No. 4 Eagles Open NCAA Tournament with Fairfield

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – The fourth-seeded Boston College lacrosse team opens the 2021 NCAA Tournament at the Newton Lacrosse and Soccer Field on Friday, May 14 against Fairfield at 1 p.m. The game will be streamed live on ESPN3.

SCOUTING THE STAGS
Fairfield enters the NCAA Tournament as the auto-bid from the MAAC after winning their third-straight conference championship. They have a 13-1 record, with the lone loss coming to Siena in the regular season and avenging that loss in the conference title game. Leading the offense is Kelly Horning (36G, 10A) and Meaghan Graham (30G, 16A), who both have 46 points. They have a balanced offense with six players with more than 25 points and 20 goals this season. Their draw unit is led by Horning and Nicollette LaVista, who have 53 and 49 draws this year, respectively. In goal, Olivia Conquest has started every game this season and has a 13-0 record. She boasts a .492 save percentage and has a 10.09 goals against average.

OFFENSIVE FIREPOWER
Averaging 16.5 goals per game, BC has one of the most potent offenses in the nation. They sit seventh in the country and lead the ACC, while also being second in the nation in shooting percentage at .526. BC is nearly on pace to tie the record for goals per game in a single season. In 2019, when BC scored 404 in 24 games, they averaged 16.88 per game. The Eagles are also eighth in the nation with 23.50 points per game, which is second in the ACC.

MAKE IT, TAKE IT LACROSSE
BC has one of the best draw units in the country, averaging 18.19 per game, which ranks fourth in the country and leads the ACC. The unit is led by Charlotte North, who is seventh in the country and second in the ACC with 8.81 draws per game. The Eagles are the only group in the ACC to have three players in the top-10 in draw controls in the conference. Hollie Schleicher is fifth in the ACC with 4.25 draws per game and Cara Urbank is getting 3.44.

AWARDS SZN
The ACC announced this week its All-ACC teams, picking the first and second teams, as well as a new ACC All-Freshman Team. BC had seven selected to the three teams, led by Charlotte North, Belle Smith and Hollie Schleicher on the first team. It was the first time any of these three were named to the first team. Smith was the only freshman on either the first or second team. On the second team is Cara Urbank and Jenn Medjid. This was Urbank's second time being named to the All-ACC second team (2019) and Medjid's first time being selected. On the freshman team is Smith, Hunter Roman and Sydney Scales. BC was the only team with three on the freshman team. Smith and North were named to the ACC All-Tournament Team.

RECORDS ARE MADE TO BE BROKEN
At the beginning of the 2021 season, Sam Apuzzo stood alone as BC's single-game goal scorer with nine against Navy in 2018. Against Louisville on March 28, Jenn Medjid tied that mark, scoring nine goals (including seven in the first half) to tie Apuzzo's record. Not even two weeks later, Charlotte North had one of the best single-game performances in BC history, scoring 10 goals on 13 shots to break Apuzzo's record. She also added an assist, 13 draw controls and three caused turnovers against Virginia Tech.

On the verge of breaking a record is Belle Smith, who has 51 points on 39 goals and 12 assists. She's just four points back of Covie Stanwick and Brooke Blue's freshman record for points in a season of 55. Smith has been one of the best goal-scoring freshmen that BC has seen and is five goals back of Blue's record of 44 goals as a freshman.

WHAT'S NEXT
If BC wins, they'll face the winner of UMass/Temple on Sunday, May 16 at 1 p.m. in Newton, Massachusetts.

No. 4 Eagles Open NCAA Tournament with Fairfield

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Players Mentioned

Sam Apuzzo

Jenn Medjid

Charlotte North

Hunter Roman

Sydney Scales

Hollie Schleicher

Belle Smith

Cara Urbank