Boston College Athletics
Photo by: Brian McWalters
W2WF: ACC Quarterfinals vs. Louisville
April 23, 2019 | Lacrosse, #ForBoston Files
The conference tournament comes to Chestnut Hill on Wednesday with an 11 a.m. start.
The 2019 Boston College lacrosse season officially began in February when the team practiced inside the Alumni Stadium bubble for the first time. The first day of the season is supposed to have a freshness and newness to it, but for some reason, there was a vastly different feeling to the players' stretch formation. It felt familiar, like the resumption of an unfinished project or continuation of a job not done.
That feeling had an underlying purpose that the Eagles laid bare over the last two-plus months. It was about a burning desire to simply become better every day. The athletes, teammates, staff and coaches could "dream big," as long as they understood what it would take to achieve those hopes. It was about being told that they could be great, as long as they understood what it would take to live up to those statements.
Nearly three months later, the Eagles are, in a word, great. A second consecutive undefeated season stamped a wire-to-wire No. 1 national ranking. Challengers came from all directions, but the team met them all with a head-on ferocity that led to a second-straight regular season conference championship.
The accolades are well-earned and well-deserved, but that fire and burning still exists. Dreaming is about the future, after all, and while the past and present achievements are wonderful, there's still something more out there. There's still that next step.
That next step begins on Wednesday morning when the No. 1 Eagles will look to defend Alumni Stadium against the Louisville Cardinals in the ACC Championship. It's a rematch of the regular season finale, a 19-6 victory by BC on the same Alumni Stadium turf that this game will play out on. It's part of a hyper-competitive eight-team field that will crown a champion and, potentially, springboard a team to national glory.
Dreams exist so people can wonder about their potential. In sports, they drive just how hard teams work to make it to a particular level. If Boston College began the season dreaming big, it means it won't be content with simply being 17-0, and it won't be content to win a regular season championship. It will be a driven team for one more game, looking to continue dreaming for another day.
Here's what to watch for as the Eagles take on the Cardinals on Wednesday morning:
*****
Game Day Storylines
Quick Learners
It took all of six minutes for BC to put a little bit of distance between itself and Louisville in last week's game, and the three-goal start was part of a larger, 5-1 start in the first eight minutes. The Cardinals settled down after that, holding BC to a 9-4 halftime lead, but the Eagles exploded again in the early second half with ten unanswered goals. It made the two late-game Cardinal goals irrelevant as part of a larger, 19-6 final score.
The early time slot on Wednesday becomes imperative for that same level of aggressiveness. BC had 10 different goal scorers on Saturday and attacked from all sides. Cara Urbank scored the first goal but assisted on the second to Dempsey Arsenault, who finished with four goals in the first half and six overall. BC peppered the Louisville cage for 21 shots before the break and 40 overall, scoring on 5-of-8 free position chances.
None of that even touched the "superstars" of the BC roster. Kenzie Kent assisted on the first goal of the game but didn't need to do much for the rest fo the time. Sam Apuzzo had a goal and an assist but watched as her teammates scored the bulk of the goals. Both are threatening to finish the season with 100 or more points, but the added danger of Arsenault and Urbank - who have 52 and 41 goals apiece, respectively - creates a scenario where some of the potential impact players aren't even the "best players on the roster," even as they are some of the best players in the country.
It's a threatening brand of lacrosse can open up a fast start, which is incredibly important for the bracket's top seed. That's not to say a team would ease up or take its foot off the gas pedal, but sheer volume of depth allows other players to cycle into the game plan. That's invaluable given the quick turnaround, and it provides the right rest for the right players given the grueling nature of the postseason. There's always a game where the best players take over, but it comes as a result of other games where teammates get more involved.
No Neutrality
BC's offensive explosion came largely because of its ability to control the midfield. The Eagles won 21 draw controls, including 12 in the first half, while surrendering only five, and they went 16-of-19 on clear attempts. It continued a season-long trend where BC won almost two-thirds of its draws and had a clear success percentage rate just under 90%.
Controlling the center of the field between the two attacking zones is critically important to dictating game pace, and those two areas of the game tend to complement one another in that regard. Virginia Tech bettered BC in the circle in the second half of its game, a frame in which the teams played to a tie score as part of a larger Eagle victory. Â Duke, meanwhile, won 12-of-18 draw controls in the second half of its game but committed eight turnovers, enabling the Eagles to play perfection on clear attempts.
On the other side, owning the midfield helps prevent opponents from obtaining successful clears. BC went 21% against the ride this year, holding teams to a .791 clear percentage.
No Place Like Home
The host school for any conference tournament typically gains a small measure of home cooking, but there's nothing like playing a game in Boston in mid-April. The region has its own unique climate that changes almost daily, and it can be daunting for teams to adjust to the conditions that come with playing in the Northeast.
