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The 2019 NCAA Women’s Lacrosse Championship suddenly has a different feel.

The likely top two seeds when the field is announced tonight (NCAA.com, 8 p.m) will be Boston College and Maryland. Those two teams separated themselves from the field over the course of the regular season, but both will enter the tournament following losses.

Boston College saw its undefeated season end to North Carolina in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game last Sunday and Maryland suffered a similar fate today with Northwestern posting an impressive performance in a 16-11 victory over the Terps in the Big Ten tournament game at Johns Hopkins.

Those four teams — along with Syracuse, with took Boston College to the wire twice and lost to Maryland in overtime — are among several squads with legitimate title aspirations.

For Northwestern, a NCAA title would be a first since 2012, which coincidentally was the last time it beat Maryland.

Northwestern never trailed against Maryland and used a five-goal run in the final 10 minutes of the first half to take a 10-4 halftime lead. A 12-3 performance on the draw in the opening 30 minutes helped fuel that effort, as did seven first half saves from Mallory Weisse.

Any run Maryland tried to put together in the second half was thwarted by Selena Lasota and Lindsey McKone. Lasota scored three of her four goals in the second half and McKone, who had a game-high six points, had two goals and two assists after the break.

Freshman Izzy Scane added four goals for Northwestern and one of the play’s signature moments. After a Northwestern turnover in the second half, Scane chased Maryland’s Erica Evans down the field, checked the ball out of her stick and picked up the ground ball to regain possession.

Caroline Steel was one of five Terps with two goals and added three assists for a team-high five points.

* .    * .    *

Meanwhile, a few hours South in Harrisonburg, Va., reigning NCAA champion James Madison looks to be back in May form following a dominant 13-3 win over Hofstra in the Colonial Athletic Association championship game.

It was the third straight CAA title for JMU which has now won nine straight games since losing to Maryland on March 24.

James Madison’s offense was sizzling early with the Dukes scoring 10 goals in the opening 20 minutes of the game to take a 10-1 lead and then it turned into the Molly Dougherty show.

Dougherty, one of the stars of JMU’s national championship run a year ago, finished with 12 saves in holding the Pride to a season-low three goals.

Maddie McDaniel had a team-high four goals to go along with seven draw controls while Hanna Haven (3g, 2a) and Logan Brennan (3g, 1a) each had hat tricks.

In the Ivy League, Princeton pulled away from a 6-6 halftime tie to beat Penn 13-9 and win its second consecutive Ivy League championship.

The trio of Elizabeth George, Tess D’Orsi and Kyla Sears did most of the damage for Princeton and they each had a goal in the Tigers’ 3-0 run to open the second half.

George had a game-high five goals to go along with an assist, Sears had a game-high seven points (2g, 5a) and D’Orsi had a hat trick.

After Penn had cut the lead to 9-8 with 16:10 left in the second half, Sears assisted on two straight Princeton goals, one by George and the other by Julia Haney and the Quakers were unable to make a final run.

Gabby Rosenzweig led Penn’s offense with two goals and four assists.

* .    * .    *

In the lone non-tournament game of the day, NCAA bubble team Duke fell behind VCU 4-1 early but got clicking soon after in a 26-13 victory. Charlotte North tied her own school record of eight goals and set Duke’s single-season points mark of 105, breaking Katie Chrest Erbe’s total of 96.. Olivia Jenner had a school record 20 draw controls, extending her single-season record to 150.

Sunday Scoreboard

Big Ten Championship
Northwestern 16, Maryland 11

CAA Championship
James Madison 13, Hofstra 3

Ivy League Championship
Princeton 13, Penn 9

Duke 26, VCU 13