All season long, the UNC women’s lacrosse team has played like it’s hell bent on repeating as national champions–often blowing out inferior squads with reckless abandon.

Saturday afternoon, the Navy Midshipmen put a shocking end to the Tar Heels’ incredible season–using a 6-1 run over the final 16 minutes to win by a score of 16-14 in the final game at the old Fetzer Field.

UNC (17-3) trailed for much of the first half, but scored five straight goals early in the second half to claim a 13-10 lead.

From there, however, the Midshipmen (18-4) reasserted their will–putting together the run that clinched Navy its first ever trip to the women’s lacrosse Final Four.

Navy was led by Kelly Larkin–who tallied four goals and two assists–and a pair of hat tricks from Jenna Collins and Meg O’Donnell.

Fifth-year senior Sammy Jo Tracy scored a career-high five goals for the Tar Heels in her final collegiate game, while fellow All-Americans Molly Hendrick and Marie McCool each added a hat trick for head coach Jenny Levy.

“I’m obviously incredibly disappointed in the result, but not disappointed in the journey I’ve taken with this team this year,” Levy said afterwards. “They’ve worked hard, they cared, and I don’t have any regrets.  They shouldn’t, either.

“They’ve held their heads high and battled all year,” the coach added. “As a season is a lifetime, you can have belief, do everything in your power and take care of all your details and sometimes it doesn’t work out the way you want it to work out.

“That’s life, and it’s a really tough lesson for our guys, especially our 12 seniors.”

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