In Newton, BC Feels at 'Home' for NCAA Tournament Debut
Andy Backstrom (@andybackstrom)
Publisher
Newton Campus is where Boston College lacrosse became a national powerhouse. Before the Eagles started consistently playing games in Alumni Stadium. Before Fish Field House offered an indoor playing field for cold-ridden February matchups.
Although the Newton Lacrosse and Soccer Stadium is tucked away on the freshmen-only campus, which is located about a 10-minute drive away from BC's main campus, it packs a punch of nostalgia for ninth-year Eagles head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein.
"Honestly, it feels like home," she said Wednesday. "It reminds me of so many good memories of the teams and the players that built the program and paved the way and didn't ever get any of the luxury that the team has now.
"So I actually really, really love bringing this team back to our Newton stadium."
BC, the No. 3 seed in this year's NCAA Tournament, can't host games at Alumni Stadium—where the Eagles drew three 3,000-plus-fan crowds this season—for its pod because of university commencement setup taking place.
Instead, a strong contingent of neon-green-shirt-wearing BC lacrosse SuperFans will pile into Newton Sunday afternoon for BC's second-round game against Denver.
BC was the final seed to earn a first-round bye. It's one of three advantages the Eagles have, Walker-Weinstein said. The others are that the Eagles are playing at home and that they have already played Denver before.
BC beat the Pioneers, 9-5, in a cold-shortened game on March 9. Neither team scored in the third quarter before the game was stopped because of the conditions.
"But the way we approach it is," she said, "we don't really approach it as if we have all these things going for us, going in our direction. We kind of twist the narrative a little bit and say that they'll be in a groove."
She continued: "I think the bigger thing is they're feeling like they're the underdogs compared to us. And we know full well how dangerous that mentality can be."
BC, of course, came into last year's NCAA Tournament with that mentality. The Eagles were the No. 4 seed and didn't even reach the ACC Championship but made it to the Final Four and then spoiled North Carolina's perfect season, setting up their first-ever National Championship victory against Syracuse.
Walker-Weinstein framed the first part of the 2022 campaign about finally winning an ACC Tournament title—something a BC women's sport has never done before. For the third time in the last five years, the Eagles knocked on the door of that accomplishment yet came up short to UNC. A week after mowing past Virginia Tech and Virginia in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively, the Eagles fell apart in the second half of the ACC Championship in Chapel Hill.
Jumpstarted by a goal right before intermission, the Tar Heels scored 11 straight, turning a three-score deficit into an eight-goal advantage. BC went scoreless for more than 20 minutes, including the entire third quarter, and UNC coasted to its sixth straight ACC Tournament title.
"We didn't play a very good game," Walker-Weinstein said. "I didn't coach a very good game. I think, in all aspects, we got beat. The third quarter was the most glaring, but I think there were other issues within the second quarter, closing out the second quarter and starting up the second half. I think that's really where the momentum shifted.
"We weren't ourselves. You gotta be true to who you are and authentic to who we are and play to our strengths. We just didn't do a good job of that. So we didn't deserve to win."
Walker-Weinstein said that, after taking a bit of time away from the game, the Eagles reviewed the film and figured out what they needed to take away from the blowout. She noted, however, that they didn't do anything drastically different in response to the loss.
It wasn't long before BC turned the page to the NCAA Tournament.
Fortunately for the Eagles, it appears as if they might have All-ACC first-team defender Sydney Scales back in the lineup for another tournament run. Scales, who rolled her ankle during the ACC Championship, was taking things "day-by-day" this week, according to Walker-Weinstein.
"She's gonna be OK," the longtime Eagles head coach said. "She's probably the toughest kid on the team. And if anybody's gonna play with an ankle injury, it's her."
BC is going to need all the backline help it can get in a region where all four remaining teams boast top-15 scoring defenses. Denver's is fifth nationally. The Pioneers allow just 8.15 goals per game.
They held America East champion Vermont to a mere three goals in their opening-round victory.
Walker-Weinstein isn't taking Denver for granted. Or any team in the region, for that matter. At this point of the season, she explained, it's not about who's the better team. Rather, it's about which team makes more plays.
BC, which has made four straight National Championships, isn't focused on being the first repeat champion since Maryland in 2014-15. The Eagles are taking a much simpler approach.
"The message is that we have to keep getting better," Walker-Weinstein said. "We have to address some of the weaknesses that we outlined and identified from the Carolina game.
"Then we have to take it one game at a time and focus a lot on our leadership, focus a lot on our mental toughness, and go one game at a time until there's no more games to play because we're gonna win a national championship."
