At the end of the first quarter of Boston College lacrosse’s matchup with then-No. 7 Duke, the Eagles were down by three goals. A minute and a half into the third quarter, BC trailed by six—its largest deficit of the season.
Despite facing its largest deficit of the season, the Eagles (13–2, 5–2 Atlantic Coast) scored eight goals in the second half to tie things up with just under three minutes to go on Saturday. But BC’s effort came up short, and after scoring a goal with just over a minute to play, the Blue Devils (15–1, 6–1) defeated then-No. 2 BC 16–15 for the Eagles’ second loss of the season.
The Eagles’ contest in Durham marked the first time BC’s leading scorer Charlotte North returned to Duke, where she spent the first two years of her collegiate career before transferring to BC ahead of the 2020 season.
The Blue Devils double teamed North and held her to just two goals—an uncharacteristically low-scoring game for the 2021 Tewaaraton Award winner. For the first time since last season, North scored fewer than four goals in two consecutive games. She scored one goal in BC’s 17–1 victory over Harvard on April 12.
While North was quiet for much of the game, other Eagles stepped up. Sophomore Kayla Martello led the team in scoring with four goals—three in the fourth quarter—including the game-tying goal with 2:40 to go.
Alongside Martello and Jenn Medjid, who scored three goals, Belle Smith led BC’s offensive attack with three goals and six assists for a career-high nine points. She dished out assists to Martello for BC’s final two goals of the game.
Despite BC’s attempts at a comeback, the Blue Devils persisted. With 1:21 left to play, Duke’s Maddie Jenner netted a goal over the stick of goaltender Rachel Hall to go up 16–15. Duke stopped BC from attempting another shot throughout the rest of regulation and handed the defending national champions their second loss of the year.
With the loss, BC moves to No. 5 in the USA Lacrosse rankings, its lowest spot of the season. Duke moved up ahead of the Eagles to No. 4 in the rankings with the win, and Syracuse, which will challenge the Eagles in BC’s final regular-season game on Saturday, sits at No. 2.
