University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Northwestern
Northwestern Ends Tar Heels' Season, 15-10
May 29, 2010 | Women's Lacrosse
May 28, 2010
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Towson, Md. -- Northwestern scored four consecutive goals late in the game to pull away and defeat North Carolina, 15-10, in the NCAA women's lacrosse tournament semifinals on Friday night at Johnny Unitas Stadium. After Corey Donohoe scored back-to-back goals for Carolina to pull the Tar Heels within a goal at 10-9 with 15:49 left in the game, the Wildcats dominated possession and went on their 4-0 run to build a 14-9 lead that UNC could not overcome.
Five-time defending NCAA champion and second-seeded Northwestern (20-1) avenges its only loss of the season, an 18-16 defeat at the hands of the third-seeded Tar Heels (17-3) on April 18. The Wildcats advance to Sunday's NCAA championship game and will face top-seeded Maryland, which beat unseeded Syracuse, in Friday's first semifinal game.
Donohoe (two goals and two assists) and Laura Zimmerman (three goals) led Carolina's attack. Donohoe finishes the season with a school-record 77 points on 54 goals and 23 assists. Kellie Thompson held the previous Carolina mark with 76 points in 2002.
Megan Bosica scored twice for Carolina and Kristen Taylor, Kristen Carr and Becky Lynch scored one goal apiece. Emily Garrity dished out an assist for the Tar Heels, who fall to 1-4 all-time in NCAA Tournament semifinal games.
Katrina Dowd, Erin Fitzgerald and Danielle Spencer scored three goals each for Northwestern. Shannon Smith had two goals and two assists for the Wildcats and Alexandra Frank and Brooke Matthews each scored twice. Kendall Santulli had an assist for NU.
Northwestern won 17 draw controls to UNC's nine in the game, with Spencer gathering eight draws by herself as the Wildcats dominated possession throughout the late portions of the contest. Northwestern also out-shot Carolina 34-21.
Zimmerman scored the game's first goal quickly, as she took a pass from Donohoe from behind the goal and scored for a 1-0 UNC lead at the 28:25 mark. Matthews evened the score nearly four minutes later for NU, scoring unassisted at 24:38 for a 1-1 tie. After nearly 13 scoreless minutes, Spencer scored on a free position try to give the Wildcats a 2-1 lead with 11:40 to play before the half.
Lynch tied the score at two apiece at the 10:57 mark off a pass from Donohoe, capping a fast break of long passes for the Tar Heels. After eight more scoreless minutes, Fitzgerald's free position goal gave the Wildcats a 3-2 lead with 2:25 to go before the half.
After a defensive-minded first half filled with turnovers, the teams combined for three goals in the final 30 seconds of the period. Bosica tallied an unassisted goal with 27 seconds to go, stutter-stepping and scoring for a 3-3 tie. Just 10 seconds later, Dowd scored with a behind-the-back shot on a fast break off the draw for a 4-3 Wildcat lead. Zimmerman responded with her second goal, this one off a pass from Garrity as time expired to tie the score at 4-4 at the break. It was the second game in a row that Carolina ended the first half with a goal as time expires after Taylor did the same in the NCAA quarterfinals against Virginia last Saturday.
To start the second half, the Wildcats scored two quick goals in less than two minutes. Smith scored unassisted for a 5-4 Wildcat lead at the 29:22 mark, then Frank scored a minute later at 28:21 off a pass from Smith, forcing a Tar Heel timeout with Northwestern leading 6-4.
Zimmerman scored Carolina's first goal of the second half and her third of the game at the 25:35 mark, scoring unassisted to cut the Wildcat lead to 6-5. Fitzgerald scored her second goal of the game at 23:44, putting Northwestern back ahead by two goals at 7-5 with an unassisted score.
Bosica scored her second goal of the contest with a low shot at the 22:10 mark that made the score 7-6. Spencer scored her second goal of the game as NU went up 8-6 with 20:11 to go on a pretty stop-and-go move in front of the UNC cage. Spencer scored again at 18:13 with an unassisted goal from close range that put Northwestern ahead, 9-6.
Carr responded with her second goal of the season at the 17:31 mark, cutting down the center of the field to score unassisted and cut the lead to two goals at 9-7. Dowd's second goal of the game came just 22 seconds later as Northwestern upped its lead back to three at 10-7 with 17:09 left.
Donohoe quickly responded with a goal for UNC, scoring unassisted to make the score 10-8 at 16:32. With the goal, she tied the UNC single-season point record with her 76th of the season. She set the record less than a minute later with a free position goal at 15:49 that made it 10-9.
Northwestern then began to pull away with four consecutive goals to go ahead 14-9. The Wildcats went up 11-9 at the 12:31 mark with an unassisted goal by Smith, her second of the game. Frank's second goal came with 8:59 left and made it 12-9. Matthews scored to put Northwestern ahead 13-9 with 7:04 to go, giving the Wildcats their biggest lead of the game to that point. Dowd scored again with 3:41 left for a 14-9 lead and the outcome was out of reach for UNC.
Taylor did score an unassisted goal with 2:43 left to make it 14-10, but Fitzgerald put the Wildcats back ahead by five with a goal with 38 seconds left.
A crowd of 8,762 watched from the stands, marking the largest crowd ever to watch a women's lacrosse game in U.S. collegiate history.
