BC Ready as No. 1 Terrapins Await in Long Island
May 23, 2018 | Lacrosse, #ForBoston Files
It's BC-Maryland II on Friday night on ESPN3.
The hype machine received an easily-unwrapped gift last weekend when both Boston College and Maryland advanced to the Final Four of the NCAA Division I Women's Lacrosse Championship.
The two teams met in last year's national championship game, and they staged an instant classic won by the Terrapins, 16-13. Gifted that rematch, it's easy to call it the second round of the two teams' newly-minted rivalry or the "third half" of a high-stakes game.
That's a good message, but it's easily dispelled by the Eagles.
"(We are) just a totally different team," BC head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein said. "(It's) a totally different path."
BC enters this year's Final Four with a completely different outlook, and it hopes that's the key to unseating the team that beat it a year ago. Identity is something, after all, carefully constructed from the present tense, even if it has roots in the past while setting down new foundations for future generations.
"They know that they don't want the program to take a step back," Walker-Weinstein said of the Eagles. "I think a lot of people were really willing to step up and be the playmaker for this year, which is great. It's exciting. It's fun to watch the kids step up."
The Eagles are heading to Long Island with that unique attitude, but they won't have to look very far to find reminders of the past. Maryland's 14 national championships include 13 NCAA Tournament titles - most in the country. No team's won more national tournament games or appeared in more NCAA Championship finals.
Bobby Brown's "My Prerogative" was a newly-minted No. 1 song when the Terps last missed an NCAA Tournament. They won seven straight national titles between 1995-2001 before a nine-year drought, but they haven't missed the Final Four since 2008. Only Northwestern prevented Maryland from advancing to the national championship every year since when the Wildcats beat the team, 9-7, in 2012. It comes with an expectation - often fulfilled - of success, though, again, each year wants to burgeon itself as unique.
"We're obviously really excited to be in this position," Maryland head coach Cathy Reese said. "This is a really fun season for us. (We have) a young group. I think we've come a long way since the beginning of the year, as you go through your season, your conference season, your conference tournament and NCAA play. To have the opportunity to compete in the Final Four this weekend is something that we're really excited about and really looking forward to."
This is the kind of heavyweight matchup promoters can only dream about. It's a rematch between two titans of the sport, a top contender earning a second chance to unseat the resident "big dog in the yard."
This year's matchup will be totally different from last year, but it will lay itself on the foundation poured in 2017. Future years will look back at what happened here as inspirational predecessors. Boston College-Maryland II is here. The opening draw is set.
Game Day Storylines
Lacrosse Inception
Remember how the movie Inception dealt with the concept of a "dream within a dream?" In lacrosse, the concept of a "game within a game" is very real, and it plays out every time there's a draw control restarting a play. The draw becomes where game pace can be dictated, since a scoring team can keep attacking momentum at a high by winning it. It's a point of emphasis that can get a team on the run it needs to establish dominance.
"The draw is a game within a game," BC assistant coach Kayla Treanor said. "There's only three people in the circle that are a part of it until there's a possession. Until that possession, those three are in their own game. It's been really fun (to watch and coach), and we are fortunate that we have such really great athletes. They've battled all year and been great."
Treanor knows a thing or two about winning draws. As a player at Syracuse, the three-time Tewaaraton Award finalist set the Division I single season draw controls record with 217 wins in 2016. She's worked with the Eagles this year in that area, helping create it as a point of emphasis and laying the groundwork for the team's success. Heading into Friday's game, BC controls 61% of all draws, having won 356 to 230 losses.
"When I hired Kayla, I told her that this is going to be her biggest role on the team," Acacia Walker-Weinstein said. "I really wanted her to own it and take over and make all the changes that she wanted to develop the individual player. There's an incredible amount of work that goes in, ours more than most of the other players. There's a lot of strategy. There's a lot of communication."
The Eagles will utilize a team of draw control midfielders with the bulk being taken by both Sam Apuzzo and Dempsey Arsensault. Both are incredible scoring threats but combined for 246 of BC's draw control victories this season. The duo combine to win 42% of all of BC's draw controls while accounting for just under 70% of all victories.
"Sam has a really unique ability to understand where the ball is set," Treanor said. "She can combine that with very fast hands and reaction time and quickness. The entire draw control team has been working (at that) all year. They take it seriously and work really hard, and the numbers show how it's helped us win games."
