Dempsey Arsenault would do just about anything to extend Boston College’s season to another NCAA tournament championship game and to extend her career.

That do-anything attitude is what landed the senior midfielder on defense in her first two seasons with the Eagles.

“Whatever it took to get on the field,” Arsenault said. “The first two years, it was low defense, and I was totally OK with that. I always thought of myself as a more defensive-minded player, and so I loved that role.”

Arsenault has flipped the last two years into the midfield and still flashes her defensive skills, but Boston College has encouraged her to hone her offensive prowess.

“I love offense and I love being able to run the midfield, so while I do miss that defensive position, I kind of like my position now more,” Arsenault said. “It’s way more fun.”

Arsenault has undergone a transformation over her college career to play uniquely well in two distinctively different roles. In her first two seasons, she sometimes marked the other team’s top offensive threat as a defender. Arsenault was a freshman when she held Syracuse standout Kayla Treanor — now coincidentally a BC assistant coach — to a season-low two points. She’s evolved into a midfielder that last two season, and this year she has 61 goals, 26 assists, 93 draw controls and 17 caused turnovers on her way to being named a Tewaaraton Award finalist.

“It’s totally hard and close to impossible, but Dempsey is a freak athlete,” BC head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein said. “Any good midfielder spends their time early in their career prioritizing defense. And Dempsey did a great job of that. Over the course of her career, knowing her athletic potential, we slowly pushed her to think more offensively.”

pushed her to think more offensively.”

Coaches consistently provided Arsenault with metrics, including how many shots she took in practices and games and her shooting percentage, upping the benchmark as this season progressed.

“Our biggest struggle was that she was so humble that she didn’t think she was good enough to be scoring goals,” Walker-Weinstein added. “It took us a while to get her to realize how athletically gifted she was and that defense was just this jumping-off point of her potential.”

Arsenault had four points and four draw controls in Boston College’s 17-12 win over Princeton in the NCAA quarterfinals last Saturday to seal their third straight trip to the final four. The win puts the second-seeded Eagles up against third-seeded North Carolina 5 p.m. Friday at Johns Hopkins. The two teams split their two meetings this year, with BC winning in the regular season 14-8 at Carolina on March 23, and the Tar Heels winning 15-13 in the ACC championship game April 28.

“I learned how badly these guys really want to win because of the way they responded to the loss,” Walker-Weinstein said. “I knew they always wanted to be a great team and to be different from any other BC team, but they showed and proved to me in their work ethic over the last three weeks since that loss how badly they really want this.”

The winner faces the winner of top-seeded Maryland and fourth-seeded Northwestern, who square off at 7:30 p.m. Friday. The loss to North Carolina is the only of the season for Boston College, which is 21-1. North Carolina is 17-3 and possesses the seventh-ranked scoring defense. Only one time has Boston College’s offense been held to fewer than 13 goals.

“I feel like we have to really cherish the ball when we have it and not play too rushed, but go at our own speed and tempo,” Arsenault said. “When we played Princeton last weekend, we kind of started off too emotional and excited and weren’t really playing our game. ... As long as we have the ball and are cherishing it, we’ll be able to execute.”

Arsenault is part of BC’s big three.  She stars alongside reigning Tewaaraton Award winner Sam Apuzzo and Kenzie Kent. They have led the Eagles to the No. 4 scoring offense nationally and went first (Apuzzo), second (Arsenault) and third (Kent) in the WPLL draft. The addition of Kent has altered the attack, though Arsenault’s statistics almost mirror hers of a year ago.

“I’ve been a lot more comfortable this year and also being a senior, it’s your team. You can’t hold back,” Arsenault said. “I have more confidence and everyone trusts me more. I trust everyone on offense, and that helps me. Also, adding Kenzie and playing with Sam every day and Cara [Urbank], all of our threats are so dominant.”

Arsenault has garnered plenty of praise herself. She’s proven to be a game-changer wherever she plays.

“Everyone is paying attention to Dempsey now, but she's been the linchpin of the program's success since the first week she came on campus her freshman year,” Walker-Weinstein said. “We just had her being our mark defender as a freshman, and she played in huge games with really important matchups, and she was shutting people down every game. She's just now evolving on the offensive end and putting a complete — almost a perfect — game in it. She started in a pursuit of that her freshman year as a markup defender.”

Arsenault now teases BC’s defenders that she’s having more fun on offense, but she has no regrets about her two years spent playing defense.

Arsenault has been able to focus on communicating more with teammates on the offensive end this year. Last year, she was still learning the expectations for the offense.

“It was just learning all of the different plays and the motions and getting comfortable,” Arsenault said. “And also dealing with all that while being tired because I’m running the midfield, whereas on defense the [previous] two years I would take a few runs up the field and go in for certain plays. Getting used to getting my legs under me and also learning the whole offense was a challenge. But everyone was so supportive and really helped me through it all.”

An aggressive dodger, Arsenault still fashions herself to be more of a playmaker, but she has tried to broaden her mindset.

“I’ll set up as many people as I can,” Arsenault said. “I’d so much rather set someone up for a goal than do it myself. [Coaches] encouraging me to go [to goal] gets in my mind that I have to go. That’s my job. It’s not to set everyone up all the time, but also to take it to goal. That’s definitely improved over the years as I’ve gotten more comfortable on the offensive side.”

Consistent with her attitude, Arsenault will do whatever Boston College needs from her to get back to a title game and win it. She was a defender two years ago when the Eagles made their first final four, and hopes playing offense for a second season will help them capture their first NCAA championship.

“Everyone knows offense gets all the credit,” Arsenault said. “But our defense works so hard. We always joke about it.”