Women's lacrosse tops Virginia Tech in ACC Tournament quarterfinals

The No. 2 North Carolina women’s lacrosse team does not lose when opening ACC Tournament play.

The Tar Heels were 6-0 in ACC Tournament quarterfinal games going into Thursday’s matchup. The team was also 3-0 all-time in the tournament versus Thursday's opponent, Virginia Tech.

And as the Hokies (6-11, 0-7 ACC) soon discovered, numbers never lie.

Top-seeded UNC (14-2, 6-1 ACC) defeated eighth-seeded Virginia Tech 18-12 in its ACC Tournament opener. UNC has now defeated six consecutive ACC opponents and will face fifth-seeded Notre Dame in the semifinals today.

“We were happy with the effort today,” Coach Jenny Levy said. "I thought Meg Ward and Caylee Waters did a nice job of coming in and making saves, but I thought we were sloppy in a lot of places.

“Obviously (today) is a new day, and we will play a lot better (today) than we did (yesterday).”

UNC opened up the first half with a 4-1 lead and 19:29 remaining, with goals coming from four different players. But the Hokies responded with a 4-0 run of their own, spanning almost six minutes, to methodically capture the 5-4 lead.

By halftime, the Tar Heels were clinging to an 8-7 lead.

“I thought our attack actually played very well,” said senior midfielder Kelly Devlin. “We had a lot of opportunities — it’s just that the shots were not getting finished."

But in the second half, UNC wasted no time regaining its offensive firepower — 28 seconds into the half, Devlin received a pass from junior attacker Aly Messinger to make the score 9-7.

After the lightning-quick goal, the Tar Heels outscored Virginia Tech 9-5 over the remainder of the second half. Devlin, who opened up the scoring after halftime, finished the game with a career-high four goals.

In the first half, UNC notched eight goals on 24 shots, but in the second half, the Tar Heels boosted their efficiency with 10 goals on just 14 shots.

“We just made a couple of adjustments, and we just had to keep shooting,” Devlin said.

Eight different Tar Heels scored a goal in the game, while sophomore attacker Sydney Holman led the team with three assists.

UNC is now set to face fifth-seeded Notre Dame, who is ranked No. 14 nationally, in the semifinals. The Tar Heels defeated the Fighting Irish 9-8 on March 29, a game in which UNC blew a 7-1 lead and needed a late goal from senior midfielder Brittney Coppa to secure the win.

Devlin said Notre Dame is a high-energy team. Similar to the win versus Virginia Tech on Thursday, the Tar Heels plan to get off to a quick start and minimize late-game letdowns.

“We can’t get comfortable,” Devlin said. “Get as many draw controls as we can and get ahead as soon as we can.

“We have to play hard the entire game and put together an entire 60 minutes.”

sports@dailytarheel.com