Holy War Set for NCAA Quarterfinal

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – The No. 4 Boston College lacrosse team is set to take on No. 5 Notre Dame in the NCAA Quarterfinal on Saturday, May 22 at the Newton Lacrosse and Soccer Field at 3 p.m. The game will be shown live on ESPN3.

This is the third matchup between the two teams this season. BC won the first two matchups, 19-11 and 18-12 in Alumni Stadium.

SCOUTING THE IRISH
Notre Dame enters as the fifth seed in the NCAA Tournament. They are 11-6 and went 5-5 in the ACC. The Irish only have losses to top five teams - North Carolina (2x), Syracuse (2x) and Boston College (2x). The Irish have an incredibly balanced offense that averages 13.71 goals per game. They have four players with more than 45 points this season, led by Jackie Wolak (29G, 19A) with 48. Kasey Choma leads the team with 42 goals, while Maddie Howe and Madison Ahern have 33 and 30 goals, respectively. In goal, Bridget Deehan will be in goal, who is fifth in the nation with 157 saves this year. She has a 11.21 goals against average and a .464 save percentage.

SERIES HISTORY
BC leads the all-time series with Notre Dame, 10-8, with the Eagles taking the last game of the series, 18-12, on Saturday, April 17. The Irish and Eagles have played twice in 2020 with BC taking both games. BC outscored Notre Dame 37-23 in the two meetings. These teams have played every year since 2016 and BC has gone 6-1 in those meetings. The last Notre Dame win came in 2020 before the COVID shutout, 15-11, in South Bend, Indiana.

AWARDS SZN
The ACC announced 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.

USA Lacrosse Magazine released its 2021 All-Americans, headlined by Charlotte North on the first team. BC had five total selections, with Hollie Schleicher on the second team, Belle Smith on the third team, and Cara Urbank and Jenn Medjid as honorable mentions.

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 55 points on 41 goals and 14 assists. She has tied with 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 three goals back of Blue's record of 44 goals as a freshman.

In her second NCAA Tournament game of her career, North broke BC's record for goals in a NCAA Tournament game with eight against Temple. She now has 15 in the tournament, with the BC record being 21 by Kenzie Kent in 2017.

WHAT'S NEXT
The winner of this game takes on the winner of the North Carolina and Stony Brook matchup in the National Semifinal at Towson University on Friday, May 28.

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Players Mentioned

Jenn Medjid

Charlotte North

Hunter Roman

Sydney Scales

Hollie Schleicher

Belle Smith

Cara Urbank