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The Daily Tar Heel

UNC women’s lacrosse beats Cornell

Senior Corey Donohoe’s goal with 11:16 put the clock in permanent motion.

The goal lifted No. 3 North Carolina up 13-3 on the visiting Cornell.

When a team gains a 10-goal advantage, the rules say the clock runs continuously until the two-minute mark. Wednesday night marked only the second time UNC took advantage of the rule this season.

Cornell was not willing to allow UNC to hold its advantage, as Cornell’s leading scorer, Jessi Steinberg scored a goal two minutes later, bringing the UNC lead down to nine and stopping the clock.

Both teams scored once more in the half, and UNC cruised to the 14-5 victory at Fetzer Field.

The myriad of shots netted was a result of a combined effort by both the attack and midfielders. UNC darted around the sag defense by moving the ball and capitalizing on open opportunities.

“Today we just focused on moving the ball really quickly. That opens up a lot of things in the middle,” junior attack Becky Lynch said. “We’re working on moving it and if something is very open, then to not use it, so it really was just moving it around until we had a layup.”

Lynch ended the day with five points on three goals and two assists.

“They were playing a sag defensive, so we a couple of times got blocked on our feed, so if you’re a threat and you’re feeding, they have to be ready for both. It’s just about being versatile on attack,” Lynch said.

The Tar Heels worked cohesively as nine of their 14 goals were off assists.

The assists led to a balanced scoring effort with seven UNC players putting points on the board. Donohoe paced the Tar Heels with four goals.

“When a team starts sharing the ball and everybody is a threat, then it opens up your kids that you want to take the most shots,” UNC coach Jenny Levy said. ” If we’re all standing around waiting for Corey to take the shot, then we’re going to be very ineffective.”

On the defensive end, sophomore goalie Lauren Maksym saved 13 of Cornell’s 17 shots.

In the center circle, the Tar Heels set the tone by earning 15 draw controls to Cornell’s six. The dominance in the draw controls helped generate several scoring runs that allowed UNC to enjoy a large lead.

By halftime, UNC built an 8-2 lead, which allowed Levy to give her bench playing time in the second half.

Nine players came off the Tar Heel bench throughout the game, including an appearance from junior goalie Britt Giacco to finish the game.

“We were able to get a lot of different kids in the last ten minutes, and we got as many kids in as possible,” Levy said.

“We try to give our second team a chance to play. You know, most coaches don’t do that with that much time left on the clock, but I really appreciate the role that my second team plays.”

Contact the Sports Editor

at sports@dailytarheel.com.

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