EVANSTON, Ill. - The No. 1 Northwestern field hockey team kicks off Big Ten play at home this week, taking on Michigan State at Lakeside Field.
The Wildcats (9-0, 0-0 Big Ten) host the Spartans (4-4, 0-1 Big Ten) on Friday, Sept. 25 at 3 p.m. CT on B1G+. The conference clash is a part of Northwestern Athletics’ ‘Welcome Back Weekend,' as the first field hockey match to take place after the start of NU’s 2026-27 academic year. Admission is free at Lakeside Field for regular-season games.
The Wildcats are coming off a 3-0 weekend at Stanford, California and UC Davis on the West Coast, and now return home for their fifth contest of the season at Lakeside Field.
Scouting the Spartans
NU holds a 47-23 all-time record against Michigan State, most recently playing it on Oct. 31, 2025. The ‘Cats have won the last 13 matchups and have not lost to the Spartans since Nov. 4, 2010.
The last time the two teams faced off, in East Lansing, Mich., the Wildcats won 5-0 off the back of four goals from current senior Ashley Sessa. Sessa’s performance made her the fifth-ever Wildcat to score at least four goals in a single game. NU’s most recent home contest against MSU was in 2023, a 6-0 win.
The Spartans, in their first season under newly-hired head coach Tamara Durante, are 4-4 and coming off a 4-1 win at Ball State. They opened Big Ten play against No. 13 Michigan last weekend, falling 2-1. MSU’s win total so far nearly matches that of the 2025 season, where it finished 5-13 and 1-7 in Big Ten play.
Forward Bianca Pizano, one of two Spartans on the 2026 NFHCA DI Watchlist, leads her team with five goals and an assist. The senior is tied for eighth in the Big Ten for total goals scored. Also on the NFHCA watchlist for MSU is Natalie Arnold, a graduate transfer out of Rutgers who has started three games this season.
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#19Northwestern senior forward and captain Ashley Sessa opens conference play as the reigning Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week. This honor, the seventh in her career, comes after she posted two goals and four assists across Northwestern’s three-game California slate.Â
The past weekend’s leading goalscorer was senior forward Olivia Bent-Cole, who recorded three goals across contests at Stanford and UC Davis. Bent-Cole scored the tying goal against the Cardinal, just 59 seconds after the Cardinal went up 1-0.
Three players scored their first goals as Wildcats in California: senior back Kerry McCormick, first-year forward Raquel Hofmeister and first-year back Eleanor Evarts. McCormick opened scoring at Cal, while Hofmeister and Evarts got their tallies against UC Davis.
Senior Ella Kokinis, who plays both as a forward and midfielder, has upped her offensive production this season. She scored the goal to put Northwestern up 2-1 at Stanford, bringing her goal total to two on the year — already matching her 2025 numbers in just nine games this season.
NFHCA Week Four Ranking: No. 1. For the fifth consecutive week, Northwestern is the unanimous No. 1 team in the NFHCA Division I National Coaches Poll, receiving all 11 first-place votes. At 9-0, the ‘Cats are one of four undefeated teams in the top 20, alongside No. 2 Maryland (8-0), No. 4 Massachusetts (8-0) and No. 15 Yale (5-0).