University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Florida
Tar Heels Advance Past Florida, 11-6
May 10, 2015 | Women's Lacrosse
CHAPEL HILL – Aly Messinger scored four goals and Caylee Waters made 10 saves as the North Carolina women's lacrosse team beat Florida, 11-6, in the NCAA Tournament second round at Fetzer Field on Sunday afternoon. The Tar Heels advance to host Penn State in an NCAA quarterfinal game next Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. in Chapel Hill.
Waters and the UNC defense limited the Florida offense, which entered the game ranked second in the nation in goals per game at 15.92, to six goals (tying its lowest output of the season). Tar Heel defender Courtney Waite marked Florida's Shannon Gilroy, Florida's all-time goals leader, for most of Sunday's contest. Waite held Gilroy to two goals, both on free position opportunities, after she'd scored four goals in Friday's win over Stanford. The Tar Heels held the Gators to 6 of 23 shooting on the day.
Messinger led the Tar Heels with her four goals, while Sammy Jo Tracy added three with five draw controls. Marie McCool had two goals, an assist and three draw controls, Sam McGee had a goal and two assists and Maggie Bill had a goal and an assist. Sydney Holman also dished out an assist for Carolina.
Gilroy scored twice for Florida, which also go two goals from Mollie Stevens. Shayna Piirreca had a goal and an assist, Carli Marsh added a goal and Lauren Lea and Sammi Burgess had single assists.
“First of all, we obviously are extremely excited,” Tar Heel head coach Jenny Levy said afterward. “We felt like Florida is a tough opponent, and congrats to them on a great season. They've got top talent in their roster. They obviously have a Tewaaraton finalist in Shannon Gilroy. We knew this would be a great game for us to open up our NCAA season with, and I'm just really happy and proud of how we played. It wasn't a perfect game but we were tough and dug deep at different stretches. It wasn't a surprise to us that they had a little bit of a run in the second half because they are a great program with a history and tradition, although it's short, of winning and so we welcomed [Florida] to Fetzer today and we are really excited about how we competed.”
The first half was relatively low-scoring. The Tar Heels scored first and led, 3-1, midway through the half. Florida pulled within a goal at 3-2 with 10:25 remaining, only to see McCool and McGee score back-to-back goals in less than a minute for a 5-2 Carolina lead at the break. Carolina won seven of the eight first-half draws.
The Tar Heels scored three quick goals coming out of halftime to build their biggest lead at 8-2 with 21:12 left to play. Florida tallied three of the next four scores to make things interesting at 9-5 with 12:37 remaining, but Messinger and McCool both scored in the final 10:05 to preserve the win.
Mary-Sean Wilcox was in goal for Florida and made six saves, allowing 11 goals.
Carolina advances to next weekend's quarterfinal game against unseeded Penn State, which won 13-11 at seventh-seeded Virginia on Sunday afternoon in Charlottesville, Va.
No. 2 seed North Carolina 11, Florida 6
Scoring:
UNC goals – Aly Messinger 4, Sammy Jo Tracy 3, Marie McCool 2, Sam McGee 1, Maggie Bill 1
UNC assists —McGee 2, McCool 1, Bill 1, Sydney Holman 1
Florida goals – Shannon Gilroy 2, Mollie Stevens 2, Shayna Pirreca 1, Carli Marsh 1
Florida assists —Sammi Burgess 1, Pirreca 1, Lauren Lea 1
Shots: UNC 26, Florida 23
Ground balls: UNC 14, Florida 15
Draw controls: UNC 12, Florida 7
Turnovers: UNC 13, Florida 11
Goalkeepers: UNC–Caylee Waters (W, 15-3, 60:00 minutes, six goals allowed, 11 saves); Florida –Mary-Sean Wilcox (L, 15-6, 60:00 minutes, 11 goals allowed, six saves)
