What Does the Eagles' Path Back to the Final Four Look Like?
Andy Backstrom (@andybackstrom)Publisher
Boston College is aiming to become the first women's lacrosse program to repeat since Maryland in 2014-15. Before the Eagles can do that, though, they have to reach their fifth straight National Championship.
And, before that, they have to get back to the Final Four.
What will that take? Let's look.
BC is the No. 3 seed...
The Eagles slid to the No. 3 spot after losing the ACC Championship to top-ranked North Carolina Saturday. BC was the Inside Lacrosse preseason No. 1 and then occupied the top spot in the polls for the first five weeks of the season. Six of the next seven weeks, the Eagles were No. 2.Maryland edged out BC for the second seed after the Terrapins, officially back following a fluky 2021, defeated Rutgers for the Big Ten Tournament title.
The Eagles are the final seed to get an opening-round bye in the field of 29. Last year, when they won their first-ever national championship, they were the No. 4 seed.
In 2019, BC was the No. 2 seed. The year before that, the Eagles were also the No. 4 seed. And, in 2017—BC's first national title run—head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein's team was unseeded.
The Eagles don't have an ACC or Big Ten team in their region...
Lucky Eagles. They don't have to play a team from the sport's top-two conferences before the Final Four. That doesn't mean getting there will be a cakewalk, though.Still, with six ACC teams and five Big Ten teams in the field this year, it's pretty remarkable BC doesn't have a single opponent from those leagues in its way.
Take No. 4 Northwestern's region, on the other hand. Including the Wildcats, there are a combined four ACC/Big Ten teams in that region.
BC lost three games this season, and each defeat was handed to them by ACC teams: well, two league foes (Duke and UNC).
But BC will have to tussle with some of the nation's most underrated programs...
We'll start with the Eagles' first matchup. They get the winner of Denver/Vermont.BC already played Denver on March 9 and emerged victorious, 9-5, in a cold-shortened game. Of course, the conditions were a factor in that contest. Denver, which escaped the Big East Tournament title game with a double-overtime win over Georgetown, has the sixth-best scoring defense (8.06 goals per game allowed) in the country. The Pioneers rank second nationally in caused turnovers per game (13.17).
And, even if Vermont—the America East champion—upsets Denver in its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance, the Eagles will be facing a stout defense. In fact, the Catamounts are right behind Denver in caused turnovers per game nationally (12.29). Vermont ranks 17th in the country in scoring defense, allowing 9.82 goals per game.
Vermont-Denver will be a showdown between two of the country's best defenders: Carolyn Carrera and Sam Thacker, who are tied for first nationally in caused turnovers per game (2.94). Vermont's Carrera is also fourth in ground balls per game (3.31).
If BC gets by the defensive-minded Pioneers/Catamounts, it will likely have to face sixth-seeded Loyola—another team that's hard to score on.
The Greyhounds, who haven't made it to the Final Four since 2003, are second nationally in scoring defense (7.56 goals allowed per game). They do a good job of playing keep away, winning 61.3% of their draws, a clip that's good for fourth in the country. And when they're on defense, they suffocate attacks, allowing just 22.4 shots per game. Just 22.7% of Loyola opponents' possession end in a goal, according to Lacrosse Reference. That's the sixth-lowest mark in Division I.
Goalie Kaitlyn Larsson is 11th in the country in save percentage (.494), and the Greyhounds' backline is led by two-time Patriot League Defender of the Year Katie Detwiler.
On the other end, Livy Rosenzweig—the program's all-time points leader—headlines a Loyola offense that features six 30-plus goal scorers, including rookie Georgia Latch. It was Latch who nearly forced overtime against Syracuse on March 29, but an offensive foul negated the goal, resulting in the lone loss of the season for the Greyhounds.
Although Loyola ripped through the Patriot League and has won nine games in a row, there's a chance BC catches an even hotter team in James Madison, which has rattled off 10 straight victories.
The torrid stretch started with three top-20 wins (No. 19 Richmond, No. 14 Virginia and No. 3 Maryland). JMU got in as an at-large because, since it's moving away from the CAA, it couldn't compete in this year's conference tournament. The Dukes had enough significant wins and an RPI ranking of 12th to snag them a spot.
Remember, JMU dealt BC a loss in the 2018 National Championship for its first and only title. The Dukes were the No. 3 seed that year.
Outlook
BC's offense looked unstoppable in South Bend when the Eagles piled up a combined 39 goals in their first two ACC Tournament victories.At UNC in the conference title game, however, BC went more than 20 minutes without scoring a goal. The Eagles will be tested by some of the nation's top defenses in their region. While they might not be the biggest names in the sport, they are gritty.
BC can't afford the lulls it had against UNC this past weekend if it's to clinch a spot in this year's Final Four.
