Boston College Athletics
Photo by: John Quackenbos
Fairytale Ending Gives BC Another Shot At National Glory
May 28, 2022 | Lacrosse, #ForBoston Files
The Eagles advanced to their fifth straight national championship in typical, dramatic fashion.
Seven minutes remained in the fourth quarter when an unthinkable thought bubbled to the surface under the Boston College lacrosse team. No. 2 Maryland had just scored a woman-up goal to retake a three-goal lead against the defending national champions, and a clear electricity permeated through a Baltimore-based crowd hoping to celebrate a hometown championship. Earlier in the afternoon, the Big Ten lost a chance at its all-conference title game when North Carolina rallied from an impossible deficit to beat Northwestern. An all-ACC game and a third meeting between the Tar Heels and BC? That wasn't going to happen.
Having called timeout to regroup her team, head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein recognized that moment as she spoke to her team. Her voice held urgency, and her strategy conveyed a need to work and score quickly. Outsiders could have easily mistaken the tone for panic, and as ESPN cameras zoomed in on the BC huddle, her body language, which reinforced how to move fast, would have reinforced that perception.
The atmosphere supported those observations, but truth laid bare that the timeout instead converted despair into determination. BC never lost its edge, and after a quick free position opportunity cut Maryland's lead to two, the Eagles hit the gas pedal to storm back on the Terrapins. Unanswered goals moved the lead from two to one before BC tied the game at 16-16, and after a turnover in front of the BC cage, a whistle and a flawless ride transformed into the nightmare for the hometown Terps.
Charlotte North found Caitlynn Mossman, who in turn passed to Cassidy Weeks in front of the Maryland cage. Weeks cradled and shot, and as the ball rocketed into the back of the net, a 17-16 lead exploded the BC faithful with 18.8 seconds on the clock. A chaotic finish expired the clock along with any hope for a hometown celebration, and with it went the hope of unseating the national champion before the final game of the 2022 season.
"I'm so proud of our girls," Walker-Weinstein said. "It was such a tough game for 60 minutes. Maryland gave us literally everything we could handle. They were exactly who we thought they were: so smart, so athletic, fast-paced. Their tempo was difficult to defend, and [they are] obviously well-coached. I admire Cathy [Reese]. She was my coach, and I admire everything she's done there. I'm [just] proud of our girls that they stuck it out until the very end. It was a great team win, and I'm just really proud of them."
Advancing to any national championship game takes a certain combination of luck and skill, but Friday felt like BC rediscovering a cracked code to defeat top-flight programs playing at their very best. In 2018, it was Sam Apuzzo playing the role of the hero when she scored twice across 45 seconds to unbreak a 13-13 tie against this same Maryland team, though the defense, which allowed the game-tying goal with 14:47 remaining in the second half, denied the Terrapins of a goal for the rest of the game.
Apuzzo was more definitively the hero the next year when she scored a double-overtime goal immediately after a draw control win in a tie game against North Carolina. Kara Klages had scored to put the Tar Heels ahead with under fou minutes remaining in the second half, but two BC goals pinballed the lead back to the Eagles before Jamie Ortega re-tied the game with 1:04 left on the clock.
Both of those differed from BC's second half rally past Navy in 2017, and Friday offered a different perspective on how the Eagles dissected a team en route to another national championship berth. Nearly everyone on the Maryland team kept eyes on Charlotte North, the defending Tewaaraton Award winner, but instead of rolling from behind the cage, the NCAA career goals record holder dished to Mossmann. The stunned Maryland defense almost over-committed to that pass, and Weeks found herself with more than enough space to drill a team-based goal into the back of the net.
"At the end of the game, I knew that anyone on our team could score," Weeks said. "Everyone was ready for the moment. I just saw the chance [and] the opening."
"On the sideline, [she] survived a triple team coming up the field," Walker-Weinstein added, "and I debated subbing her for a minute. There were four minutes [left], so I didn't make the call. I looked at her twin sister [Courtney] and asked [if her] sister needed a break. She said no. Thirty seconds later, she scored the winning goal.
"I think [late game rallies] show that even when we were down, the whole team believed," said the coach. "Looking into their eyes in the huddle, they were so composed, it was almost alarming. They were just prepared for anything."
The victory allowed BC to exult in another trip - its fifth straight - to the national championship game. It improved to a perfect 5-0 in semifinal games, all of which were decided by one goal with the two-point exception against Maryland in 2018, and matched a feat recorded by the Terps when they advanced to five straight national championship games between 2013-2017.
Those two streaks border Northwestern's eight straight championship game appearances, and the teams involved in those records undeniably moved the Eagles closer to the lofty company they once sought to echo. All three were part of the star-studded Final Four field, though the Wildcats, who led UNC for the majority of their rain-soaked afternoon at Johns Hopkins, lost to the Tar Heels after a ridiculous, seven-goal comeback.
Their win moved the No. 1 seed into the national championship game for the first time since No. 1 Maryland beat No. 2 BC in 2019 and established a third matchup between the two ACC rivals. In both of the first meetups this year, UNC won, resulting in two of the Eagles' three defeats, but their win on Friday helped construct an all-ACC final for the second straight year.
BC defeated Syracuse in last year's title game, which itself was the first time two teams from the same conference met in the championship game since 2014 when Maryland, then a member of the ACC, played the Orange. That year followed a triple-overtime, all-ACC final won by UNC, 13-12.
"It's anyone's game," said senior Jenn Medjid. "We played them twice and lost to them both times, but I think we've learned so much from both of those losses. I think we are really excited for this third time."
