It was about a quarter of a century ago when Kelly Amonte-Hiller was doing her groundwork to jumpstart the Northwestern women’s lacrosse team into the stratosphere. She recruited smartly, built a team on her own philosophy and mindset and, in a story which has become legend in the lacrosse community, stole Ashley and Courtney Koester from the school’s rugby club and turned them into All-Americans.
Eight NCAA championships later (including five straight from 2005 to 2009), and coming off four consecutive Final Four seasons, the NCAA awarded Northwestern University the hosting duties for the 2026 NCAA Division I women’s lacrosse Final Four this past week.
It is the first time that the tournament is being held in the Central time zone, and the furthest away from the Atlantic seaboard since the tournament was held in Syracuse in 2003.
The planned host site for the tournament, for the first time, a temporary stadium. Northwestern, during the time its football stadium Ryan Field is being renovated, has been playing its home gridiron contests right on the lakeside at an edifice named Northwestern Medicine Field at Martin Stadium. The capacity is a shade over 12,000, which is going to make a pretty good goal for selling tickets for this championship. The NCAA has held its Division I championship in everything from the cozy confines at Haverford College (about 1,000) to historic Franklin Field in Philadelphia (about 53,000).
Now, the 2026 championship was supposed to have been held at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., same as this spring. But there’s this little event called the FIFA men’s World Cup which will host several matches at the facility, and the preparations for the temporary grass pitch preclude usage before the first group game June 13th.
I think a Northwestern-hosted Final Four has a chance to be an absolute sensation in and aroudn Chicagoland. There have been tremendous lacrosse players developed in and around small towns in Illinois now that Northwestern alumnae have been taking coaching positions in local schools or have started youth lacrosse clubs.
And isn’t carrying the game forward what it is all about?