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It didn't feel like a vintage Boston College offensive performance, but when the final horn sounded, the scoreboard had been lit up plenty and the Eagles held off Syracuse 15-13 in a rematch of last year’s NCAA championship game before a spirited crowd at Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill, Mass.

While there are no easy paths to an Atlantic Coast Conference title, Friday night’s win clinched the No. 2 seed for Boston College — avoiding a potential showdown with top-ranked and unbeaten North Carolina until the championship game.

Kayla Treanor was the mastermind behind the Boston College offense during last year’s NCAA championship run as an assistant coach. She’s now on the opposite sideline, returning to her alma mater as the head coach at Syracuse.

Treanor is no longer at BC, but Belle Smith, Charlotte North and other weapons are still there and they stepped up when it mattered most.

Smith tied her career-high with five goals and had two of the biggest goals of the night. Smith scored on a feed from North with 2.7 seconds left in the first half to give the Eagles a 7-6 halftime lead.

Boston College (14-2, 6-2 ACC) stretched its lead to 13-8 in the fourth quarter, but a gritty Syracuse team battled back with four straight goals to cut the lead to just one with plenty of time to complete the comeback, but Smith was there again for BC. She slammed home a pass from Caitlyn Mossman to end the Orange run.

North played a big role all night with three goals, three assists and five draw controls. She had back-to-back goals in the third quarter that started a 4-1 run that gave the Eagles their five-goal lead and went over 400 points in her collegiate career.

With North in the draw circle, the Eagles won 10 of 15 in the first half, forcing Syracuse to play a ton of defense. Syracuse finally flipped the script in the fourth quarter, winning eight of nine draws in the final frame to fuel its comeback attempt.

Syracuse’s four straight fourth quarter goals came in a span of just 2:49 with Meaghan Tyrrell scoring twice and assisting a Sam Swart goal and then Emily Hawryschuk made it 13-12 with 9:59 left. Syracuse turned it over on its next two possessions with a chance to tie the game, the second coming as Sydney Scales was able to track down Megan Carney to force a turnover.

Carney was a game-time decision for Syracuse (13-4, 6-2) due to an injury, but gutted it out and had a goal and an assist. Tyrrell and Hawryschuk each scored four times for Syracuse with Tyrrell’s goals coming on just four shots.

North and Smith got the headlines for Boston College, but they had help from everywhere. Mossman had a team-high four assists, Kayla Martello scored three goals and Jenn Medjid and Cassidy Weeks each scored twice.

The ACC tournament gets underway on Wednesday at Notre Dame with a first round game between the No. 8 and No. 9 seeds. The quarterfinals begin on Friday and all eight games from the tournament will air on the ACC Network.

USC Beats Arizona State

Freshman Isabelle Vitale had two goals and five assists and No. 13 USC got three goals each from Claudia Shevitz, Shelby Tilton and Madison Waters in a 15-13 win at Arizona State.

The victory improved USC's record to 12-3 and 8-2 in the Pac-12, one half game ahead of Stanford, which closes out its conference schedule tomorrow against rival Cal. Stanford beat USC twice during the regular season and will earn the Pac-12's top seed for the conference tournament with a win tomorrow, but tonight's victory gave the Trojans a bye into the semifinal round.

The game was tied 7-7 at the half, but a four-goal run in the third quarter helped USC pull ahead. Carley Adams had four goals for the Sun Devils (9-7, 7-3).

Offense Leads Colorado Past Oregon

Colorado scored a season-high 23 goals in a 23-12 victory over Oregon in Boulder, Colo., on Friday night. Sadie Grozier scored four of her five goals in the first quarter, added two assists and became the fourth player in school history with at least 150 career goals. Charlie Rudy and Chloe Willard each added three goals and an assist for the Buffs (10-5, 5-5 Pac-12). Shonly Wallace had a hat trick for Oregon (3-13, 1-9).