
The ‘Cats widened their lead as the second half progressed. Graduate student attacker Niki Miles, redshirt junior attacker Abby LoCascio and sophomore attacker Taylor Lapointe tallied goals to enlarge NU’s control.
The running clock briefly began after Taylor’s 10th goal, and Amonte Hiller slowly began to cycle in her bench players. Michigan’s Jill Smith scored a fourth-quarter hat trick to get the Wolverines to seven goals.
Taylor’s season tally now sits at 99 goals and is tied for the most in a season in Big Ten history with program legend Izzy Scane, who set the record in 2023. The NCAA Division I record is 103, set by High Point’s Abby Hormes in 2022.
After being held to just two goals — tying a season-low — in the ’Cats’ Big Ten Championship game against Maryland, Taylor tied NU’s program record for goals in a game.
“The reason is because of her work ethic,” Amonte Hiller said. “She worked all week for two weeks and prepared herself for this moment.”
NU will take on Penn in the quarterfinal round Thursday, with a first draw time set for 11 a.m..
On the line: a trip to the semifinals in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
“This is a lot of fun, and this is really what we dream about when we’re little,” Amonte Hiller said. “We all dreamed about being part of these types of moments.”
Email: [email protected]
Related Stories:
— Lacrosse: Taylor, White named to All-American First Team as five Wildcats notch All-American honors
— Lacrosse: Northwestern earns No. 3 seed in NCAA Tournament
— Lacrosse: No. 3 Northwestern tops No. 7 Maryland in final seconds to win fifth Big Ten Championship
Two employees who refused to serve a man and his wife because he was wearing a hoodie with President Trump’s name on it were fired after a video of the heated encounter went viral.
Erika Lindemyer and her husband, Jake, were forced out of a Smoothie King franchise location in Ann Arbor, Michigan, following a fiery clash with two young female workers on Sunday.
The employees claimed they didn’t “feel comfortable” serving the couple because of Jake’s pro-Trump hoodie, as captured by Erika in a viral video.
Jake and Erika fired back at the pair and insisted that they were being “discriminated” against based on their “political views.”
“We were just wanting a smoothie and you literally looked at us and I asked you if everything was OK and you said ‘We don’t feel comfortable serving you’ because of my husband’s hoodie. That is discrimination,” Erika spat.
“Okay, well, have a great day,” the first employee said.
“That is illegal,” Erika tried to insist again.
“I said Trump discriminates [against] us,” another employee chimed in.
“Okay, well that has nothing to do with us getting a smoothie!” Erika guffawed.
“OK, well that’s who you support though, that’s who you love,” the first employee chided.
“What’s embarrassing is that we’re American citizens and I wanted to get a smoothie,” Erika huffed.
The second employee noted that they “have a right to refuse service” and directed the couple to the exit.
“You asked a question and [the other employee] gave you an answer. Have a great day. Have a great day. The door’s right there,” the second worker said.
Trump merchandise. Leftism/X
Erika threatened to call the police while storming out, but it’s unclear if she did.
In a separate video shared Monday, one of the workers joked that she might’ve “accidentally started a race war” and called on the public to help remove Erika’s video.
“I am a minor and she recorded me without my permission. The people in the comments are all white and they’re all being hella racist, guys, please help me get this video taken down,” she implored.
Smoothie King confirmed that the girls involved in the viral confrontation “are no longer with the business” as of Monday.
“As a brand, Smoothie King is committed to ensuring our stores are a place free of discrimination of any kind, where every guest and team member is treated with care and respect,” the company wrote on X.
The owner of the Ann Arbor franchise location will also enforce “mandatory retraining for all employees that outlines our guest experience standards.”
In early December, a woman who worked at a Target in California was berated by a customer for wearing a Charlie Kirk “Freedom” T-shirt.
When the employee insisted she was allowed to wear the red shirt, the irate customer accused her of supporting “a racist.”
The medical center where the agitated customer worked was bombarded with upwards of 6,000 “profanity-laced” phone calls after online sleuths doxxed her personal information.
Ann Arbor — The Wolverines won the outright Big Ten regular-season title with two games to go, but it came at a great cost.
L.J. Cason, Michigan’s backup point guard and a key piece of the rotation, tore his right ACL in the championship-clinching win at Illinois. Just like that, Cason’s season was over and Michigan was hit with a brutal blow.
But when adversity strikes, opportunity knocks. While the team won’t be the same without Cason, coach Dusty May believes Michigan has backcourt pieces who can step up and make up for the loss.
“This is a great opportunity for Roddy (Gayle Jr.), Trey (McKenney) and Nimari (Burnett) to play more, and those guys are really good players,” May said Monday. “Our rotation has been nine and nine, I think, is too deep. It’s playing too many guys, if you want to optimize everyone. But we felt like we had nine guys that deserved to play, that gave us a different element.
