FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- One team will travel 25 miles Sunday to make history. The other has traveled through space and time to extend it. Which one will the books remember?

That's one of several storylines for the NCAA Division I women's championship game at Gillette Stadium here Sunday, where unseeded Boston College and top-seeded Maryland will meet at 11 a.m. on ESPNU. The Eagles (17-6) will try to put the icing on the cake of their milestone season, while the Terrapins (22-0) will try to extend their legacy of milestones with another national championship.

Here's a look ahead to the finale of the collegiate women's lacrosse season.

How They Got Here

Maryland played perhaps its best game of the season in a 20-10 defeat of fourth-seeded Penn State in the first semifinal Friday. The Terps won 22 of 32 draw controls, assisted on 50 percent of their goals, and allowed the Nittany Lions to score consecutive goals only once -- midway through the second half arguably with the outcome already decided.

Trailing Navy, 9-5, with under a minute to play in the first half of the other semifinal, Kenzie Kent scored to ignite a 6-0 Boston College run that paved the way for a 16-15 win. Kent finished with five goals and a key draw control with roughly a minute to play after the Mids had closed to the final margin.

The Coaches

By now, most know that Boston College coach Acacia Walker played at Maryland, including for one season in which current Terrapin coach Cathy Reese was an assistant. Walker is 69-33 in her fifth year atop Chestnut Hill, while Reese is 227-28 in her 11th season in College Park (she went 31-29 in three years at Denver).

Forgetting the ties, both coaches appreciate and work on the mental part of the game. Reese knew not a single player could measure up to departed three-time Tewaaraton Award Taylor Cummings, and thus asked her team since the beginning of fall practices to focus continuous improvement, and not on winning the national championship that narrowly evaded it a season ago.

Walker, an NCAA tournament veteran with clearly the lesser-experienced team, had her players' family members were neon green Friday night so her players could instantly spot them and draw inspiration and calm. "We've also practiced this — we visualize and we meditate all the time," Walker said. "We practice this moment and being in this moment."

The History

Maryland's, with 12 national championships and nine straight final-four appearances, is known. Boston College, meanwhile, continues to make it, having reached the final for the first time and becoming the first unseeded team since the tournament's 2005 expansion to do so. The Eagles' previous best was a quarterfinal appearance in 2015.

These two formerly squared off as rivals in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Terps lead the all-time series, 12-0, including a 21-13 win in College Park on March 8.

Three Things Maryland Must Do to Win

1. Ground the Eagles early. BC was tied or trailed at halftime in seven games this season, and ahead by one or two in a handful of others. "It's something that we understand happens to us a lot, and you can either crumble for it or you can own it and do everything you can to fix it," said BC senior attacker Kate Weeks.

Maryland put Penn State away before intermission, and would be suited well by doing the same to Boston College.

2. "Stay disciplined on defense," said Maryland senior midfielder Zoe Stukenberg. There's nothing proprietary about a BC offense that finishes scoring plays with quick-sticks of feeds to cutters in the scoring area, but that requires space to do so. Walker has concerns about the Terps packing it in defensively, something Navy did with tremendous success in the first half Friday night.

3. Be themselves on offense. Whether it's Caroline Wannen quarterbacking from behind or not, Maryland's at its best when its passing game is working. Some midseason adjustments helped the Eagles' defense get people in the right spots, according to Walker, but the Terps' balance means anyone can be lethal for a game.

"Offensively we can control shooting the ball, moving the ball well, and really just staying in our element," said Maryland junior attacker Taylor Hensh. "We can’t be overly excited. We’re just going to play the way we always have — calm, composed and unselfish."

Three Things BC Must Do to Win

1. "We have to have a strong start," Walker said. "What I know best about Maryland is that they’ll eat you alive if you have five minutes off. We can’t do that. We can’t take time off the way that we did against Navy."

2. Get the Terps off their spots. Penn State allowed Maryland to pass mostly unchallenged Friday night, something the Eagles plan to combat with ball pressure.

"You have to be all over them," Walker said. "If you’re not all over them, they’ll pick you apart. A big thing will be ball pressure and good one-on-one defense. We’re athletic enough to give them a shot, it’s just whether or not we’ll be consistent enough."

3. Get help if, more likely, when, stars Kenzie Kent and All-American Sam Apuzzo get taken away. Walker thinks everyone may feel shut out at different points because of Maryland's talent defensively, but she cited Kayla O'Connor and Kaileen Hart as players unafraid to take advantage of opportunities. Hart has 13 goals and six assists in four tournament games; O'Connor with 10 and seven, respectively.

Intangibles

Lacrosse fans have enjoyed the invovlement of Patriots coach Bill Belichick and wide receiver Chris Hogan, a Penn State alum. But it's not all just social media fodder. Walker, an Annapolis, Md., native now in Massachusetts coaching since 2008, recalled one key comment from the Super Bowl champion coach:

"You don't have to have experience in the moment to make it work."

For her part, Reese affirms her players' buy-in of just getting better as the answer to some preseason questions. They have, indeed, gotten better, and they're balanced enough to play without pressure. If the Eagles, likely to have a home field advantage, hang around, however, someone will have to take ownership for Maryland's unbeaten season to conclude in the manner it wants.