Vol. 16: The Big Four Have Made it to the Final Four
Vol. 16: The Big Four Have Made it to the Final Four
For the second year in a row, the top-four seeds have reached Championship Weekend—but, this time, all four of them have national titles to their names.
Northwestern star Lauren Gilbert charges to cage. She ranks 14th nationally in goals per game (3.70) this season. Photo courtesy: David Dermer/Northwestern Athletics.
The four powers of the sport—Maryland, Northwestern, North Carolina and Boston College—are back in the Final Four, just like 2019.
Fittingly, as was the case that year, Championship Weekend is in Baltimore at Homewood Field. It’s a Mecca for college lacrosse in the sport’s most established state.
So it’s only right that each of the remaining programs has at least one national championship under its belt.
But, first, who did they beat to get here? And what stands ahead?
Elite Eight Rundown:
Tar Heels do just enough to hold off Seawolves in defensive showcase: Entering Thursday, UNC had the highest-scoring offense in the sport, averaging 17.63 goals per game. The Tar Heels were coming off a 24-2 drubbing of ACC rival Virginia and looked borderline unstoppable. Ahead of the Elite Eight matchup, Stony Brook head coach Joe Spallina quoted rapper Biggie Smalls: “I don’t fear anyone that breathes the same air as me.”
Stony Brook proved that to be true. On the first possession of the game, the Seawolves swarmed UNC, saved a free-position shot and recovered a turnover. They then took it the length of the field, and sophomore midfielder Ellie Masera scored to put Stony Brook in front. Spallina’s compact, aggressive defensive scheme lasted the whole game, but UNC scraped out an 8-5 victory. Each team scored three straight goals before halftime, and Stony Brook led, 4-3, going into the locker room. UNC found some space in the second half, though, as the Tar Heels outscored the Seawolves, 5-1, across the last two quarters.
Stony Brook’s Siobhan Rafferty fires a shot on net against UNC’s Taylor Moreno during the Tar Heels’ 8-5 Elite Eight victory. Photo courtesy: Jeffrey A. Camarati/UNC Athletics.
UNC graduate midfielder Andie Aldave led all scorers with three goals and two assists, and graduate attacker Sam Geiersbach had another two goals and one assist. Tar Heels graduate goalie Taylor Moreno had 10 saves to just five goals against. Sophomore midfielders Masera and Jaden Hampel each had two goals for Stony Brook. The 13 total goals were the fewest in a game this tournament (second fewest, 19, Denver over Vermont). Stony Brook was eliminated by the No. 1 overall seed for the fourth time in the last five NCAA Tournaments.
Maryland keeps its foot on the gas, pummels Florida: It was the Libby May show again. For the third game in a row, the junior attacker poured in five goals, scoring three amid an 8-1 Terrapins third quarter. It was during that period that head coach Cathy Reese’s team transformed a 6-3 halftime lead into a 10-goal advantage that triggered a running clock. Unlike Maryland’s second-round win over Duke, Aurora Cordingley and Hannah Leubecker played a bigger role this time around. They both had hat tricks.
Much like the Terrapins’ victory over the Blue Devils, however, Maryland’s Elite Eight win was lopsided. Thanks to stars Emma LoPinto and Danielle Pavinelli, the Gators hung around in the first quarter, but, after that, it was really all Terps. Maryland committed just four turnovers and put 10 more shots on net than Florida in the final three quarters of action.
Emily Sterling showed out in cage, making eight saves while allowing just five goals. The Terrapins’ lockdown defense put an exclamation point on their 12th trip to the Final Four in their last 13 seasons.
Northwestern makes second straight Final Four, beats Syracuse: Last year, Syracuse defeated Northwestern, 21-13, to earn a trip to the National Championship. The Wildcats and Orange have developed one of the healthier cross-conference rivalries in the sport, with each team alternating wins in their last six meetings. Before this past week, the last time either of them had won two straight meetings was when Syracuse downed Northwestern in 2016 and 2017. That changed when Northwestern beat the Orange, 15-4, for its second win over ’Cuse in 2022.
