W2WF: NCAA Semifinals vs. North Carolina

Kelly Doton doesn't believe in recruiting raw talent. She wants players who have ability on the field hockey turf, but she would rather eschew a team built by natural athletes for a roster of coachable players. When she's looking at bringing a player into the Boston College fold, she would rather have someone with that burning, neverending desire to win more than someone who has a natural touch or ability.

So when it came to Margo Carlin, Doton knew she had a player. She just didn't know that her incoming freshman was going to be an instant legend.

"I could pretend that I'm the best coach in the world who saw 20 goals in her, but nobody could say that," Doton said of the freshman phenom. "We go after kids that we feel are coachable."

As a recruit out of Pennsylvania, Carlin's talent was never in question. Her high school career saw her win varsity letters over four years at Merion Mercy Academy, leading her team to a District Championship and a state title game appearance in her sophomore year. It ran concurrent to her club career for the WC Eagles, a program that won the 2016 and 2017 NIT Pool and NCC Championships.

"Margo was a member of one of the best field hockey club programs," Doton said. "She played against and with some elite-level players that all made her better. The jump that she made between her sophomore and junior years was a huge incline. She was incredible."

Her high school career took an unexpected turn for her senior season when an injury derailed its end. Her ability to claw back physically, though, exhibited the intangible quality that Doton believed existed, and she was at full strength by the time she hit the turf for her first appearance against Providence.

She scored a goal in BC's 2-1 victory, then notched another on five shots, three on goal, against Fairfield two days later in her first start. She returned to the starting lineup two games later, scoring again against Northwestern. It cemented her status in the lineup, and she returned the team's favor by going on a six-game scoring streak. She posted a natural hat trick in the team's 5-0 win over Boston University and scored her first game in conference play by nailing down both strikes in a 2-1 win over Syracuse.

Teams eventually keyed on Carlin, so she kept developing skills by contributing assists against both North Carolina and Duke. The ACC Championship kept her off the scoreboard, but she roared back with a goal against Northwestern and, despite not scoring during the game, buried the decisive stroke against Louisville in the NCAA Quarterfinal.

She will be squarely on the radar when Friday's Final Four matchup hits center stage.. She's the ACC Freshman of the Year and a First Team All-ACC selection and remains one of the nation's best scorers with just under a goal per game. She ranks right alongside other star players like Erin Matson or Clara Roth, both of whom will be on the turf this weekend in the national semifinal round.

"She had that injury, and you never want that," Doton said. "But you have to think that the adversity made her stronger and fitter when she came into this season. She's benefited from her teammates, and the amount of goals that she has can be attributed to the team. She knows that. She's just so humble and just wants to win."

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Weekly Storylines

The big, bad wolf...er...Tar Heel.

The old sports adage that it's supremely difficult to beat a team three times in a week became increasingly popular as soon as Boston College and North Carolina stamped their respective Final Four tickets. The two schools have two prior meetings this season, and the Tar Heels won both. That means there's an advantage for the Eagles, at least according to sports idioms.

That's good because that's likely the only place where BC will have an advantage over UNC. The Tar Heels are the undefeated, undisputed No. 1 team in the country, and they enter Friday as the defending national champions on a 44-game winning streak, having last lost to UConn in the 2017 national semifinal.

"They played every team in the Final Four, including Princeton," Doton said of UNC. "They played every top in the country with the exception of a team like UConn, and they came out victorious every single time."

UNC has a dangerous mix of talent and chemistry, and it's an experience-laden team already in possession of a national championship. Sophomore Erin Matson is the nation's leading scorer and one of two players nationally averaging over three points per game. She won the ACC Offensive Player of the Year Award this season and is a current member of the United States Women's National Team. She is also a graduate of the WC Eagles club program that produced BC's Margo Carlin.

"(Matson) is hands down the best player in the country," Doton said. "But they have the second-best player in the country in their midfield. They are fast up front and strong defensively. They can score power goals or garbage goals. We've been watching the video, and we need to minimize their strengths. We have to avoid mental mistakes. They have the ability to move the ball, and their field hockey awareness and ability to pass under pressure is so good."

You can't teach heart.

Boston College is not going to step on the field on Friday with more individual or raw talent than North Carolina. The Tar Heels average just under four goals per game on offense and hold a goals against average below 1.00. So any discussion about beating UNC on pure ability is disrespectful to what it's accomplished.

An Eagle victory then has to come through an altogether different route defined by chemistry and desire. Any team that gets to this point in the schedule has the capability and talent to beat any opponent, so it's simply about being able to want it more than the person on the other sideline.

"We know that we're not the most skilled team in the Final Four from top to bottom," Doton said. "That's okay because the intangibles got us here, and the intangibles can get us to the next step. We don't need five All-Americans on the team because our team plays collectively as a unit. I'd rather have a team that's maybe not as skilled but has that heart and desire than a team with more skills that's sitting at home."

