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March 4, 2023 — Long live the queens
Yesterday, the leadoff of the broadcast of the UNC-BC women’s lacrosse game was about a lower-body injury to Carolina talisman Caitlyn Wurzburger.
But sitting and watching the start yesterday, a thought popped in my head: “Carolina has this game won.”
This didn’t come from any bias for or against either team, but I’ve seen scenarios like this before. When a team loses such as a key player — even a generational talent such as Wurzburger — everyone else on the team tends to step up and react, and often have their best game.
Such was the case with senior Nicole Humphrey, freshman Carolina Godine (yep, another McDonogh graduate), and transfer Sophie Student. They all had hat tricks for UNC in a dominating 16-5 win over Boston College.
These three players are amongst the multitude of options that Jenny Levy has on the attack end, and she has, over the last several seasons, found the right combination of players more often than not.
Unlike last year’s national title game, it wasn’t a single person like Sam Geiersbach who turned the tide in favor of the Tar Heels. Instead, I think, it was the absence of Wurzburger. You look at Boston College’s defense in the arc-and-fan, and I think they were scouting for a strong threat from behind the goal line, and I saw a little disorganization.
Despite the margin of defeat, it should not discourage this BC team. Two years ago, UNC beat Boston College 21-9 in the regular season, but in the game that mattered, the Eagles won the national semifinal by 11-10.
It will be interesting to see what happens if these two teams meet again in the ACC Tournament, much less the the NCAA Tournament.
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