UNC women’s lacrosse to take on Maryland for title

The top-seeded UNC women’s lacrosse team got off to a sluggish start against fourth-seeded Virginia in the ACC semifinals and entered the locker room tied at two.

Earlier in the week, the Tar Heels took part in “Tell the truth Mondays,” an opportunity they used to review film from their regular season-ending loss to No. 1 Northwestern and make a commitment to getting better.

It might have taken a little while, but UNC’s 12-4 second-half run Saturday — which would earn the Tar Heels an appearance in the conference championship for the third straight season — was exactly the kind of improvement they were looking for.

Senior captain Becky Lynch broke the tie less than three minutes into the second half, and the Tar Heels would not surrender that lead, padding it with goals from seven different players on their way to a 14-6 win.

Junior midfielder Kara Cannizzaro led the Tar Heels, scoring four goals out of seven shots.

“I think Kara’s effort today was a key to our success in the second half,” coach Jenny Levy said. “Any time you have that type of effort on both ends of the ball with our midfielders I think it really spurs our team.”

Lynch, who scored three goals in the game, said the difference in the second half was the Tar Heels’ ability to be patient on attack.

“In the second half we focused more on waiting for opportunities to come to us a little bit more than forcing it,” Lynch said.

“I think that was the main change where rather than try to force it and getting a little anxious when things opened a little bit, we were waiting for the layup to be there.”

The Tar Heels survived their slow first half through a strong defensive performance. The Cavaliers held the ball for as long as five minutes in the attacking end, but the UNC defense did not falter.

“Our defense does such a good job of holding them that if you have confidence in them that they’re going to hold them then they can hold it as long as they want,” Lynch said. “It was tied at that point so we knew we had the whole second half ahead of us.”

Though Virginia led 10-5 in ground balls at the end of the first half, the second-half total, which favored UNC 9-2, was indicative of how UNC came out with a greater intensity.

The Tar Heels will face Maryland today in the title game after the Terrapins defeated Duke 12-3 in the other semifinal. This will be the third straight year Maryland and UNC have met in the title game. The Tar Heels lost the first two.

UNC is 1-5 all-time in the ACC championship, with its only win in program history coming in 2002 against the Terrapins.

Cannizzaro said the top-seeded Tar Heels have embraced their role as the favorite in this year’s tournament.

“Something that we talk about a lot on our team is grit,” Cannizzaro said. “People are going to put a target on your back and people are going to want to beat you.

“I think our team practices all week knowing that and we practice hard and we’re not focused on results at all so we just go out and want to play the best lacrosse we can.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.