Onto The Next After Chopping Down Stanford

Boston College arrived at its hotel in North Carolina on Tuesday night with bodies battered by a 60-minute postseason effort. The 3-2 victory over sixth-seeded Stanford sent the Eagles through to the ACC Tournament's semifinal round, but the less-than-24 hour turnaround loomed for players and coaches who spent the weekend readying themselves for the next phase of a resurgent season. Nationally ranked at No. 8 after finishing the season among the league's more elite teams, the first round game against the Cardinal represented a speed bump that BC couldn't take lightly.

Even after breaking out to a 2-0 lead, postseason hockey hit the Eagles a little bit differently in the first 30-plus minutes, BC found itself in a dogfight against one of the ACC's newest programs. The Cardinal understood the odds against them, but they battled the Eagles with an underdog mentality that forced BC to confront and strengthen its resolve for the single-elimination format. Answering the bell, the third-seeded team advanced with a 3-2 victory that solidified the reality that the road ahead only gets tougher with a looming matchup against second-seeded Duke.

"We had a good weekend of prep [for Stanford]," said head coach Kelly Doton, "and I think the energy was there. The team was in good spirits and going up 2-0 meant we had good pieces going with our corners. We had good ball movement with our attack, and defensively, we were really brilliant with our tackling and intercepting minds. Even in those two goals that Stanford score, I think it was more about a mental lapse for us, and if you lose your mark, you make a bad decision. It's a credit to Stanford that they kept fighting, and that's what I said after the game. They had a lot of fight in them, and that's the culture that they're building. That made for a lesson for us because we didn't play our best game by any means all season, but we figured out a way to win - which is what we're going to build on."

At a surface level, the matchup against the Cardinal offered intriguing subheadlines because of Stanford's recent postseason success as a mid-major program. Its history dotted the former NorPac conference before it began an affiliate membership with the America East Conference, and the bulk of its 18 national tournament appearances stemmed from routine finishes atop the league. Pairing with Cal and UC-Davis as a trio of outliers within the league allowed Stanford to avoid being marooned on the West Coast, but the changeover from Tara Danielson to Roz Ellis forced the team into a reboot that pushed it to eighth place during the 2023 season.

Realignment into the ACC intrigued long-term observers and prognosticators, but the conference known for its top-heavy and elitist tier kept Stanford in sixth place after the Cardinal failed to beat all but one existing league team. A 1-0 over Wake Forest ensured a head-to-head tiebreaker win over the Demon Deacons, and the subsequent win over Cal was enough to force the team into its postseason matchup against a BC team that finished with lone losses against North Carolina and Duke - the two top seeds.

None of that intimidated the Stanford team, but goals by Martina Giacchino and Madelief Grandjean put the Cardinal in a hole caused by a shift towards BC's overall momentum. The Eagles spent the first two periods peppering the Stanford cage with a 10-2 shot advantage, and after owning a 6-0 advantage on penalty corners, a foul-less BC team continued boiling the Cardinal with an 8-4 shot advantage and 8-0 edge on corners in the second half.

"Our defense is going to dictate how far we go in this tournament and, hopefully, in the NCAA Tournament," conceded Doton. "When we press the way that we can, with energy and pressure, other teams feel it. They turn the ball over and don't have the goal scoring ability when they're tired. I think we have moments of brilliance where our tackles and interceptions create counterattacks, but a bad bounce here or there forced us to lose our mark - and all of a sudden, they put the ball in the cage."

Yoni Zhon's ninth goal of the season ensured Stanford wouldn't achieve the Herculean upset on the tournament's first day, but BC understood that film from Tuesday night only gets the team to a certain point ahead of its semifinal matchup against Duke. The short turnaround aside, the Blue Devils play a different style from the Cardinal and are loaded with the kind of playmakers who would make the team pay a tariff on recovering from a mistake in any normal game situation.

That was the case, at least, when BC lost a 1-0 decision in its mid-October trip to Tobacco Road. In what had been billed as a weekend swing capable of moving the Eagles into a top spot nationally, a tie game against the Blue Devils slipped in the first two minutes of the second half when a mental lapse broke a shot attempt into the back of BC's cage. The ping pong shot was the lone difference in a matchup against a team averaging less than one goal allowed per game, and it rang through the Eagles as they boarded their bus for another night at the league tournament in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

"The goal that was scored was a free hit," said Doton. "It was just outside the circle and got smashed sideboard in the circle. It hit one of our players, but it still went in, and that doesn't happen if we're staying engaged and understanding the situation that's going on. They take quick free hits, and their gamesmanship knowledge is very good. They're fit, they're fast, and they're one of the better ACC teams, and they're definitely one of the better teams in the country. They have a great goal scorer in Alaina McVeigh, and we need to know, like we did during the regular season, where she is. Our midfield is going to be tired after tomorrow because their midfield is very good. So we'll see what happens."

Third-seeded BC and second-seeded Duke play the second semifinal matchup on Wednesday and is tentatively scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m .from Kentner Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It directly follows the first semifinal between top-seeded North Carolina and fifth-seeded Syracuse, which advanced by beating California and Virginia, respectively.

All games are televised on the ACC Network with the championship game scheduled for Friday afternoon at 12 p.m., also on ACC Network.

Onto The Next After Chopping Down Stanford

Players Mentioned

Martina Giacchino

Madelief Grandjean

Related Videos