Standing in the way of the Boston College women lacrosse team finally earning a national title on Sunday afternoon is an opponent with which it is familiar: Syracuse, an Atlantic Coast Conference rival the Eagles will be facing for the fourth time this season.
There are similarities between the teams: Both are powerhouse programs that have never won a national title, both enter with 17-3 records, and both ended their semifinal opponents’ undefeated seasons to earn their spots in the final.
But what the Eagles have that the Orange do not is championship game experience. When they take the field at noon at Towson University’s Johnny Unitas Stadium, they will be playing in their fourth consecutive title game.
The teams split a weekend series in late April, the Eagles winning the first game, 14-13, and the Orange taking the second, 16-7. A week later, the teams met in the ACC tournament semifinals, with Syracuse advancing with a 19-17 victory.”
“Coming off of playing them four times we’re pretty familiar with them and what they run and what they do,” said Syracuse junior Meaghan Tyrrell. “Kind of building off some mistakes we made with previous games and capitalizing on the things we did during those previous games is definitely going to be a game-changer for us.”
Defense was a major facet of BC’s semifinal shocker over top-ranked North Carolina, with goaltender Rachel Hall having one of the best games of her career. She equaled her season high with 11 saves and stayed strong when the Tar Heels mounted a late comeback.
The Orange also have a goaltender riding a hot hand. Asa Goldstock’s 10 saves were a key part of Syracuse’s 21-13 blowout of second-seeded Northwestern in Friday afternoon’s second semifinal. Goldstock is a mere two saves from setting the program’s all-time record.
Both goaltenders will need to bring their A games thanks to the scoring power of each side. Charlotte North had a quiet afternoon against North Carolina with just two goals, but a defense’s double teams can only limit her scoring, not her leadership. She kept her teammates on point Friday, quarterbacking the offensive unit.
North is the nation’s leading scorer, tallying 96 goals this season. She already has set the record for goals in a NCAA Tournament, with 25 through four games.
Syracuse has rebounded after losing its top scorer, Megan Carney, to an injury in their first game against BC. On Friday, the Tyrrell sisters, Meaghan and Emma, led the Orange with five and three goals, respectively. Meaghan a junior, leads the team with 62 goals and 40 assists. Emma, a sophomore, had her best game of the season in the April 24 regular-season matchup against BC, notching five goals.
The championship game will also see two of the game’s best freshmen face off. BC’s Belle Smith has made a run through the record books, setting program highs for goals (45) and points (61) for a freshman. Smith, the only freshman to make the ACC first team, wasn’t unsettled by the big stage of national championship weekend, notching 2 points in the semifinal.
Freshman Emma Ward has 70 points this season for the Orange, and has shown strong chemistry with the Tyrrells. BC’s defense will need to disrupt the connection if it wants to slow down a Syracuse offense that lit up Northwestern’s nation’s-best defense. As BC showed on Friday, it is capable of slowing down top scorers.
Jenn Medjid, who scored four goals in Friday’s win and is one of the players left from BC’s last try at a national title in 2019, thinks the Eagles are putting everything together at the right time.
“We just beat one of the best teams in the country,” she said, “so I think we’re going to use that just to motivate us and give us confidence and just go out there and give it all we’ve got.”