University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Northwestern
Tar Heels Fall At Northwestern, 7-5
March 31, 2014 | Women's Lacrosse
EVANSTON, ILL. - Sixth-ranked Northwestern (6-3) got three goals and an assist from All-America Alyssa Leonard and beat top-ranked North Carolina (11-1), 7-5, in women's lacrosse action on Monday afternoon at Lakeside Field. The loss stops Carolina's 15-game winning streak and ends the best start in program history.
The game was originally scheduled to be played on Sunday but was delayed a day due to the Tar Heels' travel difficulties in getting to Chicago on Saturday. Carolina players and coaches flew to Chicago on Monday morning prior to the game.
Northwestern led from the start and held UNC to a season-low five goals. Carolina's previous low scoring output had been 13 goals against Penn, and it had started the season 11-0 with its closest game being a 14-10 decision at Virginia in early March.
The Tar Heels got single goals from Taylor George, Abbey Friend, Sloane Serpe, Maggie Bill and Carly Reed. In addition to Leonard's output, Northwestern got two goals from Kaleigh Craig and one each from Kelly Rich and Kat DeRonda.
Bridget Bianco went the distance in goal for Northwestern and recorded six saves. Freshman Caylee Waters made her first career start in goal for the Tar Heels after coming off the bench in relief of sophomore Megan Ward in a rotation for the first 11 games of the season. Waters played all 60 minutes on Monday and made three saves.
NU jumped out to a quick, 2-0 lead in the first five minutes and led 4-1 midway through the first half. Leonard had two goals and an assist for the Wildcats in their early flurry. Carly Reed broke the momentum temporarily with a free position goal that made it 4-2 with 10:23 to go until the break before Leonard won a loose ball in front of the Tar Heel cage and scored with six seconds to go for a 5-2 NU advantage at halftime.
The Wildcats scored first out of the locker room at halftime to take a 6-2 lead. The Tar Heels could never get closer than three goals the rest of the way, cutting the NU advantage to 6-3 and 7-4 in the second half. The Northwestern defense held UNC scoreless for nearly 18 minutes until Serpe scored on a free position try with 47 seconds to play to make the score 7-5.
Carolina will return to action on Saturday at home at Fetzer Field against second-ranked Maryland in a rematch of last year's NCAA championship game.
