On Wednesday evening, the #3 Boston College women’s lacrosse team set out to defend their ACC Title. They started the 2024 ACC Tournament with a match-up against #24 Duke, who they had previously defeated 18-3 back in March. And this time around was no different, with the Eagles winning another dominant game by a score of 19-5.
It was a somewhat back-and-forth contest to start out, with Mckenna Davis, Kayla Martello, and Molly Driscoll scoring some early BC goals while Duke’s Katie Keller and Caroline DeBellis kept it close in the first quarter. But Boston College absolutely dominated the second quarter and didn’t look back from there. The eagles scored six unanswered goals, three of which came from Rachel Clark, and continued piling on later in the quarter to take a commanding 11-3 lead heading into halftime. Clark, alongside her teammates Belle Smith and Emma LoPinto, continued the scoring spree into the second half and Duke could never recover. And it certainly didn’t help that the Blue Devils took five penalties in the second half, as compared to BC’s two infractions.
Rachel Clark led the day with 4 goals and an assist, followed closely behind by Belle Smith (3G), Kayla Martello (3G), and Emma LoPinto (3G, 3A). And Shea Dolce was stalwart in net as usual, recording 5 saves and only allowing 5 goals all night.
The Eagles advance to the ACC semifinals with their win and will face the #2 Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Friday April 26th at 8pm. It will certainly be a hotly-contested game between two of the nation’s best teams, as the Eagles will look to enact revenge for their 15-14 loss to the Irish just over a month ago.