University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
1-0
James Madison
0-1
McCool Leads Tar Heels Past JMU, 16-14
February 4, 2017 | Women's Lacrosse
Carolina, the 2016 NCAA champion, starts the season 1-0, while JMU falls to 0-1. The Tar Heels have won a program-record 18 games in a row. Saturday's game was played at Cardinal Gibbons High School in Raleigh instead of Chapel Hill because of a water supply emergency in Orange County.
McCool tied her career high with six goals, set previously in 2016 against Florida. She added two assists for a career-high eight points.
Junior Maggie Bill, a preseason first-team All-America, returned to game action for the first time in two seasons after redshirting the 2016 campaign and scored three goals. Senior Molly Hendrick scored twice, while senior Sydney Holman, junior Ela Hazar and sophomore Gianna Bowe all had a goal and an assist for Carolina. Carly Reed and Charlotte Sofield added goals for UNC.
For the Dukes, Kristen Gaudian and Margaret T. Fogarty both scored four goals. Haley Warden and Hanna Haven each had two goals and two assists, and Katie Kerrigan dished out three assists.
"First, we are very happy to be playing today after everything that's been going on in Chapel Hill," said Tar Heel head coach Jenny Levy after the game. "I really want to thank Cardinal Gibbons and their whole, entire staff for making today possible.
"Overall, I thought the first half was really sloppy, I thought we were undisciplined. It wasn't until the last three minutes of the first half that we sharpened up and played with better intensity. The second half started great [after] we challenged them, obviously, at halftime to play sharper and with greater intent. We got sloppy again later, but JMU is a young team that played hard. I thought they gave us everything we could handle today."
The Dukes dominated much of the first half, jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the opening 6:20 of the game and leading by three goals five different times before halftime. McCool's four first-half goals led the Tar Heels back to tie the score at 8-all by halftime. The Tar Heels went on a 3-0 run to close the half and tie the score. Carolina outshot JMU, 23-17, and won 13 of 17 draws in the first half but the Dukes connected on eight of their 17 first-half shots while UNC was 8 for 23.
Bill scored less than two minutes into the second stanza to give Carolina its first lead at the 31:38 mark by a 9-8 score. UNC went on to score four more in a row for a 13-8 edge.
JMU scored six of the next eight goals to pull within a goal at 15-14 with 5:52 to play after a Warden goal capped a 3-0 Dukes run in less than three minutes of action. Just 30 seconds later, however, McCool dished to Reed for Carolina's final goal and a two-goal cushion.
Senior Caylee Waters started in goal for the Tar Heels and went the distance, making 10 saves and gathering four ground balls. Emily Poelma started in the cage for the Dukes, making 16 saves in 60 minutes of action (including 10 first-half saves).
