It wasn't easy, but No. 2 Boston College fought off No. 13 Virginia Tech, 9-7, clinching the No. 1 seed for the upcoming Atlantic Coast Conference championship tournament.
The Eagles, who improved to a perfect 16-0 for the season, were held to a season-low nine goals in the victory as Virginia Tech goalie Meagh Graham made eight saves, including six in the first half.
Sam Apuzzo's goal with 1:10 left in the first half gave Boston College a 5-2 halftime lead, its largest lead of the game, but Virginia Tech chipped away in the second half, tying the game 7-7 on Taylor Caskey's goal with 14:59 to play.
Apuzzo scored her fourth of the game and third of the half a little over two minutes later to put BC back on top 8-7 with 12:26 left. The score stayed that way until Emma Schurr iced the game on an extra-man goal with 43 seconds remaining.
Apuzzo had five draw controls to go along with with her game-high four goals while Kaileen Hart added two goals and one assist and Dempsey Arsenault had one goal and two assists. Boston College's previous low in goals this season was 13, which they notched in four separate victories.
Paige Petty and Marissa Davey led Virginia Tech (11-5, 4-2) ACC with two goals each.
BC is now 6-0 in the ACC heading into its regular season finale against Syracuse on Thursday. A victory would give the Eagles the outright ACC regular season title. North Carolina is one game back in the league standings, but BC holds the tiebreaker thanks to its 17-11 win over the Tar Heels on March 24.
The ACC Championship will be held April 26-29 at Duke University's Koskinen Stadium. As the No. 1 seed, Boston College will play in the opening game on April 26 at 11 a.m. against the No. 8 seed, which will be either Louisville or Syracuse. Both teams are winless in the league and will play each other April 22 at the Carrier Dome.
Virginia Tech and Virginia are each 4-2 in the league and the Hokies will host the Cavaliers next Saturday. The winner of that game will earn the No. 3 seed.
Northwestern Streak Hits Seven
Northwestern jumped out to an early five-goal load and closed the game strong to win its seventh straight, beating Big Ten rival Penn State 17-13.
Penn State, a NCAA semifinalist the last two seasons, came into the game riding a three-game winning streak, including an impressive nine-goal win over Virginia last weekend, but the Wildcats continued to roar. Seven different Wildcats scored goals in the opening 16 minutes of the game, helping Northwestern to a 7-2 advantage.
Penn State keep coming after Northwestern, pulling to within two goals and two separate occasions, and then a three-goal run for the Nittany Lions cut Northwestern's lead to 13-12 with 12:55 left. The Wildcats answered with one final run, scoring four straight goals - two of them by Holly Korn - to put the game away.
Sheila Nesselbush led the Northwestern offense with six points (4g, 2a) and Korn and Jill Girardi each had hat tricks. Shelby Fredericks added a goal and three assists to go along with eight draw controls, and Julie Krupnick made 13 saves.
Katie O'Donnell scored five times for Penn State and Maria Auth had four goals and two assists. Penn State's Lucy Lowe made 13 saves.
North Carolina Routs Syracuse
No. 5 North Carolina poured in 20 goals, its second-highest output of the season, and won its fourth straight game with a 20-11 victory over Syracuse. The win clinched the No. 2 seed in the upcoming ACC tournament as the four wins is the longest winning streak of the season for the Tar Heels (10-3, 5-1 ACC).
North Carolina dominated the draw, 23-10, and won 14-of-19 in the second half to pull away in the final 30 minutes.
UNC led 8-5 at halftime, but Syracuse's Emily Hawryschuk struck first in the second half to cut the Tar Heel lead to 8-6. UNC responded with three goals in a span of just 51 seconds and Syraucse never got closer than four goals the rest of the game.
Marie McCool pulled in 12 draw controls herself and added five goals and an assist to lead the Carolina offense. Kara Klages had a career-high five goals for UNC, along with grabbing six draw controls, and Maggie Bill had four goals and an assist. Elise Hennessey made 10 saves to earn the victory.
Hawryschuk led Syracuse (8-7, 0-5 ACC) with four goals and Riley Donahue had two goals and two assists. Asa Goldstock made eight first half saves for the Orange, but just one in the second half before giving way to Bri Stahrr and Hannah Van Middelem.
North Carolina will stay in Syracuse overnight and play Canisius on Sunday at Christian Brothers Academy.
Games of Note
-
No. 6 Florida cruised to its fifth straight victory and improved to 6-0 in the Big East with an 18-6 win over Marquette. Shannon Kavanagh led the Gators with seven points (4g, 3a) and Shayna and Sydney Pirreca combined for seven goals.
-
No. 8 Penn shut out Columbia in the second half, downing the Lions 19-4 at Franklin Field. The 19 goals matched a season-high for the Quakers, who were led by Erin Barry (5g, 1a), Alex Condon (4g) and Zoe Belodeau (5a, 8 DC).
-
Hannah Powers scored four goals and Hannah Savage had six assists as No. 9 Loyola beat Lafayette 22-5 in Patriot League action.
-
No. 11 Virginia was tied with Louisville 8-8 early in the second half, but then six straight goals on its way to an 18-10 win over the Cardinals, snapping its own four-game losing streak. Angie Loynas (4g, 2a) and Sammy Muller (4g, 1a) led the Cavaliers and Rachel Vander Kolk made 13 saves.
-
For the first time, the Army-Navy women's lacrosse game was included in Army-Navy Star Series presented by USAA and Navy picked up a 20-7 victory. Coming off a big win over Virginia earlier in the week, the Mids got six goals from Jenna Collins to improve to 11-3 for the season.
-
No. 20 Dartmouth picked up a key Ivy League victory, downing Cornell 19-10 behind five goals from Ellie Carson and four goals each from Katie Bourque and Kierra Sweeney. Dartmouth scored the first five goals of the game, three of them by Sweeney, and never trailed while picking up their first win in Ithaca since 2012.
Nike/US Lacrosse Division I Top 20 Scoreboard
No. 2 Boston College 9, No. 13 Virginia Tech 7
No. 5 North Carolina 20, No. 15 Syracuse 11
No. 6 Florida 18, Marquette 6
No. 7 Northwestern 17, No. 16 Penn State 13
No. 8 Penn 19, Columbia 4
No. 9 Loyola 22, Lafayette 5
No 11 Virginia 18, Louisville 10
No. 19 Navy 20, Army West Point 7
No. 20 Dartmouth 19, Cornell 10