"There's a lot of lingo and Kayla has done such an incredible job creating a science out of it," Walker-Weinstein said. "(The draw control unit) does film. They do scouting reports, practice session and do whistle work. They do a lot of actual work; there's a lot of extra work (that goes into it)."
Maryland will counter with a draw control team that's won 358 with 228 losses, a nearly identical 61% victory rate as BC. Kali Hartshorn is the player to watch there with 135 victories on her own. Lizzie Colson ranks second on the team with 86, followed by Meghan Siverson's 62 and Megan Whittle's 40 victories.
"I know our people in the circle will have their hands full, but Kali is ready for any challenge for us on the draw," Reese said. "She's had a tremendous season on the draw control, same as Lizzie Colson, coming off the circle for us. So, it's huge (to win them).
"Winning draws are key in any game," Reese said. "They equal possessions when you have the ball. So, it's definitely an area of focus and it will be an area that challenge, especially as a team (like BC) has had such success all season long."
Whittle away
Boston College's ability to dictate pace of play will become a huge factor in limiting Maryland's attacking chances. The Terrapins enter Friday with an offense tied for fourth in the nation at 16.33 goals per game, a number paced by senior Meghan Whittle - arguably the best goal scorer in the nation.
"They have a lot of firepower coming down the crease and then attacking up," Acacia Walker-Weinstein said. "Maryland is incredibly neat. They have multiple scorers and multiple people who can do many different things. They are really dynamic so we have a lot of work to do this week (to prepare)."
Though Whittle is yet to crack 100 points on the season, her 83 goals rank her No. 6 in the nation in goals per game at 3.95. She needs just three goals to reach 300 on her four-year career that began with 67 goals in her freshman season. With a shooting percentage of approximately 47%, she is more than capable of putting the ball in the back of the cage from anywhere she wants.
To stop her, BC will need to rely on the defense and goalkeeping that's come up with the big save at the big moment. No team gets to the Final Four by accident, which means any team at any time can limit the right player with the right game plan.
"I think all quarterfinal games were good games that could go either way," Cathy Reese said. "Everyone is out there fighting, and I think Boston College is a really talented team. Am I surprised they (beat Stony Brook)? Absolutely not. (It) could've gone the other way. So, I think it's similar to all four games last weekend."
1-2-3-4-5? That's the same combination of my luggage.
Kenzie Kent had a performance for the ages in last year's national championship game, but the Eagles ultimately fell short of their goal because Maryland won the trophy. This year's game reasons to be different simply because BC - who will be without Kent, who is redshirting this season - became deeper offensively.
Last week's game against Stony Brook is a perfect example. The Seawolves bottled up BC leading scorer and Tewaaraton Award finalist Sam Apuzzo, limiting her to one goal on four shots and three points. But Kaileen Hart, Dempsey Arsenault and Tess Chandler picked up the pace, combining for nine goals, including four goals by Hart and three from Arsenault.
"We're just so deep as a team," Acacia Walker-Weinstein said. "Sam isn't the person who needs to score goals (all the time). If she doesn't score, then Tess or Kaileen can score four goals. And if Dempsey's quiet, Taylor Walker will have two and Cara Urbank will have two. You need that kind of depth to be playing in the Final Four."
That depth presents a very dangerous challenge against Maryland. The Terp defense is tied with Florida at No. 14 in the nation but allows more than a half of a goal more than BC on a per-game basis. It's surrendered 12 or more goals in a third of games played this year, and while the potent offense can outrun anyone, the defense has been, at times, hot or cold.
In the conference tournament, Maryland allowed 23 goals to Johns Hopkins and Penn State, teams it previously allowed a combined 13 goals to in the regular season. Though it beat Denver, 15-4, in its first NCAA Tournament game, Navy scored 15 goals last week, including 10 in the first half.
It doesn't mean BC will pile up goals, but it does mean that the attack will need to hunt for mismatches. Maryland plays man-to-man, and that typically spells trouble if there's a matchup that starts to pay immediate dividends. It would force changing assignments and a downstream impact where someone just needs to get open against a defending player.
Meteorology 101
Remember that rain from last week's NCAA Quarterfinal? Remember how it soaked Newton Campus and turned the game into a surreal, down pouring atmosphere?
