STONY BROOK, N.Y. — Sam Apuzzo scored back-to-back goals late in the second half to break a 13-13 tie and lift Boston College to a 15-13 upset victory over No. 1 seed Maryland in the semifinal round of the NCAA Women's Lacrosse Championship.
The Eagles will meet James Madison, a 15-12 winner over North Carolina in Friday's other semifinal, in the championship game. Neither Boston College or James Madison has ever won a national title in women's lacrosse.
Maryland, which beat Boston College 16-13 in last year's NCAA title game, came out red-hot with three straight goals in the first three minutes and they led 5-1 less than eight minutes into the game. The Terps matched their four-goal lead when Taylor Hensh scored with 16:08 left in the first half to put Maryland up 6-2.
Boston College then reeled off five straight goals, taking its first lead of the night at 7-6 on Cara Urbank's tally with 8:20 left in the half. From that point forward, neither team led by more than a single goal until Apuzzo struck for her consecutive goals.
The game was tied 8-8 at halftime, and Kali Hartshorn gave Maryland its final lead of the game at 10-9 with 26:42 remaining. The teams traded goals with Maryland scoring its last goal with 14:47 left to tie it 13-13 when Grace Griffin finished with a nice back-hander on a pass from Hartshorn.
Apuzzo scored the go-ahead goal with 8:14 left on a Tewaaraton-worthy move. Apuzzo cut back-and-forth behind the goal, causing Griffin to get tripped up on the cage, and then she wrapped around and tucked in the score in the upper right-hand corner of the goal.
Just 48 seconds later, Apuzzo added an insurance goal and Boston College shut the Terps down for the remainder of the game.