Boston College lacrosse had 17 days in between its ACC Tournament loss and its opening NCAA Tournament game.
And while there were times when BC showed the rust that can come with a break that long—namely a 25-minute scoring drought—the Eagles seemed to take full advantage of that preparation time.
“That’s such a special time,” BC goaltender Shea Dolce said. “Because it’s time that we can focus on ourselves as a team, not preparing for anybody on the weekends. It’s really just all about us, and I think that was huge for our team.”
Playing its first round game on the road for the first time since 2017, No. 19 BC (10–7, 6–4 Atlantic Coast) used a five-goal second quarter to take down No. 21 Yale (13–5, 6–1 Ivy) 10–4 in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. The Eagles controlled the draw circle, winning 10 out of 16 draws.
“The girls, they executed the game plan really well,” BC head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein said.
BC was led by Long Island native Kylee Colbert, who looked right at home playing just an hour east of her hometown. Despite having just two previous NCAA Tournament goals, Kylee found the back of the net a career-high six times, outsourcing the Bulldogs by herself.
“It’s such a special experience, and it’s more special to do it with my teammates,” Colbert said of being able to play on her home island. “So I’m just so grateful, the second I stepped back foot here, I was just in awe the whole time.”
The first quarter made it seem like BC was in for one of the defensive battles it has found itself in all year. It took over six minutes for Giulia Colarusso to open the scoring on a pass from Casey Colbert to make it 1–0 Eagles.
After the two teams traded goals, Colarusso got her second tally of the game to give BC a 3–1 lead, before a Yale goal with 1:23 left in the quarter made it 3–2 after 15 minutes.
But BC’s offense came alive in the second quarter, scoring five unanswered goals to put the Eagles in the driver’s seat.
Kylee got the scoring starting just 57 seconds into the frame, converting on a free-position shot to make it 4–2. Molly Driscoll followed that up with her first score, before a sister-to-sister goal from the Colberts led to Kylee securing a hat trick and giving BC a 6–2 lead.
Freshman Caroline Chisholm scored her first career NCAA Tournament goal with 6:25 left in the half, and Kylee found the back of the net for the fourth time in the first half 1:27 later to put BC up six goals. With 37 seconds left in the half, Nell Ducey tallied her second score of the game to make it 8–3 BC at halftime.
BC’s run was bolstered by its ability to take advantage of the chances that it had. The Eagles earned five free position shots over the first 30 minutes, scoring on four of them. In comparison, the Bulldogs had just one first-half free position, which sailed wide.
BC could not keep the momentum from the second quarter going into the third quarter. In fact, neither side could, as there was just one goal scored between the two teams in the frame.
That goal came early in the third, when Whitney Froeb buried a free position shot to make it 8–4 BC. From there, the two sides spent the rest of the period playing shut down defense, with saves, turnovers, and blocked shots playing a big part.
With 9:38 left in the game, the Colbert sisters combined for the second time in the game. Once again, Casey fed the ball to Kylee, who put it in the back of the net for her fifth goal of the game and BC’s first score of the second half.
BC’s offense remained quiet, so it was the Eagles’ defense—led by All-Americans Shea Baker and Shea Dolce—that were tasked with securing the win down the stretch. BC faced multiple shorthanded possessions after a pair of yellow cards, but Dolce made four saves across the two power plays to keep the Bulldogs off the scoreboard.
“Defensively, our goal is always just get the offense the ball,” Dolce said. “We don’t care if we’re man down, we don’t care if we’re even. So it was really just about bringing a new level of intensity for those two minutes and playing with all we got. And that’s exactly what we did.”
Kylee continued to have the hot hand, scoring her sixth goal of the game with three and a half minutes left for the final score of the game, as BC took home the 10–4 victory to set up a date with No. 5 Stony Brook in the second round.
“It’s gonna be a dog fight,” Walker-Weinstein said of the upcoming matchup. “That’s why we play the sport.”
