Tar Heels Rally Past Syracuse for ACC Women's Title

A little over two weeks ago, Syracuse snapped No. 2 North Carolina’s nine-game winning streak with a 13-11 win in Chapel Hill. On Sunday, it looked like maybe Syracuse just had the Tar Heels’ number.

The No. 10 Orange scored the first four goals of the game, and then even after North Carolina had gone on a 5-0 run to take a 9-6 lead early in the second half, Syracuse answered with its own five-goal run to retake the lead at 11-9.

But North Carolina was not to be denied. The Tar Heels scored the final nine goals of the game to win the Atlantic Coast Conference championship 18-11 over Syracuse.

Molly Hendrick matched her career-high with seven goals and added a pair of assists for a career-best nine-point day to earn ACC Tournament MVP honors. Carly Reed added four goals and Sydney Holman had a big three-goal, three-assist afternoon.

“Obviously one of the keys to the game is great defense, the one-on-one stops and taking care of the individual matchups,” said North Carolina coach Jenny Levy. “One we started getting some stops, I thought, was key, but we also started dominating on the draw circle. They just didn't have the ball in the second half as much as we did. Once we got into a rhythm, I think it really opened up their defense.”

North Carolina won 22-of-31 draws in the contest, including 13-of-17 in the second half. Five different players had at least three draw controls for the Tar Heels, led by Maggie Auslander with five.

Devon Parker was one of four Syracuse players with two goals, and she also added two assists.

USC Wins Mountain Pacific Sports Federation

USC opened the second half on a five-goal run to break open a close game and defeated Colorado 16-11 in both teams final appearances in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. Colorado and USC will play in the Pac-12 next season.

USC has now won 10 straight games since dropping back-to-back games to Cornell and Stony Brook on a trip east in March, and improved to 16-3 for the season. Colorado, which started the season 11-0, has now lost three of its last eight, with two of those losses coming to USC.

Michaela Michael had four goals and seven draw controls for the Trojans and Gabby McMahon also scored four times. Gussie Johns made 13 saves for USC to earn the victory.

Johnna Fusco led Colorado with four goals goals, but the Buffs committed 41 fouls in a game that featured 73 fouls and nine yellow cards. USC buried 5-of-6 on its free position shots while Colorado was 6-of-12.

Penn Captures Share of Ivy League Title

Penn captured a share of the Ivy League championship with a dominating 18-7 victory over Yale at Franklin Field. The victory left the Quakers in a three-way tie for the championship with Cornell and Princeton, but Cornell will be the No. 1 seed and host next weekend’s Ivy League tournament.

Penn, which has won or shared the Ivy League title in 10 of the last 11 seasons, trailed 3-2 midway through the first half, but then went on a 13-1 run over a 30-minute stretch to put the game away. Freshman Gabby Rosenzweig had a career-high seven points on four goals and three assists to lead the Quakers and Emily Rogers-Healion also had four goals. Erin Berry had three consecutive goals in a span of just 3:21 that began when Penn had a 4-3 lead.

The Quakers will meet rival Princeton in one semifinal on Friday, while Cornell will play Harvard in the other.

Towson Hammers Charles Street Rival Johns Hopkins

Towson will enter the Colonial Athletic Association tournament on a high note after drubbing its Charles Street rival Johns Hopkins 18-5. The Tigers (12-5) scored the first seven goals of the game and led 11-1 at the half.

Kaitlyn Montalbano led Towson with a five-goal, two-assist day and Carly Tellekamp also scored five goals. It was the second straight season that Towson swept its Greater Baltimore rivals Johns Hopkins, Loyola and UMBC.

Towson is the No. 2 seed, but will host the CAA Tournament next weekend. The Tigers meet Elon in one semifinal while top-seeded James Madison meets Delaware in the other.

Nike/US Lacrosse Division I Top 20 Scoreboard

No. 2 North Carolina 18, No. 10 Syracuse 11
No. 5 Penn State 17, Michigan 10
No. 6 Penn 18, Yale 7
No. 8 USC 16, No. 9 Colorado 11
No. 18 Towson 18, Johns Hopkins 5

Nike/US Lacrosse Division II Top 20 Scoreboard