Northwestern women to play second game in NFL stadium

The defending national champion Northwestern women’s lacrosse team will play its second game in two years in an NFL venue Saturday, taking on Ohio State at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., home of the New England Patriots.

The event will feature a women's lacrosse double header with No. 2 Syracuse taking on Harvard at noon followed by the undefeated Wildcats playing No. 16 Ohio State at 3 p.m. Among the four teams, 18 players hail from New England.

Last season, the Wildcats played William & Mary in Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Texas and coach Kelly Amonte Hiller, who grew up in suburban Boston, jumped at the chance to showcase her No. 1 team to Gillette.

“It's been pretty cool the last couple years to play in Cowboys Stadium and now Gillette, especially because they have been women's-only events. I feel like we're kind of trailblazing for our sport and it's obviously exciting for our student-athletes to be in those kinds of arenas,” Amonte Hiller said.

“Last year had the added bonus of exposing a lot of fans to the highest level of our sport for the first time, but this week, we can't wait to get to Boston and hopefully get people talking about women's lacrosse during a time of year when it might not typically be the first thing on everyone's minds.”

Amonte Hiller has forged a friendship with Patriots coach Bill Belichick, whose daughter Amanda is an assistant coach at Ohio State.