This afternoon at 12:30 p.m. Eastern standard time, the Division I and Division III women’s lacrosse championship finals were heading rapidly toward blowout status and a running clock.
In the Division I title match in Cary, N.C., Northwestern was building a 6-0 against Boston College after a half-hour of real time, and in Division III, Middlebury was holding a 7-1 lead on William Smith.
You would have been forgiven if you had turned off the television and/or live streams of these two games. Northwestern and Middlebury were your defending national champions in each division, and Northwestern had 10-goalled B.C. a year ago.
But whereas Middlebury was able to run out a 16-5 result to win its national title match, Boston College engineered perhaps the single most impressive comeback in a Division I final since 2001. In that game, Georgetown fought back from a seven-goal first-half deficit to tie Maryland in 2001, only to lose in the third period of extra time. In contrast, the 2024 Eagles, riding the hot stick of Kayla Martello, the goaltending of Shea Dolce, and the close defense of Belle Smith, Becky Browndorf, Sidney Scales, and Shea Baker to win the game 14-13.
What’s amazing is that there was a seeming talent deficit. Northwestern had come into the season as the odds-on favorite to win the title, returning Tewaaraton Trophy holder Izzy Scane, Tewaaraton finalists Erin Coykendall and Madison Taylor, as well as top transfers Molly Laliberty, Jane Hansen and Lindsey Frank. Despite losses to Penn State and Notre Dame, they were the best team coming in, and had a couple of impressive results on the run-in to the Final Four.
On the other hand, Boston College did not have the names of the past such as Charlotte North, Jenn Medjid, Sam Apuzzo, Kenzie Kent, or Courtney Weeks. Every pundit on earth seemingly had B.C. doing what it had done five times in the last seven years: fall at the final hurdle.
But not this team. Not today.
A hearty “Well-played” to this Boston College team and head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein from this corner of the Internet.
