UNC women’s lacrosse begins NCAA title run, spurred by defense — and some cursing

There’s an explicit phrase the UNC women’s lacrosse team likes to use.

Some of the players giggle when it’s brought up by a reporter, suddenly lifted from the sanctity of the huddles and locker room. It’s certainly not something that can run in a print publication. The cleanest translation to news-friendly language might be: “bad girl o’clock.” Girl, in this case, is standing in for another word. We’ll let you fill in the blanks.

“A bad (girl) to me is someone who’s super poised, confident in who they are, and gets the job done,” defensive coordinator Kayla Wood said. “I said it one time in the huddle, and they were like, ‘Yeah. I like that.’”

It stuck.

This Sunday, UNC will begin its title defense as one of the most decorated teams in the country. The Tar Heels earned the No. 2 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and placed seven players on USA Lacrosse’s All-America teams Thursday — tied for the most of any program nationally.

That group is headlined by reigning national player of the year Chloe Humphrey, who leads the country in goals and points and is already entering conversations about the sport’s all-time greats. But Humphrey and the rest of her teammates would tell you the heartbeat of this UNC team lies in its defense.

More specifically, it lies in fifth-year defenders Sam Forrest and Brooklyn Walker-Welch, the veterans who have brought swagger, aggression and unmistakable bravado to one of lacrosse’s most overlooked positions. The pair chirps constantly, celebrates caused turnovers like game-winning goals and plays with the kind of visible confidence usually associated with star attackers.

They play, in other words, like it’s “bad girl o’clock.”

“Fighting along Sam — it’s one of the best feelings,” Walker-Welch said. “I know she has my back when I’m low, I know I have her back when she’s high. We’re always helping each other out.”

Salt and pepper

The duo is known among the team as “salt and pepper.” Sam is pepper, the spicier of the two. Brooklyn is the salt, a nod to her quiet confidence. And the two — just like the condiments — compliment each other quite well.

Their partnership works because their responsibilities are so different. Goalkeeper Betty Nelson describes them as yin and yang. Forrest, two-time ACC Defender of the Year, draws the opponent’s best dodger. Walker-Welch operates like the defense’s quarterback from the backside, directing UNC’s slide packages and communicating rotations.

The duo’s chemistry is a big reason the Tar Heels rank first in scoring margin for the second straight year — recording 310 goals and allowing just 128.

But things weren’t always so seamless between the two, particularly as freshmen.

“Like, we didn’t hate each other but,” Walker-Welch said, her voice trailing off. “I didn’t really open up to anybody.”

“I just wanted her to open up,” Forrest said.

The early years of their relationship came with some friction — the kind you might expect with two ultra-competitive defenders trying to find their place in a veteran-heavy program. Walker-Welch was the only freshman to start all 22 matches during UNC’s 2022 national championship season. Forrest was on that squad too, but…

“I was just on the bench,” Forrest said.

As close as the two stars are now — sharing an off-campus house and a pet Roomba named “paprika” — they sometimes forget that they didn’t share the field until 2025.

In 2023, Forrest tore her labrum. She underwent periacetabular osteotomy — her doctors essentially built her a whole new hip — and, as a college sophomore, had to learn how to walk again.

While Forrest returned to action the following year, Walker-Welch became one of multiple UNC starters injured in 2024. That hamstrung Tar Heels squad was in such a pinch they turned, at one point, the field hockey and club lacrosse teams so they’d have enough people to practice.

The numerous injuries in 2023 and 2024 made it hard for the team to find its groove, Forrest said. But it also allowed Forrest and Walker-Welch to work on their stick skills — and their collective mentality.

“My surgery made me a lot more grateful to just have the opportunity to be out there,” Forrest said. “I like to say I’m playing on borrowed time… it’s like you honestly have nothing to lose. It just makes you a lot mentally stronger.”

‘The ring of fire’

That mindset came in handy when Levy decided to shift UNC’s defensive system, much to the team’s chagrin, entering the 2025 season.

“We had a strong pushback,” Walker-Welch said of the change.

Levy wanted to break from a more conservative, read-and-react structure the Tar Heels had relied on in previous years. The staff, led by Levy and Wood, implemented a more aggressive, pressure-heavy approach designed to maximize athleticism and reduce indecision.

The idea was simple in theory — get out earlier, dictate more, trust one-on-one matchups — but harder in practice for a veteran group used to playing within a different framework.

“Sam and Brooklyn at first, were not bought in,” Levy said. “They were like, ‘Well, we’ve been playing this other way. We like the other way.’”

Having to go up against Humphrey sisters — who “rip apart defenses” with “absolute bullet passes,” per Forrest — didn’t help instill much confidence in practices.

But when UNC opened its 2025 season with a 14-2 win over JMU, holding its opponent to just a pair of goals, it proved to be the light-bulb moment Forrest and Walker-Welch needed.

“Then they really just were, like, head over heels, bought in,” Wood said. “That preseason period — obviously there’s growing pains with any kind of change — but we eventually got them where they needed to be.”

Since that shift, North Carolina’s defense has been the foundation of a national powerhouse. UNC finished last season undefeated at 22-0 and capped by a national championship. Rather than sitting back in a zone — a commonplace defensive practice in collegiate lacrosse — the Tar Heels now jump passing lanes, win matchups earlier in possessions and force opponents into uncomfortable decisions before offenses can even settle.

That approach has carried into this year. So far, the Tar Heels are 16-1 and ACC champions. And as they prepare to defend their NCAA title, Forrest and Walker-Welch will be at the center — leading a defense that sets the tone every time it steps on the field.

“Every time we play another team, their offense is having to go against us — they’re stepping into the ring of fire,” Nelson said. “It’s us against them…. you have to have that energy of, ‘Go ahead, try it. You guys should be scared right now.’”

And where does Nelson get that attitude from?

“It comes, a lot, from Brooklyn and Sam.”

This story was originally published May 8, 2026 at 5:30 AM with the headline "UNC women’s lacrosse begins NCAA title run, spurred by defense — and some cursing."