It's going to be 81 and sunny in Stony Brook on Friday. Temperatures will be dipping just under 70 by the time BC and Maryland take the field. The chance of precipitation is zero.
There will be some wind. I don't think anyone will complain.
Scoreboard Watching
The other NCAA Semifinal, which brings a 5 p.m. start time with it, belongs to James Madison and North Carolina. The No. 3 Dukes advanced by beating No. 6 Florida, while the No. 2 Tar Heels, fresh off their ACC Championship win over Boston College, pulled away from unseeded Northwestern to advance to Long Island. It's a rematch from the season-opening weekend, when JMU won, 15-14, in double overtime, in Virginia.
The winner obviously advances to the national championship game, but there's a number of fun underlying storylines. The Tar Heels split with BC this season, losing in the regular season before winning the conference tournament, and the prospect of an All-ACC or Big Ten-ACC championship game is tantalizing.
The Dukes have been up to any challenge in front of them, beating Towson twice to win the Colonial Athletic Association's regular season and postseason tournament, then beating Virginia and Florida in the national tournament. Now they hope to assert the CAA as a lacrosse conference worthy of the power conferences' lofty standing 18 years after JMU went to its only other Final Four.
"It's about results and performance that get you to (this) opportunity," JMU head coach Shelley Klaes-Bawcombe said. "The proof's in the pudding. For us, we understand that. We are a program that has been at this level, and we've been able to honor the 2000 team and we're expected to be able to do it again in 2018."
Pregame Zen/Prediction Time
When you come slam bang up against trouble, it never looks half as bad if you face up to it. -John Wayne
Maryland is a program that commands the respect earned by its national championship runs. Banners and trophies flow like water through College Park, and the program itself is a flagship for the entire sport of women's lacrosse.
But that doesn't make it unbeatable. BC came close to beating the Terrapins on Massachusetts soil last year, but that doesn't have any dictation on what could happen on Friday. The Eagles are a new team, just as the Terps are.
Acacia Walker-Weinstein said that she doesn't have to address the moment with this team at all. The team stayed calm and collected in an overtime game against Stony Brook, a team ranked No. 1 for much of the season in voted-on polls. There was a maturity and poise that found another level, and there's no reason why it can't do it again against the No. 1-seeded team in the tournament.
If that's the case, then this year's result might look a little bit differently. BC and Maryland have a date with destiny on Friday afternoon.
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The two teams met in last year's national championship game, and they staged an instant classic won by the Terrapins, 16-13. Gifted that rematch, it's easy to call it the second round of the two teams' newly-minted rivalry or the "third half" of a high-stakes game.
That's a good message, but it's easily dispelled by the Eagles.
"(We are) just a totally different team," BC head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein said. "(It's) a totally different path."
BC enters this year's Final Four with a completely different outlook, and it hopes that's the key to unseating the team that beat it a year ago. Identity is something, after all, carefully constructed from the present tense, even if it has roots in the past while setting down new foundations for future generations.
"They know that they don't want the program to take a step back," Walker-Weinstein said of the Eagles. "I think a lot of people were really willing to step up and be the playmaker for this year, which is great. It's exciting. It's fun to watch the kids step up."
The Eagles are heading to Long Island with that unique attitude, but they won't have to look very far to find reminders of the past. Maryland's 14 national championships include 13 NCAA Tournament titles - most in the country. No team's won more national tournament games or appeared in more NCAA Championship finals.
Bobby Brown's "My Prerogative" was a newly-minted No. 1 song when the Terps last missed an NCAA Tournament. They won seven straight national titles between 1995-2001 before a nine-year drought, but they haven't missed the Final Four since 2008. Only Northwestern prevented Maryland from advancing to the national championship every year since when the Wildcats beat the team, 9-7, in 2012. It comes with an expectation - often fulfilled - of success, though, again, each year wants to burgeon itself as unique.
"We're obviously really excited to be in this position," Maryland head coach Cathy Reese said. "This is a really fun season for us. (We have) a young group. I think we've come a long way since the beginning of the year, as you go through your season, your conference season, your conference tournament and NCAA play. To have the opportunity to compete in the Final Four this weekend is something that we're really excited about and really looking forward to."
This is the kind of heavyweight matchup promoters can only dream about. It's a rematch between two titans of the sport, a top contender earning a second chance to unseat the resident "big dog in the yard."