After Syracuse senior attacker Meaghan Tyrrell scored the first goal of the game, Northwestern netted four consecutive, forcing Orange head coach Kayla Treanor to call a first-quarter timeout. Syracuse would score a minute later, but then Northwestern responded with a 6-0 scoring run into the third quarter. The Wildcats dominated. The 11-goal win was the largest margin of victory for Northwestern over Syracuse since 2009 (19-8).
Senior midfielder Allie Berkery celebrates with her teammates amid Northwestern’s 15-4 Elite Eight clobbering of ’Cuse. Photo courtesy: John Konstantaras/Northwestern Athletics.
Northwestern graduate attacker Lauren Gilbert led all scorers with four goals and one assist. Junior attacker Erin Coykendall and senior midfielder Elle Hansen each had three points, and senior goalie Madison Doucette had her best game of the year with four goals allowed and 11 saves. Tyrrell had three of Sryacuse’s four goals. With the win, Northwestern head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller has now made 13 Final Fours.
BC plays the perfect game against Loyola. The only thing the Eagles didn’t do was control the circle. Actually, Loyola won 24-of-36 draws. But it didn’t matter. BC ended a back-and-forth first quarter with a Belle Smith free-position goal, jumpstarting a 5-0 run that allowed the Eagles to enter intermission with a five-score cushion. BC made a habit of carrying momentum from quarter to the next. Smith led the charge, netting three goals with six seconds or less remaining in the first, third and fourth periods. Jenn Medjid closed the second frame with a goal.
When all was said and done, the Eagles scored with under 35 seconds to go in every quarter. Smith finished with a career-high seven goals. Medjid rounded out the day with eight points (5 goals, 3 assists), and Charlotte North—despite being faceguarded by first-team IWLCA All-American Katie Detwiler—chipped in three goals and three assists.
A 4-1 Loyola run to start the second half pushed the Greyhounds within two goals of BC. Except, that’s as close as they’d get. Smith, who was in the right place at the right time throughout much of the Elite Eight bout, righted the Eagles’ ship, and they distanced themselves en route to their fifth straight Final Four appearance.
Previewing the Final Four:
No. 1 UNC vs. No. 4 Northwestern
UNC’s Scottie Rose Growney bends a shot around Northwestern middie Kendall Halpern in the teams’ meeting earlier this season. Photo courtesy: UNC Athletics.
Key for UNC: Distribute, distribute, distribute. The Tar Heels have six players who have scored 50-plus points this season: Jamie Ortega (105), Caitlyn Wurzburger (73), Scottie Rose Growny (72), Andie Aldave (61) and Sam Geiersbach (54). Northwestern has three: Lauren Gilbert (100), Erin Coykendall (79) and Jill Girardi (59). The Tar Heels also have five players with 30-plus multi-point games in their career, led by Ortega with 84. If UNC is able to get several scorers involved early, it could spell trouble for a Northwestern defense that allows 11.60 goals per game.
Key for Northwestern: Control the draw. One way to slow down the UNC offense is by keeping the ball out of the Tar Heels’ sticks. Northwestern is third in the nation in draw controls per game (18.3), led by Jill Girardi who is second in the country with 9.8 draws per game. UNC is 14th in the country in draws per game, winning 16.8 per contest.
Players to watch
UNC: Fifth-year attacker Jamie Ortega. This is the obvious answer, but it’s hard to believe that Ortega will be stifled for a second straight game. She had just one assist against Stony Brook. The ACC Attacker of the Year is first in ACC history and second in NCAA history with 458 career points. Ortega had two goals and three assists in the regular season matchup versus NU.
Northwestern: Graduate midfielder Jill Girardi. It’s likely that Lauren Gilbert will score plenty for the Wildcats, but they’ll need a big game from Girardi, both in the circle and on the offensive end. Girardi has 13 straight multi-point games and 15 total this season, but she hasn’t had more than three points since April 16 against Johns Hopkins. She’ll need to score five-plus for Northwestern to keep up with the Tar Heels.