BC and Louisville, for example, played on Saturday in wet conditions under 60-plus degrees, a stark contrast from the 40-degree rawness that hit with rain during the early part of the week. The midweek will bring warmth and sunshine to the Quarterfinals, but the championship weekend will have a contrast of rain and cold against possible warmth. It feels like a bad joke, but there's a reason why "April showers bring May flowers" (which bring June allergies, but that's another story for another day).
Within those days are even more drastic temperature swings. The teams will wake up and prepare under breezy temperatures in the 40s before gusty winds bring the warmer temperatures for the early games. The later games will have colder, more breezy climates.
On top of all of that, the teams will play inside Alumni Stadium in BC's main campus instead of playing on Newton Campus, where BC usually hosts home games. That means everything teams know about playing at BC, from the field to the atmosphere to the way the wind hits the stadium, will be completely different.
The proverbial cherry on top is that BC played its last two regular season games at Alumni Stadium. During the team's run to the 2017 national championship game, it practiced at Harvard Stadium before playing at Gillette Stadium. Head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein told me that it gave the athletes a feel for playing under different lighting in a big stadium with a number of different distractions. Having played the last two games at Alumni Stadium, the Eagles have a distinct home field advantage for the conference tournament.
*****
Meteorology 101
Mother Nature pummeled the region with rain for the better part of the early weekdays, and the raw, New England cold settled in on Monday. It was scheduled to remain through most of Tuesday before the skies started to clear, and temperatures were expected to slowly head back towards the more enjoyable levels of spring by Wednesday.
Wednesday, though, is going to be one of those weird days. It's going to be cool in the morning, warm up by midday, then sink back into the 40s at night. It means the climate for the BC-Louisville game is likely going to be great, but the winds will pick up by the time Syracuse-Virginia ends and North Carolina-Virginia Tech begins. Dropping temperatures will likely make for a pretty cold Notre Dame-Duke game at the end of the night.
*****
Scoreboard Watching
The eight-team ACC field will not reseed during its bracket, so the winner of BC-Louisville automatically plays the winner of Syracuse-Virginia on Friday evening at 5 p.m, while the winners from UNC-Virginia Tech and Notre Dame-Duke play at 8 p.m. with the conference championship at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
Every single one of these games has a razor-thin margin of error because each of these teams can impact the national tournament. Last year, BC went into the championship game as an undefeated, 19-0 team and was likely bound for the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament. A loss to UNC dropped the Eagles to No. 4 nationally while elevating the three-loss Tar Heels to No. 2.
That difference had a considerable reverberation throughout the national bracket. BC wound up playing Stony Brook in its NCAA Quarterfinals matchup in Newton, which in turn forced the Seawolves, as the only undefeated team, on the road before it could have played in a national semifinal at home.
UNC, meanwhile, wound up playing its way into a matchup with No. 3 James Madison in the national semifinal, won by the eventual national champion Dukes. If BC had been the No. 1 or No. 2 seed - or even the No. 3 - it would have altered the way those teams fell in line. James Madison might not have played UNC in the national semifinal and might have been forced to play Stony Brook, and UNC might have had to go through Maryland.
This year, BC and Maryland are the only two undefeated teams remaining, but there are a number of power conference teams with two and three losses, including Notre Dame, North Carolina and Syracuse. The Eagles could draw the Orange, who only lost by two to BC in an early-season matchup, as soon as Friday if both teams advance, while Notre Dame could play UNC.
The top eight teams in the NCAA Tournament host the First and Second Rounds, but only the top six teams receive automatic byes; teams ranked No. 7 and No. 8 host four-team brackets. In addition, five ACC teams made the bracket last year. So it all illustrates how important it is to keep winning at this stage of the season, even if BC is considered a lock for the NCAA Tournament.
*****
Pregame Quote & Prediction
Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation. Your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are. -John Wooden
Boston College enters the 2019 postseason with a reputation as a college lacrosse powerhouse. The Eagles are two-time defending national finalists, two-time ACC regular season champions and this year's wire-to-wire No. 1-ranked team. They have a Tewaaraton Trophy winner in Sam Apuzzo who is heavy favorite to win again after a 71-goal season. They have an offense with 299 goals and a defense capable of shutting opponents down. Everyone, it seems, is talking about how great this Boston College team could become.
The Eagles know how hard it is to win at this level, though. There are no free passes in the ACC, especially in the conference tournament. It's even tougher in the context of the national tournament. Several Boston College teams use the term "trophy season" to describe this time of year, but they all know how difficult it really is to secure hardware. Nothing is given. Everything is earned.