This year's matchup will be totally different from last year, but it will lay itself on the foundation poured in 2017. Future years will look back at what happened here as inspirational predecessors. Boston College-Maryland II is here. The opening draw is set.
Game Day Storylines
Lacrosse Inception
Remember how the movie Inception dealt with the concept of a "dream within a dream?" In lacrosse, the concept of a "game within a game" is very real, and it plays out every time there's a draw control restarting a play. The draw becomes where game pace can be dictated, since a scoring team can keep attacking momentum at a high by winning it. It's a point of emphasis that can get a team on the run it needs to establish dominance.
"The draw is a game within a game," BC assistant coach Kayla Treanor said. "There's only three people in the circle that are a part of it until there's a possession. Until that possession, those three are in their own game. It's been really fun (to watch and coach), and we are fortunate that we have such really great athletes. They've battled all year and been great."
Treanor knows a thing or two about winning draws. As a player at Syracuse, the three-time Tewaaraton Award finalist set the Division I single season draw controls record with 217 wins in 2016. She's worked with the Eagles this year in that area, helping create it as a point of emphasis and laying the groundwork for the team's success. Heading into Friday's game, BC controls 61% of all draws, having won 356 to 230 losses.
"When I hired Kayla, I told her that this is going to be her biggest role on the team," Acacia Walker-Weinstein said. "I really wanted her to own it and take over and make all the changes that she wanted to develop the individual player. There's an incredible amount of work that goes in, ours more than most of the other players. There's a lot of strategy. There's a lot of communication."
The Eagles will utilize a team of draw control midfielders with the bulk being taken by both Sam Apuzzo and Dempsey Arsensault. Both are incredible scoring threats but combined for 246 of BC's draw control victories this season. The duo combine to win 42% of all of BC's draw controls while accounting for just under 70% of all victories.
"Sam has a really unique ability to understand where the ball is set," Treanor said. "She can combine that with very fast hands and reaction time and quickness. The entire draw control team has been working (at that) all year. They take it seriously and work really hard, and the numbers show how it's helped us win games."
"There's a lot of lingo and Kayla has done such an incredible job creating a science out of it," Walker-Weinstein said. "(The draw control unit) does film. They do scouting reports, practice session and do whistle work. They do a lot of actual work; there's a lot of extra work (that goes into it)."
Maryland will counter with a draw control team that's won 358 with 228 losses, a nearly identical 61% victory rate as BC. Kali Hartshorn is the player to watch there with 135 victories on her own. Lizzie Colson ranks second on the team with 86, followed by Meghan Siverson's 62 and Megan Whittle's 40 victories.
"I know our people in the circle will have their hands full, but Kali is ready for any challenge for us on the draw," Reese said. "She's had a tremendous season on the draw control, same as Lizzie Colson, coming off the circle for us. So, it's huge (to win them).
"Winning draws are key in any game," Reese said. "They equal possessions when you have the ball. So, it's definitely an area of focus and it will be an area that challenge, especially as a team (like BC) has had such success all season long."
Whittle away
Boston College's ability to dictate pace of play will become a huge factor in limiting Maryland's attacking chances. The Terrapins enter Friday with an offense tied for fourth in the nation at 16.33 goals per game, a number paced by senior Meghan Whittle - arguably the best goal scorer in the nation.
"They have a lot of firepower coming down the crease and then attacking up," Acacia Walker-Weinstein said. "Maryland is incredibly neat. They have multiple scorers and multiple people who can do many different things. They are really dynamic so we have a lot of work to do this week (to prepare)."
Though Whittle is yet to crack 100 points on the season, her 83 goals rank her No. 6 in the nation in goals per game at 3.95. She needs just three goals to reach 300 on her four-year career that began with 67 goals in her freshman season. With a shooting percentage of approximately 47%, she is more than capable of putting the ball in the back of the cage from anywhere she wants.
To stop her, BC will need to rely on the defense and goalkeeping that's come up with the big save at the big moment. No team gets to the Final Four by accident, which means any team at any time can limit the right player with the right game plan.
"I think all quarterfinal games were good games that could go either way," Cathy Reese said. "Everyone is out there fighting, and I think Boston College is a really talented team. Am I surprised they (beat Stony Brook)? Absolutely not. (It) could've gone the other way. So, I think it's similar to all four games last weekend."
