At long last, Championship Weekend has arrived!

Nearly four months after the Syracuse Orange women’s lacrosse team began their 2023 season, they take the field at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, NC for the NCAA Final Four.

The Orange will be playing the No. 3 seed Boston College Eagles in the second semifinal of the day. It is a rematch of their regular season finale- a 17-16 BC win that ended Syracuse’s undefeated regular season.

The game is scheduled to start at approximately 5:30 PM, depending on the timing of the first semifinal (Northwestern vs Denver), and will air on ESPNU or stream on WatchESPN.

• All-time series: Syracuse leads, 17-10; BC has won 3 in a row
• Last meeting: Boston College W, 17-16 on April 20, 2023
• Syracuse in NCAA Tournament: 20th appearance, 9th Semifinals appearance, 26-19 overall record, 3-5 Semifinals record
• Boston College this season: 18-3, 8-1 ACC regular season

Boston College this season

The Eagles have been one of the hottest teams in the country in the second half of the season, as they’re currently on a 12-game winning streak after starting the season 6-3.

They’ve kept it rolling ever since their comeback with over the Orange by winning their first ever ACC Tournament Championship with a win over North Carolina in the final.

Boston College in NCAA Tournament

The winning streak has (obviously) continued into the NCAA Tournament, although they were tested somewhat surprisingly in their first game against Penn, coming away with a 9-7 win over the Quakers.

The close call went away in the quarterfinals, where they absolutely destroyed Notre Dame in their third meeting with the Irish with a 20-6 victory to cruise into the Final Four.

Scouting Boston College

Offense

BC has one of the most talented offenses in the country, and they’re led by their own version of a “Big Four” to counter SU’s.

Jenn Medjid (77G, 23A) is their leading scorer and one of Meaghan Tyrrell’s fellow Tewaaraton Award finalists. She leads the Eagles with an even 100 points on the season, and also leads them in goals with a frighteningly-high 77. Unsurprisingly, she’s a pretty lethal shooter at .524 percent.

Her fellow “Big Four” members are McKenna Davis (26G, 58A), Belle Smith (50G, 31A) and Kayla Martello (57G, 6A). Davis is one of the best distributors in the country, ranking third in the NCAA in assists per game (2.76). Smith is one of the best all-around midfielders in the country, supplementing her 81 points on offense with 30 ground balls, 27 draw controls, and 15 caused turnovers. Martello is kind of the Meg Carney of BC, primarily functioning as a goal scorer and sitting only behind Medjid in goals for the Eagles.

The Weeks twins round out the top-6 for the BC offense, and, appropriately, they both have 41 points this season. Cassidy Weeks (32G, 9A) is the goal scorer and also factors in on draw controls (36), while Courtney Weeks (22G, 19A) is more balanced on the offensive end with a near even split between her goals and assists.

Draw Controls

The Orange won the draw battle 21-15 in the first game, but the Eagles have plenty of talent playing on their draw unit.

Andrea Reynolds (90DC) and Ryan Smith (80DC) form a formidable duo with their combined 170 draw wins on the season, and their complimented well by a quartet of players who have at least 25 draws: Cassidy Weeks (36), Belle Smith (27), Abbey Herod (26), and Hollie Schleicher (25).

Defense

The BC defense has the ability to limit any opponent, as evidenced by the job they did holding SU to only five goals in the second half of the first game.

They’re led by Sydney Scales (37GB, 33CT), one of the best defenders in the country who backed that up by being named a First Team All-American by Inside Lacrosse. She’s joined by Hunter Roman (30GB, 25CT), Melanie Welch (16GB, 11CT) and Sophia Taglich (15GB, 9CT) as starting defenders. The Orange attack will definitely have their work cut out for them.

Goalie

Freshman Shea Dolce (.473 SV%, 8.36 GAA) has grabbed the starting spot from graduate student Rachel Hall (.432 SV%, 9.81 GAA), and has thrived since taking over full-time.

She had a huge game in the first meeting between these two, finishing with 12 saves. She will force the Orange shooters to be on point if they want to find the back of the net.

Join us tonight as we follow the Orange women on their quest for the program’s 1st National Championship. Can they break through in Cary like the Syracuse men’s soccer team did last fall?