The women’s lacrosse game last weekend between No. 1 Boston College and No. 2 North Carolina was a tale of two games, a tale of two defenses, and a tale of two goalies.
Wrapped up together, UNC’s 12-11 win could be seen through any number of lenses, whether it is the personnel lens, the momentum lens, or the gameplay lens.
Think of it: Boston College, your defending national champion, threatened to run UNC out of the building the first four minutes of play, scoring the game’s first four goals. But the Tar Heels were a resilient bunch, whittling down the deficit to one at the interval.
Once the second half began, it was all about the play of North Carolina’s underclasswomen. Scoring goals for the Tar Heels were freshmen Kate Levy, Chloe Humphrey, Addison Pattillo, and Elizabeth Osburn. Capping off the effort with two goals in the fourth quarter was junior Caroline Godine.
In addition, making key saves in the second half was goalie Lexi Zenk, a freshman goalie from the nation’s No. 1 scholastic team from last year, South Huntington St. Anthony’s (N.Y.). She took over in relief from another freshman, Betty Nelson, who has started every game thus far.
That being said, a big part of UNC’s eventual comeback was some indiscipline on the part of the Eagles. Two fourth-quarter penalties led to two Carolina power-play goals.
The Tar Heels are a young team, one which has a number of players who will have heard the stories of last year’s struggles through an injury-plagued campaign which saw them fall out of the NCAA Tournament in the first round.
Book it here: that’s not going to happen to UNC this time around. This Carolina team will ascend to the No. 1 slot in national polling today.
And they may not cede that slot the rest of the year.