UNC women's lacrosse advances in ACC Tournament

Entering the ACC quarterfinal matchup in Chestnut Hill, the No. 4 North Carolina and No.6 Boston College women’s lacrosse teams have been on different paths.

UNC slumped into the tournament, losing three out of its last five while the Eagles have caught fire, winning four out of their last five contests. So on Thursday evening, something had to give.

And the Eagles blinked first.

With goals from eight different players — including five from senior Abbey Friend — the Tar Heels moved on to the ACC semifinals, defeating the Eagles 14-10.

Ten has been the magic number for the Tar Heels this season.

UNC is undefeated when scoring double digits, and against the Eagles, nothing changed.

In the opening minutes of the game, the Eagles held a 3-1 lead, but the Tar Heels responded with an 8-3 run, which resulted in a 9-6 halftime advantage. UNC would never relinquish the lead — the margin never dipped below three for the remainder of the game.

Coach Jenny Levy said she expected a battle from the Eagles but saw a good effort on both sides of the field from her team.

“We knew it would be a tough game, especially playing on their home field,” Levy said. “Overall, I felt we played a really complete game, which was our goal.”

UNC has never lost in the first round of the ACC Tournament, and Friend made sure it stayed that way. Four of her goals came in the first half of the game, and she now sits at 191 goals in her career, putting her one goal away from tying Corey Donahoe’s record.

Friend, who leads the Tar Heels with 58 goals this season, said that the she liked the defensive effort and that she thinks the game put the team back on the right track.

“Offensively, we got back into our rhythm a little bit,” Friend said. “I thought that was really awesome. Our goalies did great, and our defense came up with some huge caused turnovers, so it was a great team win for us.”

Freshman Sydney Holman helped Friend with the offensive onslaught by scoring three goals of her own. She now has 34 goals on the season, which has her tied with Friend for third all-time on the freshmen goal list.

The other six goals were scored by freshmen Maggie Bill, Molly Hendrick, Carly Davis and sophomore Aly Messinger and Devin Markison.

UNC played at Boston College on March 22 and won the matchup 14-13, with Messinger scoring the gamewinning goal with 28 seconds. It was also the Tar Heels’ last road victory, until Thursday’s win against the Eagles.

Levy said she saw improvements from the last time UNC played Boston College, and it was due to a collection of small victories.

“We wanted to get better from the first time we played up here earlier in the season, and I thought our defense did a great job,” Levy said.

“We won the little battles.”

sports@dailytarheel.com