It was about 750 days ago when the University of North Carolina raised the NCAA Division I women’s lacrosse championship trophy.
Last night, a program which was, literally, a shell of itself, dropped an 17-8 first-round game to Florida.
The story of the 2024 UNC season was a story of two teams: the one it could put onto the pitch, and the injured list. Nearly an entire starting lineup’s worth of players, including worldies like Brooklyn Walker-Welch, Chloe Humphrey, and Marisa White were lost to injury during the season.
To be sure, the pride of the team kept the team together and cohesive during a challenging season. But you had the feeling that not all was right with the team when it didn’t make the semifinal round of the ACC Tournament. Its relatively low Ratings Percentage Index and the fact that it had exactly two wins over Top 20 teams put the Heels on the proverbial tournament bubble.
If you watched the fourth quarter of last evening’s game against Florida, all you needed to do was watch the fourth quarter. In it, North Carolina drew three yellow cards in a 1:18 span, leading to a phase of play when Florida was playing UNC 7-on-4 in outfield strength. Florida duly punished the Tar Heels defense with a power play goal, the first of four straight goals the Gators would score to start the running clock.
But one scene that will stay with me forever is a quick-stick goal that UNC scored to stop the clock with 12 seconds remaining. The goal-scorer was the greatest scholastic scorer in history, Caitlyn Wurzburger. You could see, from the look on her face, exactly that the game of lacrosse has meant to her over the years, whether it was playing for Delray American Heritage (N.C.), the U.S. U-21 national team, and North Carolina.
There will be other UNC teams in the future, perhaps ones which will win championships. Several players from the 2024 scholastic class, including goalie Lexi Zenk and forward Tess Calabria of top-ranked South Huntington St. Anthony’s (N.Y.), top-ranked recruit Eliza Osburn of Valor Christian (Colo.), and Kate Levy of Owings Mills McDonogh (Md.), who just happens to be the daughter of head coach Jenny Levy.
But, like we mentioned a few years ago about the Voorhees Eastern (N.J.) field hockey team, the story of North Carolina’s 2024 season isn’t about a drop in their form, it’s the fact that other teams in NCAA Division I have raised their level of play.
Which is good for the game.