BC and UNC will face off in the 2022 NCAA Division I Women's Lacrosse National Championship on Sunday at 12 p.m. from Homewood Field in Baltimore, Maryland. For the first time, the national championship game will appear on ESPN proper with broadcast simulcast on the network's online platform for cable subscribers.
Having called timeout to regroup her team, head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein recognized that moment as she spoke to her team. Her voice held urgency, and her strategy conveyed a need to work and score quickly. Outsiders could have easily mistaken the tone for panic, and as ESPN cameras zoomed in on the BC huddle, her body language, which reinforced how to move fast, would have reinforced that perception.
The atmosphere supported those observations, but truth laid bare that the timeout instead converted despair into determination. BC never lost its edge, and after a quick free position opportunity cut Maryland's lead to two, the Eagles hit the gas pedal to storm back on the Terrapins. Unanswered goals moved the lead from two to one before BC tied the game at 16-16, and after a turnover in front of the BC cage, a whistle and a flawless ride transformed into the nightmare for the hometown Terps.
Charlotte North found Caitlynn Mossman, who in turn passed to Cassidy Weeks in front of the Maryland cage. Weeks cradled and shot, and as the ball rocketed into the back of the net, a 17-16 lead exploded the BC faithful with 18.8 seconds on the clock. A chaotic finish expired the clock along with any hope for a hometown celebration, and with it went the hope of unseating the national champion before the final game of the 2022 season.
"I'm so proud of our girls," Walker-Weinstein said. "It was such a tough game for 60 minutes. Maryland gave us literally everything we could handle. They were exactly who we thought they were: so smart, so athletic, fast-paced. Their tempo was difficult to defend, and [they are] obviously well-coached. I admire Cathy [Reese]. She was my coach, and I admire everything she's done there. I'm [just] proud of our girls that they stuck it out until the very end. It was a great team win, and I'm just really proud of them."
Advancing to any national championship game takes a certain combination of luck and skill, but Friday felt like BC rediscovering a cracked code to defeat top-flight programs playing at their very best. In 2018, it was Sam Apuzzo playing the role of the hero when she scored twice across 45 seconds to unbreak a 13-13 tie against this same Maryland team, though the defense, which allowed the game-tying goal with 14:47 remaining in the second half, denied the Terrapins of a goal for the rest of the game.
Apuzzo was more definitively the hero the next year when she scored a double-overtime goal immediately after a draw control win in a tie game against North Carolina. Kara Klages had scored to put the Tar Heels ahead with under fou minutes remaining in the second half, but two BC goals pinballed the lead back to the Eagles before Jamie Ortega re-tied the game with 1:04 left on the clock.
Both of those differed from BC's second half rally past Navy in 2017, and Friday offered a different perspective on how the Eagles dissected a team en route to another national championship berth. Nearly everyone on the Maryland team kept eyes on Charlotte North, the defending Tewaaraton Award winner, but instead of rolling from behind the cage, the NCAA career goals record holder dished to Mossmann. The stunned Maryland defense almost over-committed to that pass, and Weeks found herself with more than enough space to drill a team-based goal into the back of the net.
"At the end of the game, I knew that anyone on our team could score," Weeks said. "Everyone was ready for the moment. I just saw the chance [and] the opening."
"On the sideline, [she] survived a triple team coming up the field," Walker-Weinstein added, "and I debated subbing her for a minute. There were four minutes [left], so I didn't make the call. I looked at her twin sister [Courtney] and asked [if her] sister needed a break. She said no. Thirty seconds later, she scored the winning goal.
"I think [late game rallies] show that even when we were down, the whole team believed," said the coach. "Looking into their eyes in the huddle, they were so composed, it was almost alarming. They were just prepared for anything."
The victory allowed BC to exult in another trip - its fifth straight - to the national championship game. It improved to a perfect 5-0 in semifinal games, all of which were decided by one goal with the two-point exception against Maryland in 2018, and matched a feat recorded by the Terps when they advanced to five straight national championship games between 2013-2017.
Those two streaks border Northwestern's eight straight championship game appearances, and the teams involved in those records undeniably moved the Eagles closer to the lofty company they once sought to echo. All three were part of the star-studded Final Four field, though the Wildcats, who led UNC for the majority of their rain-soaked afternoon at Johns Hopkins, lost to the Tar Heels after a ridiculous, seven-goal comeback.
Their win moved the No. 1 seed into the national championship game for the first time since No. 1 Maryland beat No. 2 BC in 2019 and established a third matchup between the two ACC rivals. In both of the first meetups this year, UNC won, resulting in two of the Eagles' three defeats, but their win on Friday helped construct an all-ACC final for the second straight year.
BC defeated Syracuse in last year's title game, which itself was the first time two teams from the same conference met in the championship game since 2014 when Maryland, then a member of the ACC, played the Orange. That year followed a triple-overtime, all-ACC final won by UNC, 13-12.
"It's anyone's game," said senior Jenn Medjid. "We played them twice and lost to them both times, but I think we've learned so much from both of those losses. I think we are really excited for this third time."
BC and UNC will face off in the 2022 NCAA Division I Women's Lacrosse National Championship on Sunday at 12 p.m. from Homewood Field in Baltimore, Maryland. For the first time, the national championship game will appear on ESPN proper with broadcast simulcast on the network's online platform for cable subscribers.
Players Mentioned
Wednesday, October 07
Wednesday, October 07
Monday, October 05
Saturday, October 03
