The No. 3 North Carolina women’s lacrosse team and No. 6 Notre Dame entered Sunday’s matchup with reputations for lighting up the scoreboard.
UNC touted the eighth-best scoring offense in the country, while the Fighting Irish held the second-best. And in the Tar Heels' 14-8 victory at Fetzer Field, UNC (10-2, 4-0 ACC) confirmed its offensive prowess while Notre Dame was held to its lowest scoring output of the 2016 season.
Before Sunday’s loss, Notre Dame (10-3, 3-3 ACC) averaged 16.08 goals per game. UNC’s defense cut the Fighting Irish’s scoring average in half, while its offense scored above its average of 13.73 goals per game.
“We were just being really smart about our slides,” said junior goalkeeper Caylee Waters on UNC’s defensive effort. “We knew their top players and that we couldn’t slide from their top players.
“They have a good handful of kids that can really shoot, so we were smart about our strategy and we communicated really well.”
Notre Dame’s Rachel Sexton scored with 26:56 remaining in the first half, but the Fighting Irish were held scoreless until 6:23 left in the opening period.
Meanwhile, the Tar Heels jumped to a 9-1 lead in the first half with goals from seven different players. Junior attacker Molly Hendrick — who now leads the team with 40 goals — had three goals during the run in the first half.
“We wanted to emphasize fast breaks in this game,” Hendrick said. “We got a bunch of the first draws and just shoved it down their throats.”
Defensively, the Tar Heels limited Cortney Fortunato — the ACC’s leading goal-scorer — to just one goal on only three shot attempts.
