UNC women’s lacrosse knocks off fourth top-10 foe this season

As the No. 2 North Carolina women’s lacrosse team prepared for its first-ever game versus No. 10 Louisville, March 29th’s close call against Notre Dame weighed on the mind of players.

UNC held a 7-1 lead over the Fighting Irish at one point, but allowed them to come back and tie the game at 8-8. A late goal by senior midfielder Brittney Coppa salvaged the victory.

But on Saturday in Louisville, the Tar Heels (11-2, 4-1 ACC) needed no heroics from Coppa or any other player. UNC put its foot on the skinny pedal and used a methodical 9-0 run in the second half to cruise to a 18-5 victory over the Cardinals (9-4, 1-3 ACC).

UNC’s 18 goals were the most the team has scored against an ACC opponent this season, and the five goals allowed tied for the second-fewest all season.

“There was a lot of chemistry and effort that led to a great game,” said junior attacker Aly Messinger. “We played the way we wanted to play.”

In the first half, the match was back and forth. UNC scored the first two goals of the game, but the Cardinals responded with a 4-1 run to take a 4-3 advantage. But UNC defenders kept swarming Louisville, forcing eight turnovers and grabbing a 7-4 lead heading into halftime.

“We got some defensive stops, which I thought were great,” Coach Jenny Levy said. “So even if we didn’t get the possession right away, we made it really difficult on them to run plays on the offensive end.”

The second half was dominated by the Tar Heels. UNC outscored the Cardinals 11-1, with goals coming from seven different players. Louisville was held scoreless for the last 25 minutes of play.

Levy said last week, Notre Dame outplayed UNC for most of the game — the Irish outshot the Tar Heels 31-18. On Saturday, UNC outshot Louisville 28-18.

Coppa agreed that UNC allowed Notre Dame back into the match. But she said the team didn’t dwell on its mistakes. Instead, it learned from them and put those lessons to use versus the Cardinals.

“Last week’s game was closer than we wished it would have been,” Coppa said. “And we knew going into halftime that we had a little bit of a lead but that we weren’t going to give up and allow the same thing happen again twice.”

Now, the Tar Heels are 4-2 against Top-10 opponents on the season.

Levy said there are no easy games on the schedule, but she added that her team has scrapped. Every victory provides energy for the team.

“I think finding rhythm and finding confidence can be a challenge,” Levy said. “So having a game like today on the road against a good opponent, and to come away with a really dominate victory does a lot for us, especially in light of the schedule that we play.”

sports@dailytarheel.com