Northwestern University Athletics
Full-Circle Moment Places Lapi, Regazzoni Central to Another NU Postseason Run
11/14/2025 9:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Northwestern head coach Michael Moynihan faced a dilemma in the early days of summer.
With preseason looming, the women's soccer staff had a coaching vacancy. As Moynihan discussed the opening with assistant coach Rich Manning, the latter posed a creative solution. They'd thrown ideas back and forth before Manning asked "Why not Rowan?"
After mulling the possibility, Moynihan reached out to his former captain Rowan Lapi to gauge her interest in a short-term assistant coaching role.
"When I look at all my years of coaching, there's a handful of captains that really stand out, and she's one of them," Moynihan said. "She really invested as a player in trying to get to know her teammates and bring out the best in them. It wasn't about her, and it wasn't about authority. It was about, 'How do you make the people around you better.'"
Lapi, who turned professional with Swedish club KIF Örebro in December 2024, sustained a torn PCL and meniscus just weeks after making the move to Europe. She initially met Moynihan's offer with a bit of skepticism but soon called back her former coach.
After clearing the opportunity with the KIF Örebro club directors, Lapi officially agreed to join the Wildcats' coaching staff and established a plan to rehab her knee in the Chicago area.
"The universe aligned perfectly," Lapi said. "Michael reached out at a perfect time. I got back on my flight to Sweden, laid everything out to the club. It just felt like a star-crossed moment."
For senior midfielder Caterina Regazzoni, who started alongside Lapi during Northwestern's most recent postseason run in 2022, the initial reaction fell just short of shellshock.
"At first, I was thinking, 'They have to be joking,'" Regazzoni said. "That was so unexpected. But the energy Rowan brings is really good. She holds people to a really high standard. It was exciting because there's a lot we can learn from her."
Just as Lapi and Regazzoni helped forge one of the most storied seasons in program history during Lapi's senior year, the Wildcats have returned to the postseason stage for the first time in three years.
In a full-circle moment, Regazzoni — a once-quiet first-year who carved out an immediate impact — now serves as a senior captain. Lapi, who held Regazzoni's current role in 2022, will be coaching from the sidelines as Northwestern takes on No. 8-seed Alabama at 6 p.m. CT on Friday night in a first-round NCAA Tournament clash in Tuscaloosa.
"It was very clear early on that she could be a difference-maker," Lapi said of Regazzoni. "I felt my job as a captain was to help bring her along the best I could. Even though she's a first-year, and it's the first time she's playing soccer in the U.S., she had to get with it. Otherwise, we would never be the same team."
"It's aggressive love from the standpoint of sometimes I'm going to yell at you. Sometimes I'm going to get on you. It's not because I'm holding you to a different standard than anyone else. I need to be right here with me and with us. I know you can take it."
As Regazzoni navigated the transition to a new school, country and system, she didn't have much time to think about the swift lifestyle adjustments she'd undertaken as a Division I student-athlete. She leaned on the tactical grounding she developed in Switzerland's FC Zurich youth system as she adapted to the American game's physicality.
Regazzoni said she learned countless lessons in leadership from observing Lapi on the pitch.
"She kind of knew that I was in my own world sometimes," Regazzoni said. "She let me do my own thing. She understood that I'm coming from a different perspective, which I appreciated."
The midfield tandem helped the Wildcats match a program-record 16 wins and make an NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen Appearance. Lapi tallied six goals and three assists that season, earning a Second Team All-Big Ten selection.
A starter in 22 matches, Regazzoni recorded three goals and three assists, taking home Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors.
"Just credit to her for showing up with such an open mind and being ready to assimilate to not only Northwestern soccer but our culture in general," Lapi said. "She had a lot on her plate, and I think no one really gives her enough credit for coming from Switzerland and having to show up and get right into things. We definitely didn't give her much time to adjust."
Upon her reunion with the 'Cats in 2025, Lapi saw shades of her former team's spirit on and off the training ground.
"We didn't always know how to get there or where to go, but that fight and belief — even in the face of defeat, even against teams ranked in the top five — they just didn't care," Lapi said. "They want to go out there, and they want to play. They weren't going to let this season go without making the postseason. It wasn't even a question."
"A big piece of her leadership is that she speaks up every day like, 'If we want to be a championship team, if we want to win games, we have to do this better,'" Moynihan said. "She's an enforcer in that regard."
