Boston College Athletics
Photo by: Nick Green
Game On, Long Island
May 10, 2026 | Lacrosse, #ForBoston Files
Mother's Day matchup echoes the ghosts of past tournaments.
When the 2026 NCAA Women's Lacrosse Tournament field was unveiled, one potential second-round matchup immediately stood out: Boston College Eagles women's lacrosse versus Stony Brook Seawolves women's lacrosse at LaValle Stadium on Long Island.
The path was straightforward. Stony Brook entered the tournament as the No. 5 national seed after winning another CAA title and extending its NCAA Tournament streak to 13 consecutive appearances. Boston College lacrosse, unusually unseeded after a turbulent regular season, drew Yale in the opening round.Â
Once Stony Brook vanquished NEC champion Stonehill and the Eagles upended the Ivy League regular season champions, the possibility of watching the teams meet in the second round, on a home field that's right in the middle of a home network for both teams, transformed into reality.
Instantaneously, the memories from BC's 12-11, sudden-victory overtime win in 2018 - an immortal game in women's lacrosse history - bubbled to the surface.
"It was crazy," said head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein after beating the Seawolves to advance to BC's second-ever Final Four. "We had to use everything to beat Stony Brook. A lot of things we were doing weren't working because it's such a good team. We had to keep thinking on our feet and make plays on our feet."
It was a completely different world than the one arriving on Sunday afternoon, with Stony Brook arriving at the NCAA Tournament with the weight of perfection. Unbeaten at 19-0 ahead of tournament play, experts widely viewed the Seawolves as the sport's emerging power outside the traditional blueblood hierarchy, and easily dispatching Penn in the Second Round sent Joe Spallina's to Newton Campus with genuine championship expectations after advancing to the NCAA Quarterfinal one year earlier.Â
A win over BC was partially expected, especially since the upcoming 2018 Final Four was scheduled for LaValle Stadium on Long Island. Given the bracket setup, that one game - that one hiccup in the Quarterfinals - stood as the only time that the Seawolves would have to travel away from their campus before returning to New York for the sport's biggest stage on their own campus.
The rare convergence of facing the top-ranked Eagles therefore created a situation for a team rapidly growing its national profile ahead of a championship weekend at home, but like any good story in sports, the dramatic foil on the opposite sideline stood as a looming and growing megalith in its own right.
BC, after all, knew exactly how it felt to play for a championship on its home soil after advancing to the previous year's national championship weekend at Gillette Stadium in nearby Foxborough. For the first time, head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein's crew was a favorite after powering its team with one of the most explosive offenses in the nation, and a program mentality entrenched in embracing pressure-packed moments allowed the Eagles to easily pass through Princeton after the Tigers upset Syracuse in the First Round. Having been dropped to No. 4 after losing to North Carolina in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship final produced an equally-large chip on the team's shoulder, especially since Stony Brook appeared as an undefeated titan on the other side of the bracket.
Facing one another delivered everything expected from two growing, heavyweight teams. A rain-soaked and saturated Newton Campus field intimately provided the backdrop for a wild see-saw affair that first saw BC open a three-goal lead in the first half before Stony Brook rallied for a 7-6 advantage at the break.Â
BC struggled to gain traction, and Ally Kennedy's goal staked the Seawolves to a three-goal lead with under 16 minutes remaining in the second half. Understanding the moment, the Eagles then transformed back to its blue-collar roots by using stick work and passing ahead of its normal fast-paced and lightning-based attack. Tess Chandler would score twice, including a final goal with 3:39 remaining in the game, while the defense slipped back onto goalkeeper Lauren Daly for a final save with two seconds remaining in regulation.
The grueling pace then droned into two overtimes, but 100 seconds after winning a draw control to start a second frame, Sam Apuzzo found Dempsey Arsenault for a one-touch slam past Stony Brook goalkeeper Anna Tesoriero. Cold, soaked and exhausted, the amassed intimate crowd of nearly 1,000 fans went delirious, a one-goal survival sending BC to Long Island while Stony Brook watched its unbeaten season evaporate in heartbreaking fashion.
"I am so proud of these girls," said Walker-Weinstein after the game. "We threw some things at them that they've never done. They've been doing that all year long. They were smart and locked in. They stayed level-headed when we were down and level-headed when we were up. I'm just so happy."
Context from that game helps provide full awareness for Sunday's Mother's Day meetup. Eight years ago, BC was an upstart program that hadn't quite reached its potential while Stony Brook expected to break through and surge to a Final Four berth on home soil. This time, BC is the battle-tested dynasty with a championship pedigree while the Seawolves are a favored team with a 13-game winning streak and a top-5 seed in the national tournament.
The Eagles have been uncharacteristically up-and-down compared to the past decade, and the losses and numbers surrounding the 2026 season staggered in comparison to an eight-year run as the nation's top powerhouse. Yet nobody in the bracket - and certainly not a team that hasn't faced an ACC team all season - could be eager to see a team with eight consecutive Final Fours and two national championships on the other side of the bracket.Â
Maybe that's why this game feels bigger. Eight years ago, Boston College continued its springboard to a national championship by beating Stony Brook. The Eagles dominate recruiting on Long Island to the degree that this is home territory for a team from Massachusetts, and the civil war-like atmosphere crosses into backgrounds and hometowns against a team that's legitimately situated among the central enclaves and New York neighborhoods.
They've met more than once over the years, but the collision course for Sunday is exactly how the national tournament planners hoped: Boston College and Stony Brook, one more time, for a trip to the next round of the NCAA Tournament.
