STONY BROOK, N.Y. (AP) � Shannon Smith scored her fourth goal with 18 seconds remaining and second-seeded Northwestern advanced to its seventh consecutive NCAA women's lacrosse final with an 11-10 victory over third-seeded North Carolina on Friday night.
By Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke, AP
Northwestern teammates celebrate Shannon Smith's (3) game-winning goal against North Carolina in the NCAA women's lacrosse semifinals at LaValle Stadium in Stony Brook, N.Y.,
By Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke, AP
Northwestern teammates celebrate Shannon Smith's (3) game-winning goal against North Carolina in the NCAA women's lacrosse semifinals at LaValle Stadium in Stony Brook, N.Y.,
Erin Fitzgerald added three goals for the Wildcats (19-3), who will face top-ranked Maryland on Sunday in a rematch of last year's title game. Northwestern lost 13-11 to the Terrapins last year, ending a run of five consecutive championships.
"Obviously we're thrilled to be moving on to the championship game and I think we had our ups and downs today," Northwestern coach Kelly Amonte Hiller said. "But as we showed throughout the season, we kind of have a strong will to win and we made things happen when the going was tough."
The Wildcats wasted three three-goal leads and gave up 30 shots, requiring Smith to deliver a big play.
"Shannon's a great player," North Carolina coach Jenny Levy said. "She's a great offensive player and you can't go into the game without any kind of game plan against her.
"She's just very dynamic. She's big and she's tough and she's capable of getting her shot off and you can't do just one thing to her. She'll eventually figure it out."
Laura Zimmerman scored four goals for North Carolina (16-5), which lost to Northwestern in the semifinals last year and the championship game two years ago.
Smith came through after being unable to find an open teammate in front of the Tar Heels net and being fouled by Taylor Chutney with 25 seconds remaining. After driving past Chutney and Mia Hurrin, Smith swept a shot from close range past goaltender Britt Giacco.
"I had the ball behind the net and I was just waiting for the clock to go down," Smith said. "I was going up to the right side, the girl slid and I got fouled. I kind of just ran to the goal and the one girl who was doubling me slid off and I took that one girl 1-on-1 and got lucky that it went in."
After Smith's 29th career tournament goal sealed the win, a good portion of the 7,468 fans at Kenneth Lavelle Stadium gave the Wildcats a standing ovation. Their roster includes several players from Long Island.
"It's awesome," goaltender Brianne LoManto said. "It definitely has that home-crowd advantage but at the same time, we all have the same goal and we all got to stay focused and get things done on the field."
Before Smith scored her 12th goal in this tournament, it appeared North Carolina was on its way to a dramatic victory. Zimmerman scored twice and Brittney Coppa added another in a span of 2:46 for a 10-10 tie with 7:13 remaining.
"That just shows the kind of team that we are," Tar Heels midfielder Corey Donohoe said. "We just never give up no matter what and we never let down."
Before North Carolina's final rally, Northwestern had scored four straight in a span of 11:41 and took a three-goal lead on Fitzgerald's third of the night with 12:09 remaining.
Fitzgerald and Smith, who have combined for 111 goals this season, scored two of the first three goals as the Wildcats opened a 3-0 lead in the first nine minutes.
Becky Lynch scored twice in the first half for the Tar Heels.
Maryland beats Duke 14-8 to reach final for 20th time
Sarah Mollison and Katie Schwarzmann scored four goals each, Laura Merrifield added three and top-ranked Maryland beat Duke 14-8 on Friday to reach the NCAA women's lacrosse final for the 20th time.
The defending champion Terrapins (21-1) will face Northwestern on Sunday at Kenneth Lavelle Stadium on Long Island. They beat the Wildcats 13-11 in the championship last year.
"We're really thrilled about where we are right now," Maryland coach Cathy Reese said.
Emma Hamm scored three goals and Kim Wegner added two for Duke (15-5), which was seeking its first appearance in the title game. Molly Quirke, Sarah Bullard and Christie Kaestner also scored for the Blue Devils, who could not overcome 18 turnovers and 20 fouls.
Beth Glaros, Kristy Black and Alex Aust also had goals for Maryland, which has outscored opponents 48-20 in the tournament. The Terps also beat Duke 18-11 in February.
The Blue Devils couldn't overcome Mollison's presence, becoming the third team to allow at least four goals by the Australian star and ACC player of the year.
"I think it's because you can't run through the crease in women's lacrosse, you can only do so much with Sarah Mollison," Duke coach Kerstin Kimel said. "She's mastered everything through the crease when you play her, and I think that's a pretty fair statement."
Mollison took seven shots, six that reached the goal and four that went past Duke goaltender Mollie Mackler. Mollison's second consecutive four-goal game gave her 12 for the tournament and 35 in NCAA tournament games.
"I do like to play that position, and I do think that it is strength," Mollison said. "But at the same time my teammates work for me and I try to work for them. I think that's what makes us so successful and enables to be the team (we are)."
Mollison scored two goals in a span of a 2:40 that put the Terrapins up 3-1 with 10:51 left in the first half. Her third put Maryland up 7-2 just over three minutes into the second half, and the final goal gave the Terrapins a 10-4 edge with 19:57 remaining.
"Coming into to today's game, you look at Sarah and you look at everything everyone has done trying to stop her and it doesn't work to be totally honest," Kimel said. "It's a total tribute to her and honestly we just decided we were going to play her straight up man-to-man and try to do a great job of covering cutters in the front, which we did."
Schwarzmann scored three of her goals in the second half, including an unassisted tally with 2:42 remaining after Duke scored three times to get within five.
The sophomore midfielder also scored with 4:28 left in the first half, just over five and a half minutes into the second and again with 12:34 to go.
Merrifield scored Maryland's first goal six minutes into the contest and the Terrapins' final goal of the first half with 1:46 left that made it 5-2. She also scored the first goal of the second half 90 seconds in.
Schwarzmann, who scored five goals in Maryland's earlier victory over Duke, assisted on two Mollison goals. She also scored with 4:28 remaining in the first half.
Maryland seemed to be cruising to the title game for most of the second half before Brittany Dipper gave up goals to Bullard and Kaestner in a span of 38 seconds. Just over a minute later, Hamm scored her third goal off a feed from Kaestner.
The Blue Devils squandered two more big opportunities before Maryland regained possession with a little over three minutes remaining and sealed the win.
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