Series history: UNC 12, Northwestern 11. UNC has won eight straight games over Northwestern, including a 20-9 victory earlier this year. Northwestern is 4-2 against the Tar Heels in the NCAA Tournament, with semifinal wins in 2010 and 2011. The last time they met in the tourney was in the Elite Eight in 2018. UNC won, 19-14.
No. 2 Maryland vs. No. 3 BC
BC’s Kenzie Kent takes on Maryland’s Megan Taylor in the 2019 National Championship, which the Terps won, 12-10. Photo courtesy: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports.
Key for Maryland: Slow the Eagles in transition. BC has been converting defense to offense all season, and it helped head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein’s team pull away from Loyola in the Elite Eight. Drawing out long offensive possessions is Maryland’s best bet on defense. That’s what UNC did during the ACC Championship. Letting BC run is an invitation for two-way middies Belle Smith and Cassidy Weeks to put on a ball movement clinic.
Key for BC: Be disciplined with the ball. The last thing the Eagles need is careless mistakes. Especially against a Maryland team that doesn’t make many of its own. The Terps lead the country in fewest giveaways per game (10.70). Meanwhile, BC committed a season-high 22 turnovers in its second-round win over Denver. The Eagles can’t afford that kind of performance against a Maryland team that already ranks second nationally in scoring defense (7.35 goals allowed per game).
Players to watch
Maryland: Graduate attacker Aurora Cordingley. After coming over from Johns Hopkins, Cordingley has taken her game to the next level. The Tewaaraton Award finalist is fourth nationally in points per game (5.80) and can both score (66 goals) and distribute (50 assists). She’s especially dangerous around the crease.
BC: Senior goalie Rachel Hall. It’s no secret that Hall has had a tough go of it in 2022. Her .351 save percentage is 97th nationally. And she has had four games this season with three or fewer stops. Of late, though, she’s been much better. In fact, Hall has turned away seven or more shots in each of her last three games. BC’s going to need that version of Hall—and maybe even the one that posted a combined 20 saves during Championship Weekend last year.
Series history: Maryland 14, BC 1. BC’s lone victory came in 2018 when the Eagles knocked off Reese’s Terps in the Final Four at Stony Brook. The teams have met in Championship Weekend three of the last four NCAA Tournaments. Twice, they faced off in the National Championship, with Maryland winning each time. Both of those games were decided by three or fewer goals.
Numbers to Know:
18.5 – The number of goals per game for the Maryland Terrapins in the NCAA Tournament. They scored 19 in their win over Duke and 18 in their win over Florida. Northwestern averages 17.3 goals per game, BC averages 16.5 and UNC averages 16.0 this tourney.
10 – Maryland’s Libby May and Northwestern’s Lauren Gilbert have the most goals in the NCAA Tournament out of the remaining four teams. Wildcats’ Erin Coykendall leads all remaining players in points with 13 this tournament.
3.90 – UNC’s Taylor Moreno has a stunning 3.90 goals against average in the tournament. Maryland’s Emily Sterling sits at 5.95, Northwestern’s Madison Doucette at 7.74 and BC’s Rachel Hall at 10.50.
How to Watch:
No. 1 North Carolina vs. No. 4 Northwestern, May 27, 12:30 p.m.
No. 2 Maryland vs. No. 3 Boston College, May 27, 3 p.m.
National Championship, May 29, 12 p.m.
NOTE: The Final Four games were moved up because of “pending weather in the Baltimore area Friday,” according to the NCAA. There is a high chance of rain in Baltimore, with scattered thunderstorms throughout the day. Additionally, a tornado watch has been issued until 2 p.m. ET. More game time changes could be on the way.
Hope you enjoyed this edition of the Quick on the Draw newsletter. If you liked it or know someone who will, please share! We’ll be back to wrap up the season.