Penn Charter grad Aditi Foster’s unique path leads to Northwestern women’s lacrosse title

Anyone looking in from the outside would argue Aditi Foster was playing in the biggest game of her career . But for Foster, playing in the NCAA women’s lacrosse championship reminded her ofplaying in her backyard as a little kid.

Foster, a sophomore attacker for Northwestern, was a long way from her actual backyard in Philadelphia, but the Wildcats were playing on their home turf in the title game against North Carolina on May 24, which only added to the atmosphere. And scoring the game-winning goal for the national crown was the type of thing Foster “would dream about” as a kid.

“That’s something that we [at Northwestern] talk about a lot, too, is just having a childlike mentality and just like playing for your younger self,” Foster said.

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Foster’s goal with seven minutes left in the game put the Cats up 12-11, before they sealed their title with a 14-11 win.

The whole experience was full-circle for Foster who had her “light bulb moment” with the sport in the seventh grade when she attended the 2019 NCAA women’s lacrosse championship on Johns Hopkins’ campus. She credits that experience in helping her pursue lacrosse.

Now, Foster has played in two consecutive national championships. She recorded a goal and an assist in last year’s title game loss against North Carolina. She had a hat trick and an assist in this year’s championship.

Foster, Northwestern’s second-leading scorer with 69 points (54 goals, 15 assists), started each of the team’s 22 games. But last season was different. As a freshman, Foster came off the bench in all 19 games she appeared in and scored 17 points (12 goals, 5 assists).

The turning-point, she said, came in the Big Ten championship that season, when she scored the game-winning goal with 15 seconds left. Since then, she’s been “playing free and having fun.”

“I think it was the best, one of the best things that could have happened to me, because it really opened my eyes to being grateful for every opportunity to get to step on the field,” Foster said.

Foster’s love for lacrosse has been there since the beginning. Her father, Jay Foster, played collegiately at Washington and Lee University in Lexington City, Va. He later played internationally in Australia, where he was named National Player of the Year in 1981. All three of Aditi’s brothers played lacrosse, and her older brother Vijay Foster, currently plays for Michigan State, which has a non-varsity lacrosse team. Since she was little, Aditi Foster had a stick in her hand.

“I didn’t love anything more than lacrosse,” Foster said. “Lacrosse was the vehicle for so many things in my life and so many friendships and people that I’ve met.”

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Foster played club lacrosse with Head, Heart, Hustle, under Colleen Kelly, who is also Penn Charter’s head lacrosse coach. Kelly also went to Northwestern and played under Wildcats head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller from 2008-11.

Foster played her first two years of high school at Upper Dublin before approaching Kelly about transferring to Penn Charter, looking to play in a more competitive league like the Inter-Academic League.

Foster approaching her coach about transferring was a testament of her desire to improve, Kelly said. Foster led Penn Charter, as well as the Inter-Ac, in scoring during her junior and senior seasons. She was also tabbed the Philadelphia Area Player of the Year and Inter-Ac’s Most Valuable Player in 2024.

“The biggest thing that I was proud of is that she went from being the leading scorer of her junior year with not many assists and then her senior year to still being the leading scorer and then leading in assists as well,” Kelly said.

Transferring from Upper Dublin, Foster said, was the “best decision” she’s made in life aside from going to Northwestern, attributing some of her development during those years to the girls she played with and against.

But it was also her time at Penn Charter that led her to Northwestern, in what she called a “not traditional” recruiting story. Foster didn’t commit until the summer before her senior year. Most lacrosse players are committing to a school in the fall of their junior years.

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Still, Kelly said Foster continued to work and show up at Northwestern camps. Once she got an offer from the Wildcats, especially after hearing about her coach’s experience with the program, Foster said it was something she “could not pass up on.”

“I think that determination and that kind of she wasn’t taking no for an answer attitude is what makes her who she is,” Kelly said.

This summer, Foster will return home to help Kelly with some HHH camps and lessons for girls who were once in the same position as her. Kelly said that Foster has become a “role model” for the girls to look up to, especially after watching her play on television.

And there’s an important lesson Foster would share with younger girls. It’s one that has carried her to a national title.

“Without a doubt, it’s to have fun and love what you’re doing,” Foster said. “If you don’t love what you’re doing, what’s the point of doing it? … Find what works for you and just have fun doing it and have fun being around the people that you love.”