For BC, that road starts on Wednesday at Alumni Stadium.
Boston College and Louisville will meet in the Quarterfinals of the ACC Championship on Wednesday at 11 a.m. The game can be seen across the Raycom Sports Network, which can be seen locally in Massachusetts on NESN or NESN-Plus.
That feeling had an underlying purpose that the Eagles laid bare over the last two-plus months. It was about a burning desire to simply become better every day. The athletes, teammates, staff and coaches could "dream big," as long as they understood what it would take to achieve those hopes. It was about being told that they could be great, as long as they understood what it would take to live up to those statements.
Nearly three months later, the Eagles are, in a word, great. A second consecutive undefeated season stamped a wire-to-wire No. 1 national ranking. Challengers came from all directions, but the team met them all with a head-on ferocity that led to a second-straight regular season conference championship.
The accolades are well-earned and well-deserved, but that fire and burning still exists. Dreaming is about the future, after all, and while the past and present achievements are wonderful, there's still something more out there. There's still that next step.
That next step begins on Wednesday morning when the No. 1 Eagles will look to defend Alumni Stadium against the Louisville Cardinals in the ACC Championship. It's a rematch of the regular season finale, a 19-6 victory by BC on the same Alumni Stadium turf that this game will play out on. It's part of a hyper-competitive eight-team field that will crown a champion and, potentially, springboard a team to national glory.
Dreams exist so people can wonder about their potential. In sports, they drive just how hard teams work to make it to a particular level. If Boston College began the season dreaming big, it means it won't be content with simply being 17-0, and it won't be content to win a regular season championship. It will be a driven team for one more game, looking to continue dreaming for another day.
Here's what to watch for as the Eagles take on the Cardinals on Wednesday morning:
*****
Game Day Storylines
Quick Learners
It took all of six minutes for BC to put a little bit of distance between itself and Louisville in last week's game, and the three-goal start was part of a larger, 5-1 start in the first eight minutes. The Cardinals settled down after that, holding BC to a 9-4 halftime lead, but the Eagles exploded again in the early second half with ten unanswered goals. It made the two late-game Cardinal goals irrelevant as part of a larger, 19-6 final score.
The early time slot on Wednesday becomes imperative for that same level of aggressiveness. BC had 10 different goal scorers on Saturday and attacked from all sides. Cara Urbank scored the first goal but assisted on the second to Dempsey Arsenault, who finished with four goals in the first half and six overall. BC peppered the Louisville cage for 21 shots before the break and 40 overall, scoring on 5-of-8 free position chances.
None of that even touched the "superstars" of the BC roster. Kenzie Kent assisted on the first goal of the game but didn't need to do much for the rest fo the time. Sam Apuzzo had a goal and an assist but watched as her teammates scored the bulk of the goals. Both are threatening to finish the season with 100 or more points, but the added danger of Arsenault and Urbank - who have 52 and 41 goals apiece, respectively - creates a scenario where some of the potential impact players aren't even the "best players on the roster," even as they are some of the best players in the country.
It's a threatening brand of lacrosse can open up a fast start, which is incredibly important for the bracket's top seed. That's not to say a team would ease up or take its foot off the gas pedal, but sheer volume of depth allows other players to cycle into the game plan. That's invaluable given the quick turnaround, and it provides the right rest for the right players given the grueling nature of the postseason. There's always a game where the best players take over, but it comes as a result of other games where teammates get more involved.
No Neutrality
BC's offensive explosion came largely because of its ability to control the midfield. The Eagles won 21 draw controls, including 12 in the first half, while surrendering only five, and they went 16-of-19 on clear attempts. It continued a season-long trend where BC won almost two-thirds of its draws and had a clear success percentage rate just under 90%.
Controlling the center of the field between the two attacking zones is critically important to dictating game pace, and those two areas of the game tend to complement one another in that regard. Virginia Tech bettered BC in the circle in the second half of its game, a frame in which the teams played to a tie score as part of a larger Eagle victory. Â Duke, meanwhile, won 12-of-18 draw controls in the second half of its game but committed eight turnovers, enabling the Eagles to play perfection on clear attempts.
On the other side, owning the midfield helps prevent opponents from obtaining successful clears. BC went 21% against the ride this year, holding teams to a .791 clear percentage.
No Place Like Home
The host school for any conference tournament typically gains a small measure of home cooking, but there's nothing like playing a game in Boston in mid-April. The region has its own unique climate that changes almost daily, and it can be daunting for teams to adjust to the conditions that come with playing in the Northeast.