Throughout her tenure with the program, the midfielder fine-tuned her leadership style and developed her vocal presence in the squad. She and her fellow captains set an early tone ahead of preseason: the 2025 standard aimed to build back to the postseason.
"I try to lead by example," Regazzoni said. "I don't ever want to demand something out of my teammates that I wouldn't do myself. I'm the leader that calls out something even though it might be uncomfortable. If the standards are not met, I'll do it because the little details are what matter for success."
Lapi, who followed along with the program from a distance in the past two years, said Regazzoni's growth as a player was particularly compelling to monitor.
But Lapi was in for a surprise when she attended her first training session in 2025.
"If you told me first-year Cate would be in this position when I first met her, I would be like ' Are you sure?'" Lapi said. "Everything she does behind the scenes makes me feel like a proud mom from the standpoint of, 'I saw you when you first came here and you had to take everything head-on. The fact that you're here now leading this program is crazy.'"
This season, Regazzoni has scored a career-high five goals and posted three assists, helping the Wildcats actualize a multi-year vision of postseason play. For her efforts, Regazzoni earned a Second Team All-Big Ten selection.
She said the group has grown stronger through adversity, and her college career's middle two seasons fueled a hunger to return to this very stage. Now in a win-or-go-home environment, Regazzoni wants to leave nothing up to chance.
"This is a really tight-knit group, and I don't think any of us are ready to be done yet," Regazzoni said. "It's in the back of our minds that every game might be the last one we play together. But that leads to a sense of leaving it all out there and enjoying it together. You're going to be playing your best if you enjoy it."
For Lapi, who said she gets similar nerves coaching on the sideline in high-stakes games to what she grapples with on the pitch, the decision to take a leap of faith and join her alma mater's coaching staff continues to pay dividends.
As she'll watch Regazzoni take on the Crimson Tide while operating a role Lapi is aptly familiar with, Lapi will embrace the whirlwind path that took her back to Northwestern.
"It's probably the second best decision in my entire life," Lapi said. "The first was choosing to go to Northwestern for undergrad. I'm eternally grateful for the staff welcoming me back with open arms. I show back up on campus, and it's almost like I never left."
With preseason looming, the women's soccer staff had a coaching vacancy. As Moynihan discussed the opening with assistant coach Rich Manning, the latter posed a creative solution. They'd thrown ideas back and forth before Manning asked "Why not Rowan?"
After mulling the possibility, Moynihan reached out to his former captain Rowan Lapi to gauge her interest in a short-term assistant coaching role.
"When I look at all my years of coaching, there's a handful of captains that really stand out, and she's one of them," Moynihan said. "She really invested as a player in trying to get to know her teammates and bring out the best in them. It wasn't about her, and it wasn't about authority. It was about, 'How do you make the people around you better.'"
Lapi, who turned professional with Swedish club KIF Örebro in December 2024, sustained a torn PCL and meniscus just weeks after making the move to Europe. She initially met Moynihan's offer with a bit of skepticism but soon called back her former coach.
After clearing the opportunity with the KIF Örebro club directors, Lapi officially agreed to join the Wildcats' coaching staff and established a plan to rehab her knee in the Chicago area.
"The universe aligned perfectly," Lapi said. "Michael reached out at a perfect time. I got back on my flight to Sweden, laid everything out to the club. It just felt like a star-crossed moment."
For senior midfielder Caterina Regazzoni, who started alongside Lapi during Northwestern's most recent postseason run in 2022, the initial reaction fell just short of shellshock.
"At first, I was thinking, 'They have to be joking,'" Regazzoni said. "That was so unexpected. But the energy Rowan brings is really good. She holds people to a really high standard. It was exciting because there's a lot we can learn from her."
Just as Lapi and Regazzoni helped forge one of the most storied seasons in program history during Lapi's senior year, the Wildcats have returned to the postseason stage for the first time in three years.
In a full-circle moment, Regazzoni — a once-quiet first-year who carved out an immediate impact — now serves as a senior captain. Lapi, who held Regazzoni's current role in 2022, will be coaching from the sidelines as Northwestern takes on No. 8-seed Alabama at 6 p.m. CT on Friday night in a first-round NCAA Tournament clash in Tuscaloosa.
