UNC women’s lacrosse uses late rally to beat Northwestern, advance to national title game
.JPG "UNC women’s lacrosse coach Jenny Levy studies her team in action against Florida in the NCAA Tournament.")
North Carolina advanced to its fifth women’s lacrosse NCAA title game with a furious comeback for a 15-14 win over Northwestern on Friday in the tournament semifinals in Baltimore.
The top-seeded Tar Heels (21-0) look to conclude a perfect season on Sunday against the winner of No. 2 seed Maryland and No. 3 seed Boston College at Johns Hopkins’ Homewood Field.
Friday’s games were moved up because of the inclement weather that bombarded the East Coast. Carolina was originally scheduled to play at 3 p.m., but started instead at 12:30 p.m.
The Heels fell behind 6-0 in the first quarter when the game entered a lightning delay. They trailed by as many as eight, which was their biggest deficit of the season, and were down 13-6 entering the fourth quarter when their rally began.
Sam Geiersbach scored four goals during a 7-0 run that pulled UNC to a tie at 14-14 with 2:25 left in the game. Her fifth goal proved to be the game-winner with 1:03 remaining.
Carolina’s regular-season meeting with the Wildcats, who have won all seven of their national titles since 2005, was far less dramatic. UNC won 20-9 when the teams met in March.
Carolina’s potential opponents in the title game both have champion pedigrees. The Eagles are the defending NCAA champions and are the last team to beat the Heels in last year’s NCAA semifinals.
UNC has faced Boston College twice this season, winning 16-15 in the regular season and 16-9 for the ACC Tournament title this month.
The Heels did not play the Terps this season. With 14 national titles, Maryland has set the standard in women’s lacrosse since the NCAA championships began in 1982. The Terrapins have won four of the past seven national titles — there was no tournament in 2020 due to the pandemic — with their last coming in 2019.
This story was originally published May 27, 2022 at 5:10 PM with the headline "UNC women’s lacrosse uses late rally to beat Northwestern, advance to national title game."