It’s not quite a full Saturday of women’s lacrosse action, but it’s darn close. Either way, the opening Saturday of the Division I women’s lacrosse season brought us a couple top-20 matchups and saw nine ranked teams in action.
Here’s what went down.
BC DEFENSE SHUTS DOWN NORTHWESTERN
Charlotte North won the first three draws of the game, and Boston College led by three before Northwestern could even touch the ball. While that wasn’t necessarily a sign of things to come, it certainly set the tone for a game that Boston College controlled from start to finish.
No. 4 Northwestern threatened throughout the first half, but No. 1 Boston College ultimately pulled away for an 18-9 season-opening victory against a Wildcats team that played deliberately on offense without star Izzy Scane, who will miss this season with a torn ACL.
North, the 2021 Tewaaraton Award winner, opened 2022 with seven goals and one assist after breaking the single-season goals record with 102 last year. Belle Smith and Caitlynn Mossman each netted hat tricks.
Jill Girardi did the heavy lifting for Northwestern, scoring four goals. She scored three times all of last year. Madison Doucette played admirably, making 12 saves.
Consecutive goals from Erin Coykendall and Carleigh Mahoney got Northwestern within three goals at 9-6 with 9:45 left in the third quarter, but that’s the closest the Cats would get. North took over from there, scoring four of her seven goals in the final 16:15. She twice took on seemingly the entire defense to score.
WURZBURGER LEADS UNC OVER JMU
After spending most of 2021 as North Carolina’s first offensive player off the bench, Caitlyn Wurzburger took her new role in stride to begin 2022. Following the graduation of Katie Hoeg, UNC’s all-time points leader, Wurzburger is now functioning as the quarterback of Jenny Levy’s offense.
Her debut went quite well.
The sophomore led No. 2 UNC with seven points (three goals, four assists) in a 15-8 win over No. 12 James Madison in Harrisonburg, Va., Saturday afternoon. It was the exact type of performance the Tar Heels expected from arguably the top high school girls’ lacrosse player in history.
Although James Madison scored first and trailed just 3-2 after the first quarter, UNC was never threatened. The Tar Heels led 6-2 after Ally Mastroianni fed Wurzburger and 9-3 after Andie Aldave found Nicole Humphrey. Aldave fed Mastroianni with 9:20 left in the fourth quarter for a 13-6 lead.
Despite allowing 15 goals, Molly Dougherty was exceptional. She made 15 saves to at least keep the Dukes within a reasonable deficit for a good portion of the game.