***
Just over three years ago, Lapi entered her senior season at Northwestern with something to prove. She knew the Wildcats had the required talent to make postseason noise, but it would require significant buy-in. During early preseason preparations, a first-year midfielder commanded a feature role from Day 1."It was very clear early on that she could be a difference-maker," Lapi said of Regazzoni. "I felt my job as a captain was to help bring her along the best I could. Even though she's a first-year, and it's the first time she's playing soccer in the U.S., she had to get with it. Otherwise, we would never be the same team."
"It's aggressive love from the standpoint of sometimes I'm going to yell at you. Sometimes I'm going to get on you. It's not because I'm holding you to a different standard than anyone else. I need to be right here with me and with us. I know you can take it."
As Regazzoni navigated the transition to a new school, country and system, she didn't have much time to think about the swift lifestyle adjustments she'd undertaken as a Division I student-athlete. She leaned on the tactical grounding she developed in Switzerland's FC Zurich youth system as she adapted to the American game's physicality.
Regazzoni said she learned countless lessons in leadership from observing Lapi on the pitch.
"She kind of knew that I was in my own world sometimes," Regazzoni said. "She let me do my own thing. She understood that I'm coming from a different perspective, which I appreciated."
The midfield tandem helped the Wildcats match a program-record 16 wins and make an NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen Appearance. Lapi tallied six goals and three assists that season, earning a Second Team All-Big Ten selection.
A starter in 22 matches, Regazzoni recorded three goals and three assists, taking home Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors.
"Just credit to her for showing up with such an open mind and being ready to assimilate to not only Northwestern soccer but our culture in general," Lapi said. "She had a lot on her plate, and I think no one really gives her enough credit for coming from Switzerland and having to show up and get right into things. We definitely didn't give her much time to adjust."
Upon her reunion with the 'Cats in 2025, Lapi saw shades of her former team's spirit on and off the training ground.
"We didn't always know how to get there or where to go, but that fight and belief — even in the face of defeat, even against teams ranked in the top five — they just didn't care," Lapi said. "They want to go out there, and they want to play. They weren't going to let this season go without making the postseason. It wasn't even a question."
***
When Regazzoni first learned she was named a captain alongside Brooke Miller and Kelsey Kwon, she knew she wouldn't let another season end in similar fashion to her sophomore and junior campaigns. "A big piece of her leadership is that she speaks up every day like, 'If we want to be a championship team, if we want to win games, we have to do this better,'" Moynihan said. "She's an enforcer in that regard."
Throughout her tenure with the program, the midfielder fine-tuned her leadership style and developed her vocal presence in the squad. She and her fellow captains set an early tone ahead of preseason: the 2025 standard aimed to build back to the postseason.
"I try to lead by example," Regazzoni said. "I don't ever want to demand something out of my teammates that I wouldn't do myself. I'm the leader that calls out something even though it might be uncomfortable. If the standards are not met, I'll do it because the little details are what matter for success."
Lapi, who followed along with the program from a distance in the past two years, said Regazzoni's growth as a player was particularly compelling to monitor.
But Lapi was in for a surprise when she attended her first training session in 2025.
"If you told me first-year Cate would be in this position when I first met her, I would be like ' Are you sure?'" Lapi said. "Everything she does behind the scenes makes me feel like a proud mom from the standpoint of, 'I saw you when you first came here and you had to take everything head-on. The fact that you're here now leading this program is crazy.'"
This season, Regazzoni has scored a career-high five goals and posted three assists, helping the Wildcats actualize a multi-year vision of postseason play. For her efforts, Regazzoni earned a Second Team All-Big Ten selection.
She said the group has grown stronger through adversity, and her college career's middle two seasons fueled a hunger to return to this very stage. Now in a win-or-go-home environment, Regazzoni wants to leave nothing up to chance.
"This is a really tight-knit group, and I don't think any of us are ready to be done yet," Regazzoni said. "It's in the back of our minds that every game might be the last one we play together. But that leads to a sense of leaving it all out there and enjoying it together. You're going to be playing your best if you enjoy it."
For Lapi, who said she gets similar nerves coaching on the sideline in high-stakes games to what she grapples with on the pitch, the decision to take a leap of faith and join her alma mater's coaching staff continues to pay dividends.
As she'll watch Regazzoni take on the Crimson Tide while operating a role Lapi is aptly familiar with, Lapi will embrace the whirlwind path that took her back to Northwestern.
"It's probably the second best decision in my entire life," Lapi said. "The first was choosing to go to Northwestern for undergrad. I'm eternally grateful for the staff welcoming me back with open arms. I show back up on campus, and it's almost like I never left."
Players Mentioned
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