UNC women's lacrosse advances with 10-8 win over Hoyas

Abbey Friend maybe had one of the best days of her life. She started off her day in a cap and gown and ended her day in her lacrosse uniform celebrating a 10-8 win over Georgetown. 

But the win was not the only thing she had to celebrate.

Friend entered the game with 191 career goals, only one short of tying the UNC record of 192 careers goals set by Corey Donohoe in 2011. Nearly seven minutes into the game, Friend scored the first goal of the game to tie the record with Donohoe at the game to witness it happen.

“I didn’t know she was going to be here," Friend said. "It’s exciting. She was such a big mentor to me, so to have her in the stands was pretty exciting.”

Everything seemed to be going the Tar Heels' way for most of the first half, holding on to a 5-2 lead. But winning draw controls and UNC penalties kept the Hoyas in the game. 

With nearly a minute left, the Hoyas were able to score two quick goals to cut the deficit to 5-4. At the end of the half, Georgetown had all of the momentum going into the locker room.

Georgetown had to keep switching things up to challenge UNC. Georgetown’s coach Ricky Fried thought his team did a good job of sticking to the game plan.

“Obviously this is not a team you want to run up and down with," Fried said. "They're very athletic. We wanted to make sure we changed up our defenses and kept them off guard a little bit. I think that worked for a period of time.”

Georgetown carried the momentum into the second half by scoring another goal 17 seconds in. Georgetown would eventually take a 7-6 lead over UNC with 12 minutes left in the game.

But being down a goal did not bring down the Tar Heels’ spirits. Coach Jenny Levy said the team’s toughness kept it in the game.

“This team has been tough all year," Levy said. "But we’ve been resilient and tough. We dig our cleats in when we need to. When we were down a goal with 12 minutes left, we took a timeout to say ‘Hey, no big deal. Take a deep breath let’s go.'”

While Georgetown fought to try take the game away from UNC, Friend continued to break and tie records. With her fourth goal of the game, she set a new record for career goals with 195 and tied the record for goals scored in a single season with 62.

Carly Reed scored with one minute and seven seconds left to make the score 10-7, but the Tar Heels would have to battle to the last second after the Hoyas proved in the first half they could come back in a matter of seconds.

The Hoyas were only able to score one more goal with 46 seconds left before the Tar Heels were able to come up with the ball and let the clock wind down to ensure the victory.

Friend was not surprised that Georgetown came out strong in this game. 

“Any NCAA game, the other team is going to bring their A-game," Friend said. "At the end of the day they don’t have anything to lose. I wasn’t surprised Georgetown came out strong, but we got the win.”

Contact the desk editor at sports@dailytarheel.com