After a dominant 15-8 season-opener win at No. 13 James Madison on Saturday, the No. 2 UNC women’s lacrosse team (2-0) returned to Dorrance Field on Wednesday for an even stronger performance in a 20-7 home-opening win against Furman (0-1).
What happened?
Junior defender Emily Nalls won the draw to start Wednesday’s game, and the action quickly moved towards the Furman cage. The first Tar Heel goal came less than two minutes into playing time when fifth-year attacker Jamie Ortega made an unassisted free-position goal to give UNC the lead.
Things escalated from there, with North Carolina scoring five times in the first four minutes of play. The fifth consecutive goal resulted in a Furman timeout. Furman came back from their timeout looking more aggressive, and after two more Tar Heel goals, Furman scored two consecutive goals of their own. UNC retaliated with another two goals to wrap up the first quarter with a 9-2 lead.
The second quarter didn’t go any better for the Paladins. North Carolina scored two goals by 13:59, just over one minute into the quarter. Furman responded with a shot-on-goal, but failed to score. Another goal by Ortega, her fifth of the game, made the score 12-2. The Tar Heels’ ten-point lead resulted in a running clock, highlighting their dominance in the match up. UNC scored another two goals in the first half to enter halftime with a 14-2 lead.
For the second half, the Tar Heels took out many of their starters. The first goal of the half went to Furman with 11:49 left on the clock. This was the only Paladin goal in the third quarter, while North Carolina scored three goals.
Furman was able to score twice at the start of the fourth, followed by two Tar Heel goals. Furman was able to score a third time to make the fourth quarter their best yet. However, they still trailed 19-6, with no hope of catching up in the remaining four minutes. Despite being up by 13, UNC wasn’t ready to give up. The Tar Heels scored once more, and Furman scored a buzzer-beater to make the final score 20-7.
Who stood out?
Ortega allowed UNC to get an early lead over Furman. She scored both of the first two goals, only 12 seconds of playing-time apart. On the third goal, made by graduate midfielder Andie Aldave, Ortega had an assist. After Furman scored two consecutive goals, Ortega gave North Carolina control of the game again by scoring her third goal with 2:00 left on the clock in the first quarter.
