Women's lacrosse topples No. 1 Wildcats

The night before the matchup against No. 1 Northwestern, North Carolina women’s lacrosse coach Jenny Levy had a premonition.

 “I sent (Laura Zimmerman) a little text,” she said. “I said look, ‘I think tomorrow’s going to be a great game for you, I think you’re going to find yourself open quite a bit. Take advantage of those opportunities and I think you’ll be brilliant tomorrow.’”

Call it coach’s intuition, but Levy was right — that’s exactly what Zimmerman was.

The sophomore had five goals in the game, leading the No. 2 Tar Heels to an 18-16 win against Northwestern in Evanston, Ill. Prior to Sunday’s game, the Wildcats had a 41-game winning streak and had won the last five national championships.

But the strength of Northwestern wasn’t a new experience for UNC. North Carolina fell to the Wildcats 21-7 in last year’s national championship game.

“That loss motivated us last summer to work harder,” Levy said. “But yesterday’s game had nothing to do about last year’s championship game; it was not a game of revenge for us. It was a game to see how good we could be against another great opponent.”

Despite the powerhouse’s track record, Levy wasn’t fazed.

“We weren’t focused on any of the milestones of their program, because it’s not something that we can control,” Levy said. “It’s not something we can change.”

Throughout the game it was evident that the two teams were evenly matched. UNC had a 6-0 run over a four-minute span during the first half. But Northwestern had a quick rebuttal. The Wildcats responded with a 6-0 run of their own.

UNC scored the next four, including two in the final 15 seconds of the half to tie the score at 12-12. Defensively, Levy wasn’t impressed with her team’s first-half play. The Tar Heels struggled to stop Wildcat standouts Katrina Dowd and Shannon Smith.

The Tar Heel defense picked it up in the second half, and North Carolina outscored the Wildcats 6-4 after intermission.

Before Sunday, Northwestern had a 58-game winning streak at home.

But now, all that’s history.

“That’s why you go to a school like this, to play against the best,” junior attacker Corey Donohoe said. “I would love to play them again.”

And a rematch of the current top two teams in the nation is certainly possible for the 2010 national championship game. But it’s something that both Levy and the players are trying not to think about.

Instead, they’ll keep their eyes on their next challenge, an ACC Tournament semifinal match against either Duke or Boston College.

 “I was ecstatic (about the win),” Donohoe said. “Also, I had in the back of my mind to remember this is still the regular season, and we still have a lot of lacrosse left we have to play. It’s not over yet.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.