Vol. 4: North Carolina Has a Handle on its Kryptonite
Boston College has been a thorn in UNC's side the last half decade, but the Tar Heels won their fourth straight over BC in a lopsided national title game rematch.
Virginia Tech transfer Sophie Student works toward goal against BC on March 3. She tallied a hat trick in UNC’s convincing 11-goal win. Photo courtesy: UNC Athletics.
In a series that has seen games decided in the final minutes of the National Championship, North Carolina took all of 58 seconds to pounce on rival Boston College this time around. The Tar Heels’ 5-1 first quarter helped them roll to a 16-5 victory and made it clear—UNC is still top dog.
It all started in the first minute. Freshman attacker Olivia White stood well outside the 12-meter fan, guarded by Eagles senior midfielder Ryan Smith. Smith was turned toward the near sideline, protecting the middle of the field and daring White to go outside. She did. After a jab step with her right foot, White bounced to the outside of the eight-meter arc while sprinting toward goal. She cut inside at the last second, tucking in UNC’s first score with 14:02 on the first quarter clock.
UNC dominated on the outer edges of the arc all game. Five of the Tar Heels’ first seven goals came down the side of the eight-meter, and BC had no answer.
White and junior midfielder Sophie Student both notched two first-half goals, while senior midfielder Nicole Humphrey recorded a first-half hat trick. She wound up with a game-high four points (3 goals, 1 assist). In the first 30 minutes, the Eagles had just three goals, all from different scorers (Jenn Medjid, Kayla Martello and Belle Smith).
UNC’s win wasn’t as uncompetitive as the score might suggest. Head coach Jenny Levy’s team held a 31-23 shot advantage and a 20-14 shots on goal lead. The Eagles actually won at the draw control circle, 13-11, but UNC used a stellar day clearing (24-of-25) to jumpstart its transition offense.
The 11-goal margin of victory was still notable. Of the 37 other meetings between UNC and BC, just two have had a more slanted final score. In 2021, UNC beat BC, 21-9, and in the teams’ first meeting ever in 1997, the Tar Heels won, 21-5. UNC has now won four straight against the Eagles, good for the longest winning streak in the series since 2012-14.
Other Storylines to Know:
1. James Madison wins five straight and moves to No. 8 in the country. The Dukes are cooking. Coming off back-to-back seasons that ended in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, head coach Shelly Klaes has her team ready to reinsert itself into the national title conversation. After a 14-9 loss in the opener to No. 1 UNC, JMU has rattled off five straight wins, tying the Dukes for the fourth-longest winning streak in the country. Most importantly, they downed Maryland for the second year in a row.
The Terrapins outshot the Dukes, 29-16, and controlled the draw, 13-5, but JMU goalie Kat Buchanan stood tall. The redshirt senior allowed seven goals yet made 10 saves, earning her IWLCA Defensive Player of the Week honors. Junior attacker Katelyn Morgan assisted on three of the team’s last four goals, and she finished with four points. The win marked just the second time that JMU has ever defeated Maryland in back-to-back seasons, along with 2002-03.
Isabella Peterson darts through the midfield, leading JMU on the rush. Peterson has a team-high 24 goals and 27 points through six games. Photo courtesy: James Madison Athletics.
At the attacker spot, redshirt junior Isabella Peterson and senior Tai Jankowski have led the way, each piling up more than 20 points on the season. Peterson mounted eight goals and one assist in a thrashing of High Point, and Jankowski has logged five or more points in three games already. Perhaps most impressive, though, is JMU’s ball handling. The Dukes average 10.17 turnovers per game, the fifth fewest in the country. They take on Liberty and John Hopkins this weekend before a big matchup with No. 10 Florida on March 18.
