In a top-15 showdown on Sunday at Fetzer Field, the second-ranked UNC women’s lacrosse team used a late scoring burst to defeat the No. 13 Northwestern Wildcats 17-12.
Although it was tightly contested battle for most of the day, the Tar Heels (8-1, 1-0 ACC) scored seven of the last nine goals–all during the game’s final 13 minutes and change.
Junior Maggie Bill scored two of her career high four goals during the stretch, while also recording three assists throughout the game.
Bill’s effort led a prolific UNC offensive performance which saw midfielder Marie McCool also score four goals–along with hat tricks from Sydney Holman and Ela Hazar.
Not until Hazar scored with just over 12 minutes to play–a shot that put the Tar Heels up 12-10–did they lead by multiple goals.
“We didn’t think this was going to be anything other than what it was, which was a back-and-forth game,” UNC coach Jenny Levy said. “Northwestern is a good team. They’re well-coached, they play with a lot of fire, they came in with great strategies to counter what we do well, and they have plenty of pieces on the field to be really good.”
Danita Stroup’s three goals led the way for Northwestern (3-5), which received scores from seven different players.
It was the final non-conference game of the regular season for UNC, which will dive into the ACC season next Saturday with a home game against Boston College.
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