“We look at this as another challenge, but it’s also an opportunity for guys to play a little bit more, to play longer periods, to play through a mistake, to play a little bit different role. We do feel like these guys are a lot better than they were earlier this year, so we’re prepared to handle whatever comes at us.”
May said he doesn’t know exactly when Cason tore his ACL, and neither does Cason. The sophomore guard fell to the court and got up favoring his right leg on two separate occasions against Illinois.
The first instance came in the final minute of the first half, when Cason tipped a long rebound ahead and chased it down to start a fast break. After he grabbed the ball in the air and bounced it backward between his legs to a trailing teammate, Cason went down. He got up hobbling, was subbed out and went back to the locker room.
Cason briefly checked back in during the second half and scored a driving layup a minute into his shift. But on Michigan’s next possession, he fell down after trying to score through contact and got up limping again. Shortly after that, Cason motioned to the Michigan bench to be taken out of the game and he exited for good.
“At halftime, the training staff came and said basically he’s passed all of his jump test. He just did the bike. He says he’s 100% ready to go. I was surprised, because I was expecting him to be out,” May said. “I said, ‘What about the test?’ They said both of his knees are loose, so it’s hard. We don’t feel that anything is torn.
“He comes back in. He lands funny again. … It’s unfortunate for him because he was playing so well. When an ACL pops on a noncontact injury, you’re like, ‘Man, what could we have done different?’ When it happens on a funny, quirky play, usually those are the ones that aren’t preventable.”
May added it hasn’t been determined yet when Cason will undergo surgery. Given the typical recovery timeline for a torn ACL ranges anywhere from nine to 12 months, May said Cason redshirting next season is a possibility that’s “on the table.”
“That’s certainly been discussed as well, and then that impacts the recruiting decision-making,” May said. “But right now, we’re still trying to figure out when he’s going to have it. What’s the timeline? Does it make sense to go ahead and sit out next year? … We haven’t made any definitive decisions, because all the information is so inconclusive.”
Moving forward, the plan isn’t to have just one guy replace Cason, who averaged 8.4 points and 2.4 assists in 18.6 minutes per game, shot 40.2% from 3-point range and served as a facilitator when starting point guard Elliot Cadeau wasn’t on the court. It’ll be a by-committee approach.
That said, Cason’s absence is certainly going to put much more on Cadeau’s shoulders. The Wolverines can ill afford to have Cadeau commit unnecessary fouls and miss long stretches at a time. Without Cason, Cadeau is the one guard who can break down opposing defenses off the dribble and create for others.
“This will force Elliot to be much more solid with his defensive decision-making when it comes to fouling,” May said. “He doesn’t have that insurance policy anymore named L.J. behind him, because L.J. came in and carried the load several games for our group. That’s not there anymore.”
While Burnett, Gayle and McKenney haven’t had to be facilitators in their roles this season, May expressed confidence all three can take on minutes with the ball in their hands and initiate the offense.
Even beyond the guards, May noted the team has “other capable weapons” who can serve as triggers on offense depending on the matchup, like forwards Yaxel Lendeborg and Morez Johnson Jr. and big man Aday Mara.
Add it all together, May feels the Wolverines can find a way to absorb the blow, fill the void and forge ahead with Cason sidelined.
“We have enough to overcome what L.J. brought to the team,” May said. “I don’t know if he’s the best backup point guard in the country, but I can’t think of one that’s better. We’re losing a lot, but once again, we’re not going to sit here and look at it from that angle.
“This is an opportunity for all these other guys to do a little bit more, and they’re more than capable. It’s on us to find the right rotations and situations. Without a doubt, we have a lot of confidence in our roster.”
jhawkins@detroitnews.com
@jamesbhawkins
The Michigan State Police is looking for the driver of a Jeep that the agency said hit one of its patrol cars on Lodge Freeway in Detroit Sunday night.
According to officials, the incident happened at 7:50 p.m. on the northbound side of the freeway near Shaefer Highway. The agency said a trooper was investigating a crash and had the patrol car parked on the right shoulder of the freeway with its emergency lights on when it was rear-ended by the Jeep.
“The impact forced the patrol car to strike the concrete wall on the right shoulder,” according to the agency.
The Jeep then went across three lanes of the freeway and hit a median wall, officials said. The driver, identified by law enforcement as a 29-year-old Detroit woman, left the vehicle and fled the scene.
Michigan State Police First Lieutenant Mike Shaw said that while the trooper was evaluated and cleared at the scene by medical personnel, he was still taken to the hospital as a precaution.
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