2. Maryland takes a big step back with a pair of 8-7 losses. Is it time to sound the alarm in College Park? It’s still early but maybe. Maryland has already lost three games, more than it did all of last season when it went 19-2, returned to the Final Four and nearly reached the national title game. The Terrapins have plummeted to 11th in the Inside Lacrosse Poll after starting the season at the No. 2 spot. The latest drop comes after consecutive one-goal losses: first at James Madison and then at home against Denver. Granted both are top-10 teams, but head coach Cathy Reese’s teams, historically, haven’t had trouble taking care of ranked opponents.
Maryland has now entered the fourth quarter trailing in three straight games. That includes its 14-13 win at Florida, which saw the Terps outscore the Gators, 6-3, in the final frame. Although Maryland is allowing just 10.50 goals per game, the Terps being tied for 41st in scoring defense is a significant decline from last year’s No. 2 ranking in that category, where they conceded a mere 7.81 goals per contest. But defense wasn’t the problem last week. The Terps’ lack of scoring was. They are 60th (11.50) in goals per game right now. That’s reminiscent of 2021 when they were 57th (12.29) and missed the Final Four for the only time in the last 12 years.
Eloise Clevenger distances herself from the Denver defense in an 8-7 loss on March 5. Clevenger has 11 more assists than any other Terps player. Photo courtesy: UMD Athletics.
Maryland simply isn’t moving the ball like it needs to. Junior attacker Eloise Clevenger has 14 assists, and no one else on the team has more than three feeders. That makes the Terps tied for 76th in assists per game (4.17). They’re also 81st in shot percentage (39.2%). Something has to change. Quickly.
3. Notre Dame downs Duke, making jump to No. 12. The Fighting Irish have owned Duke in this series of late, winning nine of the teams’ last 11 meetings. Head coach Christine Halfpenny’s squad took care of business, besting Duke, 14-6. What was most impressive is the work Notre Dame did on the defensive end of the field, holding the Blue Devils to just seven shots in the second half and 19 overall. That effort was led by Keelin Schlageter and Hannah Dorney, who caused four and three turnovers, respectively.
A big question entering the season was how would the Irish replace longtime goalie Bridget Deehan. Well, Lilly Callahan has stepped into the role seamlessly. The junior from Needham, Massachusetts, turned away seven shots against Duke and is 12th nationally this season with a .519 save percentage.
Notre Dame is now 4-1 with three players who have already eclipsed the 20-point mark this season: Jackie Wolak, Kasey Choma and Madison Ahern.
4. No. 15 Yale and Brown headline upsets in the opening weekend of Ivy League play. Last week, we focused on the Ivy League and a potential shakeup in the conference standings. This week, lo and behold, we might have been onto something. The Ancient Eight is off to quite a start.
No. 15 Yale made a massive statement with a 15-10 win over No. 16 Princeton, its first victory over the Tigers since 2007. In the first quarter, coach Erica Bamford’s squad used six different goal scorers to jump in front, 6-1, and the Bulldogs withstood a four-goal Princeton run in the third. Sophomore attacker Jenna Collignon was superb, tallying six goals and an assist. Following the win, she was named Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week for the second time this season. Collignon leads the conference with 16 goals.
Elsewhere in the Ivy, Brown avenged a heartbreaking loss to Harvard in the 2022 regular season finale with an 11-6 victory over the Crimson in Providence. Tied, 5-5, at halftime, the Bears outshot Harvard, 16-8, across the third and fourth quarters to pull away. Sophomore midfielder Annie Burton led the charge for Brown, finishing with a hat trick, plus an assist.
This week, Yale heads to UConn, while Brown plays BC and Sacred Heart.
Weekly Focus:
ONCE AGAIN, NORTHWESTERN ISN’T SKIPPING A BEAT WITHOUT IZZY SCANE
Mercer transfer Hailey Rhatigan charges toward the cage during a five-goal performance against Youngstown State on March 5. Photo courtesy: Northwestern Athletics.