Boston College and No. 5 Stony Brook are set to play in the Second Round of the 2026 NCAA Division I Women's Lacrosse Championship on Sunday, May 10, from LaValle Stadium in Stony Brook, New York. Opening draw time is set for 12 p.m. with television coverage slotted for the ESPN-Plus streaming service available through the network's family of Internet and mobile device apps.
The path was straightforward. Stony Brook entered the tournament as the No. 5 national seed after winning another CAA title and extending its NCAA Tournament streak to 13 consecutive appearances. Boston College lacrosse, unusually unseeded after a turbulent regular season, drew Yale in the opening round.Â
Once Stony Brook vanquished NEC champion Stonehill and the Eagles upended the Ivy League regular season champions, the possibility of watching the teams meet in the second round, on a home field that's right in the middle of a home network for both teams, transformed into reality.
Instantaneously, the memories from BC's 12-11, sudden-victory overtime win in 2018 - an immortal game in women's lacrosse history - bubbled to the surface.
"It was crazy," said head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein after beating the Seawolves to advance to BC's second-ever Final Four. "We had to use everything to beat Stony Brook. A lot of things we were doing weren't working because it's such a good team. We had to keep thinking on our feet and make plays on our feet."
It was a completely different world than the one arriving on Sunday afternoon, with Stony Brook arriving at the NCAA Tournament with the weight of perfection. Unbeaten at 19-0 ahead of tournament play, experts widely viewed the Seawolves as the sport's emerging power outside the traditional blueblood hierarchy, and easily dispatching Penn in the Second Round sent Joe Spallina's to Newton Campus with genuine championship expectations after advancing to the NCAA Quarterfinal one year earlier.Â
A win over BC was partially expected, especially since the upcoming 2018 Final Four was scheduled for LaValle Stadium on Long Island. Given the bracket setup, that one game - that one hiccup in the Quarterfinals - stood as the only time that the Seawolves would have to travel away from their campus before returning to New York for the sport's biggest stage on their own campus.
The rare convergence of facing the top-ranked Eagles therefore created a situation for a team rapidly growing its national profile ahead of a championship weekend at home, but like any good story in sports, the dramatic foil on the opposite sideline stood as a looming and growing megalith in its own right.
BC, after all, knew exactly how it felt to play for a championship on its home soil after advancing to the previous year's national championship weekend at Gillette Stadium in nearby Foxborough. For the first time, head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein's crew was a favorite after powering its team with one of the most explosive offenses in the nation, and a program mentality entrenched in embracing pressure-packed moments allowed the Eagles to easily pass through Princeton after the Tigers upset Syracuse in the First Round. Having been dropped to No. 4 after losing to North Carolina in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship final produced an equally-large chip on the team's shoulder, especially since Stony Brook appeared as an undefeated titan on the other side of the bracket.
Facing one another delivered everything expected from two growing, heavyweight teams. A rain-soaked and saturated Newton Campus field intimately provided the backdrop for a wild see-saw affair that first saw BC open a three-goal lead in the first half before Stony Brook rallied for a 7-6 advantage at the break.Â
BC struggled to gain traction, and Ally Kennedy's goal staked the Seawolves to a three-goal lead with under 16 minutes remaining in the second half. Understanding the moment, the Eagles then transformed back to its blue-collar roots by using stick work and passing ahead of its normal fast-paced and lightning-based attack. Tess Chandler would score twice, including a final goal with 3:39 remaining in the game, while the defense slipped back onto goalkeeper Lauren Daly for a final save with two seconds remaining in regulation.
The grueling pace then droned into two overtimes, but 100 seconds after winning a draw control to start a second frame, Sam Apuzzo found Dempsey Arsenault for a one-touch slam past Stony Brook goalkeeper Anna Tesoriero. Cold, soaked and exhausted, the amassed intimate crowd of nearly 1,000 fans went delirious, a one-goal survival sending BC to Long Island while Stony Brook watched its unbeaten season evaporate in heartbreaking fashion.
"I am so proud of these girls," said Walker-Weinstein after the game. "We threw some things at them that they've never done. They've been doing that all year long. They were smart and locked in. They stayed level-headed when we were down and level-headed when we were up. I'm just so happy."
Context from that game helps provide full awareness for Sunday's Mother's Day meetup. Eight years ago, BC was an upstart program that hadn't quite reached its potential while Stony Brook expected to break through and surge to a Final Four berth on home soil. This time, BC is the battle-tested dynasty with a championship pedigree while the Seawolves are a favored team with a 13-game winning streak and a top-5 seed in the national tournament.
The Eagles have been uncharacteristically up-and-down compared to the past decade, and the losses and numbers surrounding the 2026 season staggered in comparison to an eight-year run as the nation's top powerhouse. Yet nobody in the bracket - and certainly not a team that hasn't faced an ACC team all season - could be eager to see a team with eight consecutive Final Fours and two national championships on the other side of the bracket.Â
Maybe that's why this game feels bigger. Eight years ago, Boston College continued its springboard to a national championship by beating Stony Brook. The Eagles dominate recruiting on Long Island to the degree that this is home territory for a team from Massachusetts, and the civil war-like atmosphere crosses into backgrounds and hometowns against a team that's legitimately situated among the central enclaves and New York neighborhoods.
They've met more than once over the years, but the collision course for Sunday is exactly how the national tournament planners hoped: Boston College and Stony Brook, one more time, for a trip to the next round of the NCAA Tournament.
Boston College and No. 5 Stony Brook are set to play in the Second Round of the 2026 NCAA Division I Women's Lacrosse Championship on Sunday, May 10, from LaValle Stadium in Stony Brook, New York. Opening draw time is set for 12 p.m. with television coverage slotted for the ESPN-Plus streaming service available through the network's family of Internet and mobile device apps.
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