Mission Accomplished: UNC Women's Lacrosse Defeats Maryland for National Championship

Facing a Maryland squad that had won back-to-back national championships–and won their last 26 games–it would have been easy for the No. 3 UNC women’s lacrosse team to be a bit intimidated.

The Tar Heels were never fazed, though, as they handily defeated the No. 1 Terrapins 13-7 in Sunday’s NCAA Championship Game at Talen Energy Stadium in Chester, Pennsylvania.

It’s the second national title in program history for UNC (21-2), which clinched the rubber match in the third championship meeting between the two schools over the last four years.

Senior attacker Aly Messinger tallied two goals and a career-high four assists to help the Tar Heels hand Maryland (22-1) its first loss since May 1, 2015.

Aly Messinger was an offensive force against the Terrapins, dishing out a career-high four assists in the first half. Her passing helped UNC go on a 6-0 run early in the game. (Jeffrey A. Camarati/ UNC Athletics)

Molly Hendrick added three goals for UNC, while Sammy Jo Tracy, Ela Hazar and Carly Reed each chipped in two.

The Tar Heels’ most important player, however, was senior goalie Megan Ward, who recovered in the best possible way after being benched in the first half of the team’s semifinal win over Penn State–a game where she allowed five goals on five shots.

Against the Terrapins, Ward was lights out. She saved a career-high 14 shots while limiting Maryland, which scores an average of nearly 16 times per game, to a season-low seven goals.

As impressive as she played, it wasn’t just Ward that was incredible defensively for the Tar Heels.

The UNC defenders combined to hold Maryland midfielder Taylor Cummings–a two-time Tewaaraton Award winner as the nation’s best player–to just a single goal.

The Tar Heels were simply too much for their opponents in every aspect of the game.

Despite scoring first, the Terrapins fell victim to the precise passing of Messinger and the Tar Heel offense the rest of the way.

Looking like former NBA point guard Steve Nash in his prime–dishing the ball all over the yard– Messinger had each of her four assists during a 20-minute first-half stretch. In that time, UNC scored the next six goals to go ahead 6-1.

Senior goalie Megan Ward made a career-high 14 saves in the National Championship Game. This after being benched in UNC’s semifinal win over Penn State. (Jeffrey A. Camarati/ UNC Athletics)

For a brief period, it appeared as if Maryland had enough fight left to claw back from the biggest deficit it had faced all season.

The Terrapins unleashed a quick flurry of goals before halftime to make it 6-4, then later pulled within 7-6 early in the second half.

But the Tar Heels snuffed out the comeback with goals from Reed and Messinger within 15 seconds of one another–a sequence which kick-started a late 5-0 run that put the finishing touches on the finest season in the program’s history.

Each team would score only once more during the final 10 minutes, as the Tar Heels–just like in Friday’s win–were content to play stall-ball until the clock hit triple zeroes.

The result this time, though, was a national championship.

Game Notes:

UNC’s senior class ended their freshman year with a 2013 national title win over Maryland, and closed their careers in the same fashion.
Tar Heel senior midfielder Kelly Devlin was ejected from the game in the first half for picking up two yellow cards.
Maryland defeated UNC 8-7 in the regular season on Feb. 27–which is still the Tar Heels’ last loss. The Terrapins also hold a 9-8 victory over UNC in last year’s NCAA Final.

FINAL STATS

Mission Accomplished: UNC Women’s Lacrosse Defeats Maryland for National Championship

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