A little more than a year ago, Will Bowen came home to Cohasset, Mass., at the onset of the pandemic and did the math.
The North Carolina defenseman had figured he could graduate in 3 ½ years thanks to a bunch of advanced placement credits as well having overloaded his schedule for a few semesters.
Then he looked closer, and realized he might be able to get done in three.
“It was an eye-opening experience for me, first having torn my ACL and then having had a season get canceled due to COVID,” Bowen said. “It was like ‘OK, this isn’t forever, and I know I’m where I want to be but I can’t continue to [ignore the future]. It made sense for me to finish this academic program as quickly as I could and then do another one.”
In this strangest of seasons, there are the normal fourth-year seniors. There are plenty of fifth-year seniors. And then there’s Bowen, a first team All-America selection by the USILA who could be viewed as a third-year senior.
But with three years of eligibility left thanks to the redshirt year and the blanket pandemic waiver, he’s also sort of a third-year freshman --- and on his way to pursuing a two-year master’s degree in finance at Georgetown. He’ll play for the Hoyas the next two seasons while working off the field to position himself for a career in the financial services sector.
Yet first, he and the top-seeded Tar Heels (13-2) will face fourth-seeded Virginia (12-4) in Saturday’s NCAA semifinals in East Hartford, Conn.
“I knew what I was getting myself into, but I had never lived it or experienced it and now I am,” Bowen said. “It has been unique. It’s been weird to have gone to school for the last three years with my class and my best friends, but fortunately our team is close. So when I made the decision to graduate and move on, I was very quickly adopted by our graduating seniors.”
As unusual as it is for a player --- especially one at a school that has a graduate school and is permitted by league rules to have fifth-year players --- to enter the transfer portal before closing out his time at a school, no one in Chapel Hill has lamented any part of Bowen’s decision other than the fact North Carolina doesn’t offer the program he sought.
Instead, the Tar Heels have appreciated having a guy around who is the active roster representative on the program’s alumni mentorship program and who was recently named one of the school’s top 10 scholar-athletes.
“It’s tough to lose the young man out of the program, not [just] the player,” coach Joe Breschi said. “He’s a great player, but the person he is and what he has meant to this program is unparalleled. He’s just a really, really good guy. I have to check the rules to see if I can stay in touch with him when he’s at Georgetown because he’s that kind of person, a guy you gravitate toward because he’s pretty special.”
In some ways, it feels like Bowen just got to Carolina. He’s played in only 22 career college games, but considers his first year in the program as an eye-opening experience. Last year’s abrupt end was a disappointment to everyone in the sport, including a Carolina team that was 7-0.
And now, after a quick start, a midseason reset after consecutive losses and the Tar Heels’ current five-game winning streak, there’s a blink-of-an-eye element to how quickly Bowen’s time at North Carolina is winding down.
“My lacrosse experience has definitely felt like it’s flown by between actually sitting on the sidelines and then a half season and now finally having a real full season under my belt,” Bowen said. “But I feel like I’ve gotten a full UNC experience in terms of the social front and the guys around me. This place is special. This doesn’t need to be a UNC advertisement, but I truly feel that way. I’ve gotten as much as I could have asked for out of this place.”
Well, maybe not quite everything. There is still the matter of this weekend’s business and the opportunity to help the Tar Heels win their sixth national title and first since 2016. Bowen will get the chance to do so a little less than two hours from his hometown.
“This was my goal when I decided to come to Carolina,” Bowen said. “I chose Carolina for 20 reasons, but one of them definitely was because I knew I had a chance to compete for a national championship. And here it is sitting right in front of me and my teammates and the coaching staff.”
Tillman’s time
Just how deep is North Carolina’s offense? Lance Tillman ranked 12th on the Tar Heels’ roster with five goals entering Saturday’s quarterfinal defeat of Rutgers.
Then he scored four goals off the bench in the 12-11 triumph, a breakout Tillman might have been building toward for the last month.
“He’s kind of been doing that in practices and so forth,” Breschi said. “You saw signs of it the last couple of weeks in games. He had a great move against Monmouth. Obviously, had a good game against Duke. he’s been coming out of the box, playing midfield and attack.”
The sophomore had two points in Carolina’s first 10 games --- an assist against Jacksonville and a goal against High Point --- but delivered a goal and an assist in a rout of Syracuse on April 17. He scored twice in the regular-season finale against Duke, and once in the first round against Monmouth.
Now Tillman is one of eight Tar Heels to score at least four goals in an NCAA tournament game during Breschi’s tenure. The others: Chris Cloutier (three times), Luke Goldstock (twice), Billy Bitter, Jimmy Dunster, Marcus Holman, Steve Pontrello and Joey Sankey.
“I felt like Rutgers’ defense is so good. They depended a lot on their goalie, so we felt like we had to get some breakdown situations and cause some slides and rotations,” Breschi said. “Usually, they weren’t sliding, so we felt Lance would give us a great shot whether he was at midfield or attack to create those opportunities, and he took advantage of them.”
Triple threat
Historically, the third time has not been the charm for North Carolina. Of course, what better occasion could there be to accomplish something new than in a final four?
The Tar Heels, who split two games with Virginia earlier this season, are playing an opponent three times in a year for the sixth time since the school recognized men’s lacrosse as a varsity sport in 1949. It is 0-5 all-time in third meetings.
North Carolina lost its first three varsity games to Delaware in 1949. It lost in the regular season, won in the ACC tournament and fell in the NCAA tournament to Virginia in 1994.
More recently, it was swept by Duke in 2007 and 2009. The Tar Heels also took a regular-season game from Maryland in 2011, only to fall in both the ACC and NCAA tournaments to the Terrapins.
Should North Carolina take the rubber game against Virginia, it might have the chance to win a third matchup again Monday. After all, the Tar Heels and fellow semifinalist Duke split their home-and-home series in the regular season.