W2WF: NCAA Semifinals vs. North Carolina

Every sports team wants the undeniable pressure of expectations. The ability to win often enough that it becomes almost mundane is a sign of the ultimate success, and it's what every coach lives and breathes when laying foundations at every level. A legacy is created with a banner, but it's defined by the ability to do it over and over again.

Boston College lacrosse head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein brought that vision with her when she accepted her position. She wanted to make this program's success an annual rite of passage. She played at a powerhouse like Maryland and coached alongside national champions at Northwestern, but BC offered her the ability to create that at a program nestled in the lacrosse hotbed of the Northeast. It became something of a personal mission emblazoned in her motto: Dream Big.

Seven years later, a matter of inches now separates reality from that dream. She's won well over 110 games with the Eagles and established the program as a true national powerhouse. The program has become an extension of a family with its fan base, uniting to represent the individual along with the institutions.

The last two years pushed BC to the top of the national radar. The Eagles have more wins over that span than any other program in Division I, including the vaunted Maryland Terrapins, and haven't lost a regular season game. The team produced a Tewaaraton Award for Sam Apuzzo last year, a feat she seems likely to replicate this year after breaking her own scoring records.

There have been national accolades for the individual and the team, and at first glance, these really are the best of times to be associated with Boston College lacrosse. The dream was big, and the reality is getting bigger. But there's still that one missing piece, that inch gap in between the two, that everyone knows will keep the two apart: a national championship.

This weekend, BC lacrosse will attempt to exorcise its past by facing it head-on. Up first is a North Carolina team that represents two of the team's three losses over the last two seasons. Both times, it's been a postseason disappointment after a regular season victory. On Friday, the Eagles will look to gain the ultimate upper hand in a battle between the ACC's Hatfields and McCoys.

"There's a lot of great teams that are out there, but we feel we've earned (this right)," UNC head coach Jenny Levy said. "We had a tough schedule and a tough ACC schedule, and we're going to see another tough ACC opponent on Friday when we play Boston College (for the third time)."

The rivalry between the two schools is now well-documented, and this is the seventh matchup over a three-season span. This one will mean more, though, because of its location and its meaning to the pinnacle of the sport.

"It's about controlling our emotions," Walker-Weinstein said. "The girls get so excited, and they can play too fast. It's a good thing. There's no dull moment, and we don't have a problem about getting excited for games. (But) it's an emotional thing. It's about playing steady and waiting for the right opportunities. We just have to run through the motions. That's how you control it."

BC's past success created a groundswell of expectation about making it back to this point. Now it's about the next step, which can sometimes be the hardest one to take. The Eagles have to address the blue shadow lurking on the other sideline before they can look at the national championship game. Eradicating the difference between dream and reality depends on it.

Here's what to watch for in the rubber match between the Tar Heels and Eagles down in Maryland:

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Game Day Storylines

Remember the Alamo

Any team successful enough to play in a Final Four is capable of winning the national championship, so it's important for BC to recognize how it has no aura of invincibility, if it needed any reminder at all. That's especially true against UNC, the only team to beat the Eagles this season.

The two meetings are stark contrasts of one another. BC's defense smothered the Tar Heels in the teams' first game and held an extremely potent attack to three second-half goals as part of a 14-8 victory. That changed in the second meeting when UNC scored eight times in the second half but imposed its own defensive will against the heralded Eagle attack.

Part of that came from a switch in goal during the ACC Championship. Taylor Moreno played the entire game against BC in the matchup in Chapel Hill, but the Tar Heels made a switch early partway through the first half after the Eagles started piling up goals. Elise Hennessy came on and sparked the defensive unit from there, enabling the team to win from behind.

"We have two really good goaltenders in Taylor Moreno and Elise Hennessy," Levy said. "Elise showed what she could do during the ACC weekend. Sometimes goalies just have to rest, and during the game against BC, we let in six really quick, easy goals. Sometimes it's not the goalie's fault, but we felt like we had to make a switch to wake our defense up."

The experience against goaltenders will prove vital since the BC attack is particularly strong. Sam Apuzzo scored five goals against UNC in the first game but was held to three in the postseason tournament. Likewise, Kenzie Kent only had two goals and an assist in the ACC final but had three assists in BC's win.

"Defense is really difficult to play in women's lacrosse," Levy said. "You're going to get scored on and make mistakes, so it's about how you make adjustments and respond to (those mistakes)."

Checkmate

The Tar Heels might employ a system defense, but the real chess match is going to fall to a one-on-one matchup of Sam Apuzzo against defender Emma Trenchard. The sophomore drew the primary assignment against the senior in the postseason and is already providing the backbone for her team against some of the best scorers in the nation.

"Emma Trenchard has been a lockdown defender all year," Levy said. "I'm really impressed with her between the ears. The difference between good and great is what you bring mentally to the game in practice and in games. She competes fearlessly, and she doesn't get rattled by a matchup. She doesn't overthink things and plays instinctually."

