Preview: No. 2 UNC women’s lacrosse to meet No. 1 Boston College

No. 2 North Carolina (11-0, 6-0 ACC) will face off against No. 1 Boston College (13-0, 6-0 ACC) on Saturday at 11 a.m., marking one of the biggest games in women’s college lacrosse this season. 

The matchup on Dorrance Field will feature a potential preview of not only the ACC championship game, but also the national championship. UNC and Boston College sit atop the rest of the country as the two lone undefeated programs left in Division I. 

The Eagles are the top-ranked offensive team in the country, while North Carolina follows close behind in second. The inverse is true for defense. 

Together, the two teams boast 12 selections on the Tewaaraton Award Watch List, which honors the best player in all of college lacrosse each year. 

Boston College — which hasn’t lost a game since April 13, 2024 — enters the contest riding a 21-game winning streak. The Eagles earned both the ACC title and the national title last season. 

After UNC put up a 10-5 regular season record in 2024 — the program’s lowest win percentage since 2008 — North Carolina has posted its best start to a season since 2022, which was the last time the Tar Heels won the national crown. And it was over Boston College. 

In the pursuit of their fourth NCAA championship, head coach Jenny Levy and the Tar Heels must first overcome their most challenging opponent yet this season. 

Here are three keys ahead of this highly-anticipated match: 

Share the wealth

North Carolina must continue to spread the ball to take down the No. 2 defense in the country. 

UNC averages about 10 assists on 18 made shots per contest, putting the Tar Heels at second in the nation in assists per game. 

North Carolina topped No. 3 Northwestern, 15-12, on March 27 in its closest margin of victory this season. The Tar Heels went down three against the Wildcats in the second quarter, marking their largest deficit of the year and only the second game during which they’ve trailed this season. Then, Northwestern led 8-6 at halftime. 

However, North Carolina finished the game on a 10-4 run starting at the end of the second quarter. Seven of those final 10 goals were assisted, which pushed UNC past the reigning national runner-up. 

Graduate attacker Ashley Humphrey — who joined the Tar Heels last year — leads the passing front for North Carolina. She broke the Division I single-season assist record in 2022 at Stanford, and she’s currently pacing the country in assists this year. 

A lot of those passes go to her sister, redshirt first-year attacker Chloe Humphrey, who ranks fifth nationally in total goals (50). 

Against Boston College, this connection on offense will be critical. 

Shea Dolce is in her third year in the cage for the Eagles. The right-handed goalkeeper played with all three Humphrey sisters (including UNC graduate midfielder Nicole) at Darien High School in Connecticut. North Carolina will need well-placed and well-timed shots to get past Boston College’s brick wall who saves 56 percent of shots — a metric which leads all of Division I. 

The Eagles also have skilled defenders who stifle one-on-one attempts, so feeding to cutters can vary the offense for UNC. 

Limit Rachel Clark

Rachel Clark is a senior attacker on the Boston College roster. The Pennsylvania native has the most goals and the most points in the country currently. 

The All-American will likely drive on isolation plays from the right side of the field with the stick in her right hand. 

Clark is also dangerous without the ball when she’s cutting toward the goal. When the offense isn’t running through Clark, it’s going through Mckenna Davis, Boston College’s passing equivalent of Ashley Humphrey. 

Davis and Clark will be challenging marks for UNC, but the Tar Heels have several backline stabilizers who are more than capable of limiting any given offense. 

Redshirt junior defender Brooklyn Walker-Welch is the cornerstone for North Carolina’s defense. Alongside her are redshirt junior defender Sam Forrest and junior defender Ellie Traggio, the latter of whom is the reigning ACC Defensive Player of the Week. Walker-Welch, Forrest and redshirt first-year goalkeeper Betty Nelson are all Tewaaraton Award nominees.

Still, the Eagles have threats all over, so no defender can get caught watching just Clark or Davis. All seven of North Carolina’s defenders on the field must keep their head on a swivel and be ready to make slides for the entire 60 minutes.

Win the draw control battle

Draw control discrepancies can prove to be the difference maker in tightly contested matches. UNC and Boston College are two of the most statistically even teams. So, the deciding factor could come down to draw controls, especially in crunch time. 

North Carolina is successful 61 percent of the time while Boston College wins the draw about 62 percent of the time.

Abbey Herod, Shea Baker and Lydia Colasante are the Eagles’ draw control leaders. Herod typically takes the draw, while Baker and Colasante are active participants on the center-field circle. Herod and Baker rank fourth and sixth in the ACC in draw controls per game, respectively. 

UNC’s threats on the draw include redshirt sophomore midfielder Kaleigh Harden, first-year midfielder Eliza Osburn and junior draw specialist Sarah Gresham. Before transferring to UNC, Gresham set the Virginia Tech program record with 111 draw controls. 

North Carolina led the draw control department in eight of its 11 games this season. 

With the top two teams in the country competing, the match could ultimately come down to the final draw.

@meganosmithh

@dthsports | sports@dailytarheel.com