It’s amazing what Northwestern accomplished last season without Izzy Scane, who set the program’s single-season goals record (98) in 2021 and—had it not been for Charlotte North—might have been the face of the sport that year. When Scane tore her ACL ahead of last season, it seemed as if the Wildcats’ national title hopes were gone. But, with Lauren Gilbert, Erin Coykendall and Jill Girardi rising to the occasion, Northwestern reached the doorstep of the National Championship. Granted the Wildcats collapsed in the second half of their national semifinal matchup against UNC, but that didn’t take away from what Northwestern did to get there.
Scane was out again last weekend, this time with an undisclosed injury that Jake Epstein of the Daily Northwestern reported is “day to day.” But, once again, Northwestern responded.
The scoring came from every which way against Vanderbilt and Youngstown State. The Wildcats outscored them by a combined score of 48-10, hitting the 24-goal mark versus each opponent. Five different Northwestern players registered a hat trick against Vanderbilt. Madison Taylor—now the Big Ten Freshman of the Week four weeks in a row—was one of those five. So was Mercer transfer Hailey Rhatigan, who made her Northwestern debut in the dominant victory. Rhatigan was second nationally in goals last season (93), behind only Abby Hormes of High Point, who broke North’s NCAA single-season goals record (103).
Rhatigan followed up her first appearance with an even more prolific second outing, in which she piled up five goals in Northwestern’s runaway win over Youngstown State. She was extremely efficient, too: five shots, five shots on net, five goals (oh, and zero turnovers).
Besides, have we mentioned how good Dylan Amonte has been this season? Amonte, the niece of Northwestern head coach Kelly Amonte-Hiller, has notched 20 points in six games. To put that in perspective, she had 25 in 21 games last season.
Amonte is one of four Wildcats players with 20-plus points. No other team in the Inside Lacrosse Poll top five has more than three. So it’s no surprise that Northwestern sits atop the country in scoring offense with 19.50 goals per game.
This team can win without Scane, clearly. That’s not to say the Wildcats won’t need her down the stretch. But if she’s faceguarded or off her A-game, other scoring options can kick in.
Numbers to Know:
5.69 – Denver’s Emelia Bohi boasts the best goals against average in the Big East, and the second-best mark in the nation. Her save percentage (.534) is second in the conference and 10th in the country. This is nothing new. Last year, Bohi finished with a 8.42 goals against average, fourth best in the sport.
9 – There are just nine teams that have yet to lose in 2023. Denver, Syracuse and Virginia are all 6-0. Army, BU and UNC are 5-0. Loyola Maryland and Stony Brook are 4-0, and Hartford is 2-0.
38 – North Carolina’s home winning streak is bananas. The Tar Heels have won 38 straight at UNC Lacrosse Stadium, dating back to March 23, 2019 when BC downed UNC in Chapel Hill, 14-8.
Tewaaraton Watch:
POINTS LEADERS
GOALS LEADERS
NOTE: Stats correct through March 7.
Inside Lacrosse Poll
Screenshots pulled from insidelacrosse.com.
Eight of the preseason top 10 still find themselves there in the Week 4 Inside Lacrosse Poll. Syracuse remains at No. 2, but it faces another big test in No. 12 Notre Dame, which has jumped four spots from its preseason No. 16 ranking. So far, it’s the Big Ten that has underwhelmed. Maryland and Rutgers, ranked No. 2 and No. 8 in the preseason poll, respectively, have each dropped nine spots. No. 8 JMU and No. 9 UVA have scooted into the top 10. Undefeated Army, now ranked No. 14, continues to climb the ladder. The Black Knights and No. 21 Penn were unranked at the start of the season.
What’s Ahead?
Brown @ No. 5 Boston College, March 8, 3 p.m.
No. 20 USC @ No. 16 Princeton, March 10, 12 p.m.
No. 4 Stony Brook @ No. 3 Northwestern, March 10, 8 p.m.
BU @ No. 14 Army, March 11, 12 p.m.
No. 7 Loyola @ No. 10 Florida, March 11, 12 p.m.
No. 21 Penn @ No. 22 Jacksonville, March 11, 12 p.m.
No. 12 Notre Dame @ No. 2 Syracuse, March 11, 12 p.m.
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