It's hard to beat a defending national champion twice, let alone once. Three times in one season is almost unfathomable. For North Carolina, however, it was the only path to winning its first NCAA Championship since 2016.
That defending national champion was a Boston College team that spoiled UNC's perfect season in last year's Final Four.
The Tar Heels, winners of 50 of their last 51 games heading into Sunday afternoon's National Championship at Homewood Field, had a chance to avenge that loss to BC and cap the fifth perfect season in the sport's history.
A season that felt destined to end with a trophy celebration on Memorial Day Weekend. After UNC resurrected from the dead and orchestrated a shocking eight-goal comeback against Northwestern in the Final Four, the ball bounced the Tar Heels' way in a back-and-forth battle with BC. Literally.
Sam Geiersbach, a Richmond grad transfer and Friday's semifinal hero, corralled her own miss that ringed off the post after an epic joust for a ground ball that saw Eagles and Tar Heels hit the Baltimore turf. Following her recovery, Geiersbach fed fifth-year UNC attacker Scottie Rose Growney for the game-winner.
It was Growney's lone goal on four shots. Yet it was the difference in a game that experienced four second-half ties and featured three Tewaaraton finalists, including the award's reigning winner Charlotte North, who starred with four goals.
In a game that showcased an ever-growing sport in front of a sell-out crowd of 8,500 fans and was nationally broadcast on ESPN.
Growney's goal put UNC up two with 2:23 to go. Cassidy Weeks, who scored BC's game-winner in the Final Four, flashed more heroics to give the Eagles one last chance. Except, a Tar Heels draw control victory sealed the deal, and UNC prevailed, 12-11, tying off the season sweep of BC, which fell to 1-4 all-time in the National Championship in its fifth consecutive appearance in the NCAA title game.
"I'm really proud of my team," 10th-year BC head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein said. "I'm proud of my seniors, proud of the program. It was a really tough game. Carolina was excellent everywhere around the field. I give them so much credit.
"But I'm really proud of my team for fighting."
Fighting is exactly what the No. 3 Eagles (19-4) did. After all, they faced a 7-4 deficit late in the second quarter. No. 1 UNC (22-0) was in control.
Geiersbach picked up where she left off during UNC's miraculous, game-ending 7-0 run versus Northwestern, scoring the first two goals of Sunday's National Championship. North matched Geiersbach with back-to-back scoring plays, the second of which included a spin, switch of hands and lefty shot.
But the only offense the Eagles had to show for in the opening frame was North's. To make matters worse for BC, goalie Rachel Hall allowed five goals in the first quarter without a single save. Olivia Dirks polished off a 3-0 UNC run as five of the Tar Heels' seven shots in the period were on net. BC, on the other hand, landed just four of its nine on cage.
Shot accuracy was a problem for the Eagles throughout the first half. They had a draw control advantage, one fewer turnover than UNC and eight more shots than the Tar Heels, but they still found themselves trailing, 7-5, at intermission.
BC, which led the country with 79 free-position goals this season, was uncharacteristically shy when it came to eight-meter shots Sunday.
In the final stages of the second quarter, Jenn Medjid—BC's second-leading scorer who finished with two goals—passed up a free-position shot. The Eagles' possession ended in a turnover, and, soon after, sophomore midfielder Belle Smith picked up a yellow card that resulted in a Caitlyn Wurzburger woman-up goal.
Weeks used a roll dodge and five-hole shot to cut BC's deficit to two prior to the break. It was a much-needed spark for an Eagles team that climbed back from three goals down to knock off Maryland in the Final Four two days earlier.
BC looked like a different team in the third quarter, during which it outscored UNC, 3-1, and even took its first lead of the game.
It helped that Hall played her best period of Championship Weekend. She made four saves, denying stick-side shot after stick-side shot. Meanwhile, the duo of Medjid and North vaulted the Eagles in front.
Medjid pivoted back then forth to free her hands from UNC defender Brooklyn Walker-Welch before whipping a shot to the back of the cage. Next, North took over with two consecutive goals. The first was on a free-position, step-and-rip shot that followed a crazy sequence, which featured subsequent BC and UNC turnovers and clears.
Before the third quarter's end, UNC middie and Tewaaraton finalist Ally Mastroianni weaved through BC defenders Hollie Schleicher and Sydney Scales for the equalizer to make it 8-8 heading into the final frame.
Kayla Martello restored the Eagles' one-goal lead after getting a step on UNC defender Emily Nalls. But then, after committing her own turnover, Growney redeemed herself by forcing a BC giveaway, and Dirks slingshotted a pass up ahead to Jamie Ortega.
Ortega—a two-time ACC Attacker of the Year and Tewaaraton finalist—was faceguarded by BC defender Melanie Welch Sunday and was limited to two shots. Both were goals, though. And this one came on a breakaway. She hit Hall with two fakes and then deposited a shot into the back of the net.
Nicole Humphrey and BC's Smith traded goals, however, the next four-plus minutes were a defensive showcase. As good as Hall was for the Eagles in the second half, UNC's Moreno was elite.
The graduate goalie, who was briefly pulled in the Tar Heels' roller coaster semifinal win, was spectacular in the National Championship, finishing with 11 saves.
"I think obviously Friday for me stung a little bit because I knew that I'm better than that," Moreno said. "But I just had to come forward and acknowledge the fact because I think that's first part in growing as a player is acknowledging when you don't play well."
Moreno stabbed a North shot late in the shot clock. Then she snuffed out Caitlynn Mossman at the crease's doorstep. The veteran netminder was locked in.
Coming out of a UNC timeout, Geiersbach wrapped around the cage and evaded BC defender Hunter Roman before patiently dropping a shot off into the net.
Growney's goal gave the Tar Heels much-needed breathing room.
It wasn't until there were just 14 seconds left that Weeks ended BC's nine-plus-minute scoring drought.
Similar to the teams' first meeting in March, the Eagles came up just short. But, like that game, the ACC rivalry was a spectacle.
Walker-Weinstein said, "North Carolina was amazing, and so were we."
Both teams showed up. It was just UNC's year.
"I've been here a long time, but they only have this one last shot," UNC head coach Jenny Levy said of her seniors who had won ACC titles every year of their careers but repeatedly fallen short of an NCAA championship.
"Just because you work hard doesn't mean you're going to get it. So, just for them personally, they are going to spend the rest of their lives as national champions from University of North Carolina, and that, to me, has a special place in my heart because I care about them so much."
