North Carolina
Penn State
Carolina Advances To NCAA Championship Game
May 27, 2016 | Women's Lacrosse
CHESTER, PA. - The University of North Carolina women's lacrosse team is back in the NCAA championship game for the second straight year and the third time in four years after the #3 Tar Heels defeated Penn State, 12-11, Friday night in the national semifinals at Talen Energy Stadium.
Coach Jenny Levy's Tar Heels improved to 19-2 on the season with the victory while Penn State, in the national semifinals for the first time since 1999, saw its season end at 14-7. UNC will play for the national championship at noon on Sunday against Maryland, which beat Syracuse 19-9 on Friday. That game will be televised live on ESPNU.
“Congratulations to our team and our coaches who have worked hard all season," head coach Jenny Levy said after the game. "We're obviously really excited. Congrats to Penn State for their tremendous season. They came out fighting and gave us everything we could handle tonight. We had a lot of kids contributing in different elements of the game and we are just happy with the result at this time."
The game was marked by scoring runs for both teams. UNC built as big as a five-goal lead at 12-7 in the second half before the Nittany Lions scored four successive goals to pull within one with under eight minutes to play.
After a PSU goal with 7:13 left, UNC was able to kill the clock until a turnover with 1:33 to play gave the ball back to the Nittany Lions. But Caylee Waters came up with a save on a shot by Steph Lazo with 50 seconds to play and Carolina was able to kill off the remainder of the clock to prevail.
Carly Reed led the Tar Heels offensively with five goals, tying her career high set two years ago as a freshman. Aly Messinger had two goals and two assists, Marie McCool added a goal and three assists and Sammy Jo Tracy had two second-half tallies for UNC. Carolina also got single goals from Molly Hendrick and Kelly Devlin in the victory.
Megan Ward started in goal for UNC but she allowed five goals after the Tar Heels had built an initial 3-0 lead and was replaced with 21:47 left in the first half by Waters. The move by Levy proved propitious as Waters came on to make eight saves while allowing six goals in the final 51:47 of the match. Waters held the Nittany Lions scoreless for the first 19 minutes she was in the game. The Tar Heels were accurate all evening with their shots, scoring 12 times in 16 shots on cage against PSU netminder Emi Smith.
Carolina improved to 28-16 in the NCAA Tournament all-time including 19-6 in the past eight seasons. The Heels are now 4-5 all-time in NCAA semifinal matches. UNC has won 16 consecutive games, the longest winning streak in program history.
The victory over Penn State was Carolina's 19th of the season, a new school record.
“It's awesome and it is what you work for all year," Reed said of playing for the national title on Sunday. "We only get so many games to play each year. In the fall you battle and you have your time trials and lifting and this is what you live for since you started playing lacrosse. Getting to the game on Sunday is a dream come true."