Trenchard's presence will require BC to hit the attack button on full throttle. The unit seemingly finds new ways to score goals and introduce new layers of fluid creativity during every game. If Apuzzo is going to score early, it means someone else will get involved at some point, and it might force Trenchard to shift or take a different assignment.

There's no secret to either team, and the loss forced BC to return to practice in order to find new dynamicism. The Eagles subsequently torched Colorado and Princeton in their two NCAA Tournament games. So to say the loss woke them up is an understatement, and it's obvious the team will bring its best effort on the biggest stage.

"It was exciting to refresh our X's and O's on offense," Walker-Weinstein said. "That's been fun for the girls. We made some really good tweaks in terms of the science that (assistant coach Kayla Treanor) has the draw down to. We're excited to go full throttle behind those (changes)."

Don't You Forget About Me

The BC offense-vs.-UNC defense battle makes for a nice headliner, but the undercard bout between the BC defense and the UNC attack could be an even better brawl. The Tar Heel attack produced two entirely different types of games in the first two meetings this year, and both give clues of how to defend against an equally-smothering seven.

Katie Hoeg and Gianna Bowe, for example, each scored three goals in the ACC game but were held to one combined goal in BC's regular season victory. The defense held Hoeg off the scoresheet in that game, though she did have four assists, and UNC only produced two multi-goal scorers that game.

Lacrosse is unique because attackers come from all sides. If one side doesn't work, a unit can shift and move players anywhere to get opportunities open. Holding a scorer off the chart altogether requires incredible teamwork and immense dedication to a system. So there's a listen to learn from that BC victory back during the season.

"We want to play as a team on defense and build on that game we had last time (against UNC)," Walker-Weinstein said. "We (lost because) we were playing that game way too emotional, and we have to maintain steady heads. That's something that's helped us since this senior class came here (to BC). That's a character trait of BC women's lacrosse (in general), so we're just excited to make some (tactical) changes and additions and put them into play against UNC again."

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Meteorology 101

Friday is going to have picture perfect conditions in the Mid-Atlantic portion of the United States. Temperatures are going to creep up over 80 degrees in the afternoon, which should bake out the surface at Johns Hopkins University's Homewood Field. Once the temperatures start to come down a little bit, the perfect Baltimore day will welcome the four team combatants to the field.

No rain is in the forecast at all this weekend, which will make for a beautiful day to walk around the Inner Harbor in the morning. I just took a trip down to Baltimore earlier this month and fell in love with that part of the city. The Red Sox lost to the Orioles, though, which maintains a rather dubious distinction of mine that I never see my home team win on the road.

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Scoreboard Watching

The BC-UNC game is one of two championship game rematches in the Final Four and precedes the Big Ten matchup between Maryland and Northwestern.

The Eagles and Terrapins are the top two seeds in the tournament but both entered the NCAA Tournament with one loss that came in their respective conference championships to a team they beat earlier in the season on the road. Maryland beat Northwestern in Evanston by four, 17-13, scoring 10 second-half goals after entering halftime with a tie score.

The teams would rematch in the Big Ten Tournament at the same Homewood Field on which they will play on Friday. In that game, the Wildcats steamrolled through the first half, scoring four of the game's first five goals and opening up leads of 6-2 and 10-4. The Terps scored seven times in the second half, but Northwestern coasted to a 16-11 victory to win the conference tournament crown.

The NCAA knew these teams could meet again for instant classics in the Final Four, so the selection committee gave them the top four seeds. They all held serve in their respective opening games and into the quarterfinals, setting a stage for one last, ultimate battle at JHU. It's rare that the seeding works out so perfectly, and the committee clearly had the foresight to believe this could - and ultimately would - happen, creating some really compelling storylines.

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Pregame Quote and Prediction Time

Competing at the highest level is not about winning. It's about preparation, courage, understanding and nurturing your people, and heart. Winning is the result. -Joe Torre

Getting to the Final Four is a huge accomplishment. Getting to consecutive Final Fours is even more impressive. Getting to three straight makes a college program one of the brightest lights in its sport. That's what Boston College lacrosse is becoming, and that's because of the players, families, supporters and everyone else who rallied around the coaches' vision.

But there's the quest for something more. This team, more than ever, seems completely honed in on the task at hand. All of the wins leading to this point felt great, and the players shared an exhilarating celebration. They carried an undeniable feeling of pure joy. There's still unfinished business, though, and if BC wants to achieve the dream to turn it into reality, it will have to go through UNC to do it.

These teams have played twice already with a split. The rubber match occurs on the game's grandest stage. It's one of those moments that needs no superfluous adjectives, and the teams themselves need no introduction to one another. It's the Maroon and Gold of Massachusetts against the Tar Heel Blue of Tobacco Road. It's the greatest rivalry going in women's lacrosse, and it decides who plays for a national championship.

Nothing gets better than that.

No. 2 Boston College and No. 3 North Carolina will play at Homewood Field on the campus of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD. at 5 p.m. on Friday evening. The game will be broadcast via ESPNEWS and seen via the ESPN online streaming platform of apps.

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