No. 18 Notre Dame women’s lacrosse entered Saturday’s ACC matchup against No. 2 Boston College coming off of a dominant 27-2 win over Detroit Mercy on Tuesday. The Irish (5-8, 1-5) were unable to get the same result in Chestnut Hill, as the Eagles (12-1, 5-1) won 16-10 in a wire-to-wire victory at home. Boston College was led by graduate student attacker Charlotte North, who scored five goals in a game that was never within reach after the first quarter.
The Boston College offense got off to a hot start, scoring four goals within the opening four minutes to take a commanding 4-0 lead. The fourth goal came from North, the winner of last year’s Tewaaraton Award for national player of the year. Notre Dame junior midfielder Kasey Choma answered with a goal to get the Irish on the board, but the Eagles quickly added two more to push the lead to 6-1.
Irish junior attacker Jackie Wolak, who assisted on Notre Dame’s first goal, then trimmed the margin back to four with the first of her eventual four goals. Despite this effort, it continued to be a story of Boston College scoring twice for each Irish goal, as the Eagles closed the first quarter with a goal. After a lightning delay between quarters that lasted over an hour, opened the second with another to make the score 8-2.
After a goal-less drought of over seven minutes for both sides, Notre Dame graduate student midfielder Maddie Howe scored her first goal of the day, but Boston College scored twice in a span of less than 30 seconds to gain a 10-3 advantage as the teams headed to the locker rooms for halftime. The Eagles picked up where they left off after the break, with North scoring her fourth goal of the game with just under ten minutes to play in the third.
With Notre Dame facing its largest deficit of the game up to that point, the Irish scored consecutive goals for the first time, as shots from Wolak and junior attacker Madison Ahern got past the Eagles’ goalie to cut the deficit to 11-5. The remainder of the second half turned into a game of runs. Despite the Irish offense starting to click, Notre Dame was unable to consistently get the stops they needed to get back into the game.
Boston College answered Ahern’s goal by rattling off two of its own. Trailing 13-5, Notre Dame scored three straight goals, two coming from Choma to make it a hat trick on the day. With the margin down to five and still over twelve minutes remaining, the Irish still harbored hope of a late comeback, but Boston College’s third run of three straight goals in the game extended their lead to 16-8 and served as the final nail in the coffin for Notre Dame’s chances. The Irish scored twice in the game’s final minute, but it was not enough as Boston College emerged with the 16-10 victory.
The loss was a continuation of what has been a difficult stretch of ACC play for Notre Dame. Since picking up a big home win against current No. 16 Virginia in early March, the Irish have dropped four consecutive conference games. They do not have much time to right the ship, as just two weeks remain in the regular season. However, after facing the top two teams in the country over the last two weeks in Boston College and No. 1 North Carolina, Notre Dame’s schedule appears to be far more forgiving as they close out the season.
The Irish’s final ACC games come against unranked Pitt and Louisville, with both teams currently sitting at 1-5 in conference play. Those two games will be critical as Notre Dame looks to both improve their seeding ahead of what they hope will be a deep run in the ACC Tournament and secure an NCAA Tournament berth.
Notre Dame will face Pitt at Arlotta Stadium Saturday at noon, and the Irish will honor their seniors in the team’s final home game of the season.
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