No. 5 UNC women's lacrosse rebounds, defeats Louisville 18-12

After suffering a 15-goal loss last week to Syracuse, the North Carolina women’s lacrosse team (7-3, 3-2 ACC) found its way back into the goal and the win column, beating Louisville (5-6, 2-3 ACC) 18-12 at Dorrance Field on Saturday.

Louisville opened the scoring 30 seconds into the game, capitalizing on a draw control foul by fifth-year midfielder Olivia Dirks, allowing the Cardinals to gain possession.

It wouldn’t be long before the Tar Heels would answer back, scoring slightly more than a minute later. The teams would trade goals again before five minutes had expired off the clock, tying the game at two a piece. 

Following this, North Carolina looked to begin to pull away. Senior attacker Caitlyn Wurzburger scored two goals in 32 seconds. Following a third goal by the Cardinals, graduate attacker Ashley Humphrey accumulated her team-high 28th assist of the season on a goal from sophomore midfielder Darcy Felter, giving North Carolina a 5-3 lead.

To end the first quarter, Louisville stormed back with two goals to tie the game but Dirks scored, the 100th point of her career, giving UNC the lead at the end of the first quarter.

Like the opening period, Louisville scored first, this time to tie the game at six. Following this, the floodgates opened for North Carolina as they scored five goals over the next three minutes, including senior midfielder Alyssa Long, sophomore attacker Kiley Mottice and Dirks scoring their second goals of the game. In the final minutes of the second quarter, Dirks added her third and fourth goals of the game before the Cardinals tallied an eighth goal to end the half, putting the score at 13-8.

Mottice scored her third and fourth goals soon into the third quarter, the first of which gave Humphrey her third assist of the game. Following a Louisville goal, the pace of both offenses slowed down severely with the Cardinals getting just four shots and North Carolina getting none while turning the ball over three times.

With just less than three minutes remaining in the quarter, the Tar Heels once again found their rhythm with Long and Mottice scoring their third and fifth goals of the game, respectively. Louisville once again tallied a last-second goal to end the quarter, putting the score at 17-10 going into the final period.

The fourth quarter was an anomaly compared to the first three quarters as the defenses of both teams began to tighten up, allowing just three goals total. 

Part of this was redshirt junior goalkeeper Stella Harrison. After the usual starting goalkeeper for North Carolina, junior Alecia Nicholas, was pulled after the first quarter following her allowing five goals without a save, Harrison took her place. In the second half, Harrison found her rhythm, making 11 saves, and was crucial to North Carolina holding on at the end of the game.

Following their win, the Tar Heels return to Dorrance Field on Monday and will face their challenge of the year, facing No. 1 Northwestern at 4:30 p.m.

@thenoahmonroe

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