BC and Louisville, for example, played on Saturday in wet conditions under 60-plus degrees, a stark contrast from the 40-degree rawness that hit with rain during the early part of the week. The midweek will bring warmth and sunshine to the Quarterfinals, but the championship weekend will have a contrast of rain and cold against possible warmth. It feels like a bad joke, but there's a reason why "April showers bring May flowers" (which bring June allergies, but that's another story for another day).
Within those days are even more drastic temperature swings. The teams will wake up and prepare under breezy temperatures in the 40s before gusty winds bring the warmer temperatures for the early games. The later games will have colder, more breezy climates.
On top of all of that, the teams will play inside Alumni Stadium in BC's main campus instead of playing on Newton Campus, where BC usually hosts home games. That means everything teams know about playing at BC, from the field to the atmosphere to the way the wind hits the stadium, will be completely different.
The proverbial cherry on top is that BC played its last two regular season games at Alumni Stadium. During the team's run to the 2017 national championship game, it practiced at Harvard Stadium before playing at Gillette Stadium. Head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein told me that it gave the athletes a feel for playing under different lighting in a big stadium with a number of different distractions. Having played the last two games at Alumni Stadium, the Eagles have a distinct home field advantage for the conference tournament.
*****
Meteorology 101
Mother Nature pummeled the region with rain for the better part of the early weekdays, and the raw, New England cold settled in on Monday. It was scheduled to remain through most of Tuesday before the skies started to clear, and temperatures were expected to slowly head back towards the more enjoyable levels of spring by Wednesday.
Wednesday, though, is going to be one of those weird days. It's going to be cool in the morning, warm up by midday, then sink back into the 40s at night. It means the climate for the BC-Louisville game is likely going to be great, but the winds will pick up by the time Syracuse-Virginia ends and North Carolina-Virginia Tech begins. Dropping temperatures will likely make for a pretty cold Notre Dame-Duke game at the end of the night.
*****
Scoreboard Watching
The eight-team ACC field will not reseed during its bracket, so the winner of BC-Louisville automatically plays the winner of Syracuse-Virginia on Friday evening at 5 p.m, while the winners from UNC-Virginia Tech and Notre Dame-Duke play at 8 p.m. with the conference championship at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
Every single one of these games has a razor-thin margin of error because each of these teams can impact the national tournament. Last year, BC went into the championship game as an undefeated, 19-0 team and was likely bound for the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament. A loss to UNC dropped the Eagles to No. 4 nationally while elevating the three-loss Tar Heels to No. 2.
That difference had a considerable reverberation throughout the national bracket. BC wound up playing Stony Brook in its NCAA Quarterfinals matchup in Newton, which in turn forced the Seawolves, as the only undefeated team, on the road before it could have played in a national semifinal at home.
UNC, meanwhile, wound up playing its way into a matchup with No. 3 James Madison in the national semifinal, won by the eventual national champion Dukes. If BC had been the No. 1 or No. 2 seed - or even the No. 3 - it would have altered the way those teams fell in line. James Madison might not have played UNC in the national semifinal and might have been forced to play Stony Brook, and UNC might have had to go through Maryland.
This year, BC and Maryland are the only two undefeated teams remaining, but there are a number of power conference teams with two and three losses, including Notre Dame, North Carolina and Syracuse. The Eagles could draw the Orange, who only lost by two to BC in an early-season matchup, as soon as Friday if both teams advance, while Notre Dame could play UNC.
The top eight teams in the NCAA Tournament host the First and Second Rounds, but only the top six teams receive automatic byes; teams ranked No. 7 and No. 8 host four-team brackets. In addition, five ACC teams made the bracket last year. So it all illustrates how important it is to keep winning at this stage of the season, even if BC is considered a lock for the NCAA Tournament.
*****
Pregame Quote & Prediction
Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation. Your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are. -John Wooden
Boston College enters the 2019 postseason with a reputation as a college lacrosse powerhouse. The Eagles are two-time defending national finalists, two-time ACC regular season champions and this year's wire-to-wire No. 1-ranked team. They have a Tewaaraton Trophy winner in Sam Apuzzo who is heavy favorite to win again after a 71-goal season. They have an offense with 299 goals and a defense capable of shutting opponents down. Everyone, it seems, is talking about how great this Boston College team could become.
The Eagles know how hard it is to win at this level, though. There are no free passes in the ACC, especially in the conference tournament. It's even tougher in the context of the national tournament. Several Boston College teams use the term "trophy season" to describe this time of year, but they all know how difficult it really is to secure hardware. Nothing is given. Everything is earned.
For BC, that road starts on Wednesday at Alumni Stadium.
Boston College and Louisville will meet in the Quarterfinals of the ACC Championship on Wednesday at 11 a.m. The game can be seen across the Raycom Sports Network, which can be seen locally in Massachusetts on NESN or NESN-Plus.
Players Mentioned
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