1-2-3-4-5? That's the same combination of my luggage.
Kenzie Kent had a performance for the ages in last year's national championship game, but the Eagles ultimately fell short of their goal because Maryland won the trophy. This year's game reasons to be different simply because BC - who will be without Kent, who is redshirting this season - became deeper offensively.
Last week's game against Stony Brook is a perfect example. The Seawolves bottled up BC leading scorer and Tewaaraton Award finalist Sam Apuzzo, limiting her to one goal on four shots and three points. But Kaileen Hart, Dempsey Arsenault and Tess Chandler picked up the pace, combining for nine goals, including four goals by Hart and three from Arsenault.
"We're just so deep as a team," Acacia Walker-Weinstein said. "Sam isn't the person who needs to score goals (all the time). If she doesn't score, then Tess or Kaileen can score four goals. And if Dempsey's quiet, Taylor Walker will have two and Cara Urbank will have two. You need that kind of depth to be playing in the Final Four."
That depth presents a very dangerous challenge against Maryland. The Terp defense is tied with Florida at No. 14 in the nation but allows more than a half of a goal more than BC on a per-game basis. It's surrendered 12 or more goals in a third of games played this year, and while the potent offense can outrun anyone, the defense has been, at times, hot or cold.
In the conference tournament, Maryland allowed 23 goals to Johns Hopkins and Penn State, teams it previously allowed a combined 13 goals to in the regular season. Though it beat Denver, 15-4, in its first NCAA Tournament game, Navy scored 15 goals last week, including 10 in the first half.
It doesn't mean BC will pile up goals, but it does mean that the attack will need to hunt for mismatches. Maryland plays man-to-man, and that typically spells trouble if there's a matchup that starts to pay immediate dividends. It would force changing assignments and a downstream impact where someone just needs to get open against a defending player.
Meteorology 101
Remember that rain from last week's NCAA Quarterfinal? Remember how it soaked Newton Campus and turned the game into a surreal, down pouring atmosphere?
It's going to be 81 and sunny in Stony Brook on Friday. Temperatures will be dipping just under 70 by the time BC and Maryland take the field. The chance of precipitation is zero.
There will be some wind. I don't think anyone will complain.
Scoreboard Watching
The other NCAA Semifinal, which brings a 5 p.m. start time with it, belongs to James Madison and North Carolina. The No. 3 Dukes advanced by beating No. 6 Florida, while the No. 2 Tar Heels, fresh off their ACC Championship win over Boston College, pulled away from unseeded Northwestern to advance to Long Island. It's a rematch from the season-opening weekend, when JMU won, 15-14, in double overtime, in Virginia.
The winner obviously advances to the national championship game, but there's a number of fun underlying storylines. The Tar Heels split with BC this season, losing in the regular season before winning the conference tournament, and the prospect of an All-ACC or Big Ten-ACC championship game is tantalizing.
The Dukes have been up to any challenge in front of them, beating Towson twice to win the Colonial Athletic Association's regular season and postseason tournament, then beating Virginia and Florida in the national tournament. Now they hope to assert the CAA as a lacrosse conference worthy of the power conferences' lofty standing 18 years after JMU went to its only other Final Four.
"It's about results and performance that get you to (this) opportunity," JMU head coach Shelley Klaes-Bawcombe said. "The proof's in the pudding. For us, we understand that. We are a program that has been at this level, and we've been able to honor the 2000 team and we're expected to be able to do it again in 2018."
Pregame Zen/Prediction Time
When you come slam bang up against trouble, it never looks half as bad if you face up to it. -John Wayne
Maryland is a program that commands the respect earned by its national championship runs. Banners and trophies flow like water through College Park, and the program itself is a flagship for the entire sport of women's lacrosse.
But that doesn't make it unbeatable. BC came close to beating the Terrapins on Massachusetts soil last year, but that doesn't have any dictation on what could happen on Friday. The Eagles are a new team, just as the Terps are.
Acacia Walker-Weinstein said that she doesn't have to address the moment with this team at all. The team stayed calm and collected in an overtime game against Stony Brook, a team ranked No. 1 for much of the season in voted-on polls. There was a maturity and poise that found another level, and there's no reason why it can't do it again against the No. 1-seeded team in the tournament.
If that's the case, then this year's result might look a little bit differently. BC and Maryland have a date with destiny on Friday afternoon.
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