On Sunday afternoon, the Boston College women’s lacrosse team faced off against the #1 Northwestern Wildcats for the 2024 NCAA championship. Just a year after NU defeated BC in the 2023 title game, Boston College came back from a 6-0 first quarter deficit to win 14-13 and hoist the program’s second NCAA trophy.
The first half started out about as badly as any Boston College fan could have imagined. Northwestern jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the first quarter thanks to some crucial BC turnovers. The key to the game for the Eagles was to win draw controls and maintain possession as much as possible so the NU offense wouldn’t see the field as much, but things went haywire on that front right away. After some back-and-forth in the second quarter, though, Boston College finally got going thanks in large part to Kayla Martello, who scored four times in very short succession. The NU lead was cut to 8-6 by halftime and the Eagles were back in it.
The defenses really started to lock in to start the second half. BC’s Ryan Smith managed a free position goal fairly early, but it was the only score by any team in the first half of the third quarter. But NU started winning more draw controls and wore down the BC defense as the quarter progressed, expanding their lead to 10-7.
Then the Boston College comeback started up again. The multi-headed monster BC attack started to climb back thanks to goals from LoPinto, Davis, and Reynolds, and a pair of Rachel Clark goals that tied the game with under 10 minutes to go. Then an Andrea Reynolds goal gave BC their first lead of the contest, followed by a huge defensive stop and then another goal by Kayla Martello to give the Eagles a hugely important 2-goal lead with just under 6 minutes left.
But Northwestern wouldn’t go out without a fight. Izzy Scane and the Wildcats kept punching and drew within one goal two more times, but time and time again they were denied by Shea Dolce and the Boston College defense. It was Dolce’s incredible save that led to a late Mckenna Davis goal to put BC back up by 2, and then another two defensive stops that prevented NU from sending the game to OT. It was a hugely clutch performance from the Boston College goaltender that was crucial for them to win the program’s second national title in four years.