Heels Crush Maryland 13-7 to Win NCAA Lacrosse Title

The Tar Heels avenged last season's loss to the two time defending champions with a resounding 13-7 win over Maryland to win the NCAA Championship in women's lacrosse.

After giving up the first goal of the game UNC went on a 6-0 run to take a 6-1 lead midway through the first half. Aly Messinger assisted on four of those goals. On the defensive end goalie Megan Ward saved six shots and UNC managed to kill of three penalties for the five goal advantage. Maryland did not plan on going quietly and responded with two straight goals to cut the Tar Heel lead to three. With a 1:30 left in the half, UNC had possession but took a questionable shot with a minute left. Maryland collected the save then scored on the other end with 13 seconds left to make it 6-4 at the break.

UNC responded to open the second half with a goal to make it 7-4 but Tar Heel turnovers allowed Maryland to cut the lead to 7-6. Maryland had possession with a chance to tie but Ward again stepped up with a save. The Tar Heels went on another goal run finding the back of the net on five straight possessions to run the lead to six goals with ten minutes left.

Maryland scored off the draw to make it 12-7 and then won the subsequent draw but failed to score. After UNC burned some clock Molly Hendrick scored to collect a hat trick on the day and give UNC a 13-7 lead with 7:11 remaining.

All that was left was for UNC to burn the clock and keep Maryland's offense in check. UNC did that with continued dominance of the draw circle and Ward collecting save after save to finish with 14 for the game.

The title is UNC's second in program history and first since 2013. The loss for Maryland was the Terps first of the season.