North Carolina women’s lacrosse escapes Boston College, 12-11, to win first NCAA title since 2016
The heartbreak is over for the North Carolina women’s lacrosse program.
Years of promise and potential that ended in failure and frustration were wiped away after the top-seeded Tar Heels outlasted No. 3 seed and defending national champion Boston College, 12-11, in the NCAA Tournament final Sunday afternoon at Johns Hopkins’ Homewood Field.
An announced sold-out crowd of 8,500 – the sixth-largest to watch a title game in Division I women’s lacrosse history – witnessed North Carolina capture its third overall national championship and first since 2016.
With a 22-0 record, the Tar Heels became the 11th team to complete an undefeated season and the first since 2017 when Maryland went 23-0.
Graduate student attacker Sam Geiersbach, the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, led North Carolina with three goals, and fifth-year senior attacker Jamie Ortega and graduate student midfielder Ally Mastroianni scored two goals each.
Graduate student goalkeeper Taylor Moreno made a game-high 11 saves, including six in the first half, and junior midfielder Olivia Dirks enjoyed the primary assignment of marking Eagles sophomore midfielder Belle Smith, a 54-goal scorer who had more turnovers (two) than goals (one).
“I think it was just a lot of emotions,” Ortega said of her reaction after being a member of the 2018, 2019 and 2021 squads that fell short of the crown. “I just cried tears of gratitude. It wasn’t of sadness this time.”
“We had unfinished business,” Moreno said. “I knew for a fact, our team was headed in the right direction.”
The victory was the Tar Heels’ third in three meetings with Boston College and ended a mini-streak of back-to-back one-goal setbacks to the Eagles on championship weekend.
“We knew it was going to be tough and that it would go down to the wire,” coach Jenny Levy said. “It doesn’t surprise me that it was a one-goal game. We’ve lost a lot of one-goal games, this crew, over the past couple of years in the Final Four. So it was really nice to be on the other side of it.”
Knotted at 10 midway through the fourth quarter, the Tar Heels took the lead when Geiersbach got under her defender from the right wing, tiptoed the crease, and slipped her shot past Boston College senior goalie Rachel Hall with 5:26 remaining.
The Eagles had a chance to tie the game with the ball in the stick of their most lethal offensive weapon in graduate student attacker Charlotte North. But the 2021 Tewaaraton Award winner’s shot from the left alley was sticked aside by Moreno, and junior defender Emily Nalls, a Glenwood resident and Glenelg graduate, snatched the loose ball out of midair to end that threat.
After fifth-year senior attacker Scottie Rose Growney scored off a drive down the left alley to give North Carolina a two-goal cushion with 2:23 left in regulation, Moreno made another stick save on senior attacker Caitlynn Mossman’s shot near the left side of the crease.
The performance was refreshing for Moreno after she had made just five saves and allowed 13 goals and was pulled in favor of freshman Alecia Nichols for an almost eight-minute stretch in the third quarter of Friday’s 15-14 comeback victory over No. 4 seed Northwestern.
“I think Friday for me stung a little bit because I knew that I’m better than that,” Moreno said. “It was awesome to have my teammates have my back the entire game on Friday, and I knew going into this game, I was the one that was going to have their backs this time. I didn’t have to make up for Friday, but I knew that I wanted to play to my standard in such a game like this.”
In two previous meetings against Boston College, Moreno had made a combined 14 saves while giving up 25 goals.
“She’s an amazing goalie,” said Eagles coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein, an Annapolis High School and Maryland graduate. “I think unfortunately they have a lot of X factors, and Taylor was one of them today. She played great. She’s a tough goalie to go against.”
Redshirt junior midfielder Cassidy Weeks, who scored the game-winning goal in Boston College’s 17-16 comeback upset of No. 2 seed Maryland in Friday’s semifinal round, scored with 14.9 seconds remaining. But Tar Heels freshman defender Brooklyn Walker-Welch controlled the ensuing draw, and North Carolina ran out the clock before charging onto the field and celebrating with Moreno just outside of her cage.
North Carolina began the game promisingly as Geiersbach scored twice to stake the team to a 2-0 lead just 5:34 into the first quarter. Dating to the 5:27 mark of the fourth quarter of Friday’s 15-14 comeback victory over No. 4 seed Northwestern, the Richmond transfer had scored seven of the Tar Heels’ last eight goals in an 11:01 span.
Geiersbach, who was supported by a group of her former Spiders teammates in attendance, said the NCAA title was the culmination of her decision to join North Carolina.
“I wanted to go somewhere, and I wanted to win whether I was on the field or not,” she said. “That was my intention of transferring to a school like UNC – to win a national championship. I’m just glad we did it.”
After North matched Geiersbach with two goals of her own to lift Boston College into a 2-2 tie with 4:37 left in the period, North Carolina closed out the quarter with goals from graduate student attacker Andie Aldave, Mastroianni and Dirks in a 2:36 stretch for a 5-2 advantage.
Each time the Eagles scored in the second quarter, the Tar Heels had an answer until Weeks lasered in a shot from the high slot to cut the deficit to 7-5 with 19.5 seconds left before halftime.
If the first quarter belonged to North Carolina, Boston College dictated the third. The offense got goals from senior attacker Jenn Medjid at the 11:40 mark and North at the 4:31 and 2:13 marks, and senior goalkeeper Rachel Hall made four of her six saves to knot the score at 8-8 heading into the final period.
North scored a game-high four goals, Weeks added three goals, and Hall made eight saves for the Eagles (19-4), who dropped to 1-4 in five consecutive championship game appearances.
Walker-Weinstein said Boston College’s strategy involved slowing the pace against North Carolina’s high-tempo transition offense.
“We changed a little bit of our transition game today to try to have a little bit more left in the end,” she said. “It worked for a long time, and then when we adjusted and tried to kick it back into gear, that also worked, but we just needed to make a few more plays. I should have had them in a different position in the end.”
In addition to Geiersbach, Mastroianni, Moreno, Nalls, Ortega and fifth-year senior defender Emma Trenchard from North Carolina were named to the All-Tournament team. Medjid, North, Weeks, and redshirt senior defender Melanie Welch represented Boston College on the team. Maryland junior attacker Hannah Leubecker, a Forest Hill resident, and Northwestern graduate student attacker Lauren Gilbert were also voted to the team.
Breakthrough for UNC
The North Carolina women’s lacrosse program is a perennial contender for the NCAA championship, but had fallen short of turning potential into reality in recent years. Here is a look at how the Tar Heels had fared since capturing their second national title in 2016.
Year; Round; Opponent; Result
2016; Final; Maryland; Won, 13-7
2017; Quarterfinal; Navy; Lost, 16-14
2018; Semifinal; James Madison; Lost, 15-12
2019; Semifinal; Boston College; Lost, 15-14 (2OT)
2021; Semifinal; Boston College; Lost, 11-10
2022; Final; Boston College; Won, 12-11
