In the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals, the No. 1 North Carolina women’s lacrosse team (20-0) defeated the No. 8 Stony Brook Seawolves (16-3), 8-5, on Thursday night at Dorrance Field.
What happened?
The Seawolves’ compact yet aggressive defense stifled the Tar Heel offense on the first possession. Shortly after, Stony Brook midfielder Ellie Masera fired a shot past UNC graduate goalkeeper Taylor Moreno into the bottom right corner of the cage within the first three minutes.
North Carolina’s first score of the game came off a free position shot from senior midfielder Brooklyn Neumen. Minutes later, senior attacker Scottie Rose Growney lobbed the ball to a cutting graduate attacker Sam Geiersbach, who jumped up and slung it in for UNC’s second goal.
Early in the second period, a free position shot from UNC junior midfielder Elizabeth Hillman extended the Tar Heel lead to 3-1. North Carolina’s defense forced two shot clock violations on the Stony Brook offense, but the relentless Seawolves kept getting quality looks only to be stopped by Moreno.
Midway through the second quarter, Stony Brook midfielder Jaden Hampel spun through multiple UNC defenders for an unassisted goal. Almost immediately out of a Stony Brook timeout, Hampel equalized the score with another unassisted goal from the right side.
The Seawolves closed out the half with a strong defensive showing followed by notching their first assisted goal of the game to put Stony Brook up 4-3 at halftime.
The Tar Heels tied the game early in the second half when sophomore attacker Caitlyn Wurzburger skipped the ball over to Geiersbach, who caught it to the right of the cage and slung it in. After several back-and-forth possessions that all ended scoreless, Masera netted her second goal of the game.
A chaotic Tar Heel offensive possession ended when graduate attacker Andie Aldave found Wurzburger standing right next to the cage. Wurzburger faked the shot, got goalkeeper Charlie Campbell to bite, then dumped the ball inside the cage.