It's an attitude defined beyond anything measurable on a stat sheet. The Eagles proved capable of rallying when they came from behind to tie the Tar Heels in the ACC Championship, but a late-game card gave UNC the necessary advantage it needed. Doton understood where that energy came from, and she knows that if the team adheres to its game plan, it can stick with any team, including the top-ranked team in the nation.

"We know what's coming, but these are the games that I love," Doton said. "I love being the underdog. I'm not saying we're going to have to play perfect, and we don't need UNC to play the worst game it's ever played. It's not that far off. But it's going to take a lot."

Stick to the plan.

So what exactly is that plan?

It should follow the same true formula defining the entire BC field hockey season. This is a tough, rugged team with a disciplined intensity. It's built by strong defense and opportunistic offense built by fluid ball movement.

"I don't think we had the flow on the attack (against Louisville) that we had against Northwestern," Doton said. "We were making silly decisions with the ball and turning it over without any pressure, which is a no-no. We just weren't connecting well in the early part of that game. But the defense had been doing its job like it had for the past six or seven weeks, which got us out of that situation, and Sarah (Dwyer) kept us in that game early on."

The scouting report isn't very secretive; BC's defense will need to limit Matson as a primary option. When that succeeds, the next assignment becomes marking both Marissa Creatore and Catherine Hayden. More lately, Yentl Leemans has been breaking into the goal category, though she's already one of the most lethal ball distributors in the nation with 14 assists on the season.

"We need to throw a couple of different things against UNC that they haven't seen before," Doton said.

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Where in the World is Boston College Field Hockey?

(It worked last week, so why not break out some more Rockapella for everyone this week?)

Kelly Doton had to admit the subtle irony of her first Final Four trip as a head coach at Boston College because this year's event is being held at Wake Forest. Doton, a 2004 graduate of the Demon Deacon program, helped win two national championships during her time in Winston-Salem and won the 2003 Honda Award as the National Field Hockey Player of the Year.

"I'm at BC now, and I love being in the position that I am (with the Eagles)," Doton said. "But I still get that feeling when I'm on campus. Wake is home to me, and there's no doubt about it. So it's a little ironic that we get to play on that field where I played. That said, I couldn't be happier to be leading this BC team onto that field."

Beyond the physical infrastructure, Doton's experience as a national champion is something that could prove vital to the Eagles as a head coach. Being on the game's top stage can fundamentally alter a team's preparation if it exhibits too much of a "happy to be here" approach, making it imperative to stress a regular game atmosphere.

"I've been fortunate to play in four of these," Doton said. "I don't want to blow it up that we've made the Final Four and that's it. That's never been my style or mentality. You can call it the Final Four, but it's still the same as last weekend where if you lose, your season is over. Our goal has been to play on Sundays, and we've had three opportunities to do that. We've made it to the last two. Now we want to make it to the last Sunday."

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Meteorology 101

North Carolina in November is still a beautiful time of year. It's a lot like early October in Massachusetts where temperatures during the day can creep up into warmer climates before dipping down at night. In Winston-Salem on Friday, temperatures are expected to reach into the 60s with a little bit heavier humidity on the backdrop of a chance of rain.

The BC game is the earlier of the two semifinal matchups because the top seed is hypothetically afforded maximum rest if it gets through to Sunday. That means the Eagles will play under the warmer temperatures, where the night game will be slightly more raw.

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Scoreboard Watching

Field hockey is one of the more intriguing sports on the NCAA Tournament calendar because its top seeds almost never all make it to the last weekend. The bracket ranks four national seeds, all of which host four-team groupings, but the four selected teams almost never qualify as a collective unit. In 2016, an entirely unseeded field advanced through the first two rounds.

This year, only two national seeds advanced - No. 1 North Carolina and No. 3 Virginia. Princeton defeated No. 2 UConn, 2-0, in the bracket hosted the Huskies, and the No. 4 team, Louisville, lost to BC.

It's an indication of an incredibly-competitive field. Field hockey is measured in a series of one-goal games, which is why this field is going to make for an exciting weekend. It's truly a situation where a national championship is earned, not automatically given.

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Pregame Quote and Prediction

I keep running through them all. Johnson on Mikahilov. Broten on Petrov. Pav again...whoever-Ov. We just...we don't match up. -Herb Brooks

You might want to skip that when you talk to the team tomorrow. -Patti Brooks

-"Miracle"

I can look down a stat sheet and roster comparison, but all I see is a North Carolina team that is just really, really good. The Tar Heels have everything: scoring, defense, depth, physical skill, talent. It's all there. There's no shame in admitting all of that, and there's even less in believing how the opponent is simply a better team.

But all streaks were made to be broken. A team playing with no fear and nothing to lose is the most dangerous team in any sport, and that's the opportunity afforded to this BC team. It earned its way to the national semifinal round by winning its way through. No team laid out a red carpet, and even less will do so for the national championship.

There's a rock solid belief in this locker room, and it's why this BC team could leave Winston-Salem as the ultimate giant killer. This is the moment every one of these athletes waited their whole careers for, and now it's here: a chance to play for a national championship.

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