There’s nothing easy about playing an ACC women’s lacrosse schedule, and during the course of its conference play, the Boston College women’s lacrosse team has exemplified that difficulty. Through six ACC matchups going into Saturday, the Eagles held onto a record of 2-4 in the conference, while still maintaining a No. 6 national ranking. With the culmination of conference play on Saturday, though, the Eagles capped off their final ACC game on a positive note, topping the Virginia Tech Hokies in dominant style, 20-9.
Virginia Tech had been struggling in conference play all season, dropping each of its four ACC matches leading into the game, all of them by more than eight goals.
The Eagles got down to business right from the start, putting up four unanswered goals within the first nine minutes of play. Junior Covie Stanwick, the Eagles’ points leader on the season, was responsible for three of those goals, scoring within the first three minutes, then again at the 25-minute-mark-that goal assisted by Moira Barry-and again at 19 minutes. Teammate Mikaela Rix, who has been lighting up the scoreboard all year and leads the Eagles in goals scored with 33 so far on the season, had the fourth goal within that span, which came just over a minute after Stanwick’s first.
The Hokies struck back twice to make it 4-2 before the game hit the 16-minute mark, but the Eagles then went on another streak, scoring five more as the half wound down. This time, the scoring was more evenly distributed with Rix scoring once, Barry striking twice, and Sarah Mannelly, the Eagles’ second-most productive offensive weapon, adding to the scoreboard as well. Stanwick closed out the first half with her fourth goal of the game, scoring with just one second left to make it 9-2.
Faced with an onslaught of shots from the Eagles’ offense, Virginia Tech goalie Meagh Graham actually tallied more saves that Emily Mata did on the other end for the Eagles during the first half. While Mata had two saves on the Hokies’ five shots during the first half, Graham had three.
The Hokies’ offense picked up during the second half, but not enough to surmount its already sizable deficit. While Rix’s goal for BC was the first of the half, Megan Will quickly struck back and scored two for Virginia Tech, followed by one from teammate Kelly Naslonski to make it three straight goals for the Hokies.
An Unrelenting Rix served as the book-ends to that streak, though, scoring her third of the game to nullify Virginia Tech’s unanswered streak as the score was brought to 11-5, BC.
From there on out, the Hokies were unable to put up another sizeable streak which they desperately needed, managing to score two goals in a row just once more. With the offense failing to put enough points on the board, the defense also served to widen the deficit as the Eagles scored nine more goals during the last 20 minutes of play. Barry had two more, and Rix scored once to register her game-high point total of six-five goals and one assist.
Stanwick was silenced in the second half, but other Eagles-Carly Weilminster, Cali Ceglarski, Kate Rich, Tess Chandler, and Caroline Margolis all stepped up and had goals of their own-and Sarah Mannelly had her second of the game.
From a goaltending standpoint, the second half was similar to the first. Graham faced nearly twice the number of shots that Mata did and had three saves to Mata’s one.
With the win, the Eagles finished their ACC schedule on a high note. After one more regional regular-season game on Wednesday against Vermont, the Eagles are headed to the ACC tournament in hopes of making a post-season run in one of the nation’s top lacrosse conferences.
