The top-seeded Terrapins will take on the victor of Friday’s second semifinal between Boston College and Navy in Sunday’s NCAA Championship game at Gillette Stadium.
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Maryland leads the nation in 33 NCAA appearances, also tops in wins with 67, and in championship game appearances with 21.
The second half was dominated early by the Terps, with Boston unable to find answers to five-consecutive Maryland goals.
The University of Denver lost the NCAA lacrosse semifinal game on Saturday to Maryland by the final score of 9-8.
After it was finally over and Maryland had survived with a 16-13 victory to capture its third national championship in four years, it could relish that fact that it was hard-earned. Rambo (40 goals, 43 assists) has notched eight points in each of the last two playoff games and is tied for the all-time lead in school history with 153 career goals.
“So I think that’s a little bit of something that was unsaid that probably did motivate us”, Reese said. Boston College won the final draw and was able to run down the clock to secure the victory.
The Terrapins used a 5-0 run in the first five minutes of the second half to break open a game that was tied 5-5 at intermission. The fourth-seeded Lions are matched up with top-seeded Maryland, which has topped Penn State on 12 straight occasions and in 28 of the past 29 meetings.
The day’s biggest surprise was not the tight finish, but Maryland’s ability to compete in the faceoff game.
When Maryland tallied its opening goal after just 10 seconds had elapsed, it seemed like the Terps might run away with the trophy.
“I think this entire year has been a year of upsets, especially in tournament play”, Boston College defender Carly Bell said. “We did it so the girls could look and find their families and feel really grounded from it, ” Walker said.
“I thought Dylan Gaines did a great job matching defensively”, senior captain and defensive linemate Christian Burgdorf (Westfield, New Jersey) said. Apuzzo, who scored 4 goals today, ends the season as the country’s leading goalscorer with 80 goals in 24 games. At one point during the second half, the foul differential was 16-1 in favor of the Eagles.
Kent kept Boston College close with three straight goals to cut the margin to 11-9, then assisted on Dempsey Arsenault’s goal with 14 minutes left to get the Eagles back within a goal.
But the Eagles came back again, edging to within 10-8 on Kent’s third goal with 20:26 left.
A year after falling to North Carolina in the final, Maryland captured its 13th women’s lacrosse championship.
“She’s a really quiet kid, really shy”, Walker said of Apuzzo.
“This is more than a lacrosse team”, Stukenberg said.
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Larkin scored an unassisted goal to pull Navy to within two, but a BC free-position goal extended the lead back to three, 14-11. Je.
