The Sunday Slide: MAAC, Patriot League Heat Up as ACC, B1G Crown Champs

The ACC and Big Ten crowned their champions today. Congratulations to North Carolina and Northwestern.

But lost in the ACC and Big Ten championships were the start of conference tournament action in the MAAC and Patriot League. So, that’s what we’re going to talk about in the introduction to this week’s Sunday Slide.

We start in the Patriot League, where the question must (once again) be asked: Is anyone going to knock Loyola off its throne? The Greyhounds have won the last five Patriot League championships contested (2020 being the reason for the qualifier there), and while they are once again undefeated in conference play at 9-0, this Loyola team is perhaps more vulnerable than it’s been in awhile.

It took double-overtime to beat Navy 20-19 back on March 26. Boston U gave Loyola run on April 12, too.

The big question mark here is Army. On March 15, Army lost to Loyola 16-6. Army is 8-0 since, including wins over Stanford and Navy.

Navy’s 19-2 quarterfinal win over Lehigh on Sunday sets up an Army-Navy rematch in the semifinals on Thursday at 7 p.m. Eastern. In the other semifinal, Loyola takes on Holy Cross after the Crusaders took care of Colgate 19-13.

The MAAC tournament kicked off Friday with a pair of upsets. Rider, in its second year as a varsity program, beat Niagara (last year’s conference champion) for its first-ever postseason win. Rider, though, fell Sunday to Iona in the second round.

Quinnipiac earned the other upset on Friday, beating Sacred Heart 16-11. Like Rider, Quinnipiac’s miracle run fell short with a 15-9 loss to Siena on Sunday.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS

We’re keeping these “random observations” to the conference championship games that were played today. I have thoughts …

ACC

• There simply aren’t enough good things to say about North Carolina and the poise of Jenny Levy’s incredible freshman class. Chloe Humphrey (a redshirt freshman) and Eliza Osburn and Kate Levy (both true freshman) play far beyond their years. They’re special.
• Sophie Student is the perfect glue player for the Tar Heels. The graduate student who redshirted in 2024 didn’t start the season’s first six games, but she’s started the last 12 and has been a factor on defense and draws.
• This isn’t coming out of left field, but it continues to dawn on me every week. Chloe Humphrey looks like she’s going to finish her career as one of the all-time greats at UNC. She has 73 goals (most as a freshman in UNC history) and 97 points (seventh on UNC’s single-season list). And the moxie she plays with is that of a seasoned vet.
• Sam Forrest did a remarkable job against Rachel Clark. Shadowing the nation’s leading scorer, Forrest held her to just five shot attempts and two goals. She was a pest.
• There’s little to pick apart about Boston College, which has now fallen to North Carolina twice by a combined three goals. In both games, brief lapses allowed UNC to gather and maintain momentum. Finding ways to stop that in a possible third matchup in the NCAA tournament will be the difference.
• Shea Dolce continues to be amazing. She’s the type of goalie who’s so confident in her abilities that she’ll tell you she should have had more than the 14 saves she produced. Standout goalies win championships, just like Dolce did last season.
• Mia Mascone is such a valuable, malleable asset for the Eagles. The transfer from Brown had one goal and five assists in the semifinals against Stanford. Against UNC with Clark getting the faceguard treatment, she had three goals on four shots.
• Please, please, please, please, please let these teams play again this season.