This game felt different for the No. 1 North Carolina women’s lacrosse team.
Pressure was mounting, tension was building and palms were sweating well into the second half of the Tar Heels’ 13-8 victory against No.17 Penn. This was a stark change from UNC’s string of season-opening blowouts, in which the Tar Heels won each of their first five games by at least 10 goals.
Coach Jenny Levy was a bit underwhelmed with her team’s performance and stressed the need for her squad to respect every opponent, knowing that each team that comes into Fetzer Field dreams of pulling off an upset.
“It wasn’t our best outing,” she said. “I credit Penn, they always come in well-coached with a plan. But I think going forward, we need to understand that our opponents don’t just show up to make things easy for us. Obviously, we’re happy with the win, but I think this game can teach us a lot.”
One thing this game can teach the Tar Heels is how to respond when they are tested, and they passed that test Sunday. With the score tied at seven with just fewer than 20 minutes left in the game, UNC finished strong with a 6-1 run to put away the Quakers.
Senior attacker Taylor George, who scored three goals on the afternoon, said it was good for her team to play in a game that was close for most of the day.
“I think it was a great opportunity for us today, to play in a game where the margin of victory wasn’t so big,” she said. “Maybe we didn’t play as well as we could have, but the fact that we pulled out that tough win will really help us down the road.”
The goal that put the Tar Heels ahead to stay was also the flashiest tally of the afternoon. Senior and leading goal-scorer Abbey Friend, who was held in check most of the day, caught a pass sprinting full speed toward the Quaker goal. As she was running across the goalmouth, she flipped the ball behind her head and past the Penn goalie to give her team an 8-7 lead.
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