Stony Brook survives Boston College to advance to NCAA Tournament women's lacrosse quarterfinals

Joe Spallina was incensed.

The Stony Brook women’s lacrosse coach had just stepped into his locker room shortly before the Seawolves met Boston College in an NCAA Division I Tournament second-round game Sunday afternoon at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium, only to discover that his assistants had begun to play the movie audio of “Miracle on Ice” coach Herb Brooks’ impassioned speech to the 1980 United States Olympic men’s hockey team.

“I lost my mind,” Spallina recalled after Stony Brook beat the Eagles, 10-9. “I was [ticked].”

Why?

“Boston College should have been doing that,” Spallina said. “We’re the favorite. We’re not backing down from anybody.”

Especially not the team that ended the 2025 Seawolves’ season 364 days earlier.

So along with extending their season for at least one more game, the Seawolves can revel in the reality that they ended Boston College’s streak of eight straight appearances in the national semifinals.

“It’s great,” Spallina said. “They ended our season, so there’s a lot of understanding of that finality.”

Whereas the Eagles will return to Chestnut Hill to begin to prepare for next season, Stony Brook (19-2), which has won 15 games in a row, will face fourth-seeded Johns Hopkins (16-4) in a quarterfinal in Baltimore on Thursday at noon.

“We’re in a great spot,” said Isabella Caporuscio, who scored four goals. “This is a team we played before.”

Stony Brook lost to Johns Hopkins 13-11, on March 8 in Baltimore. The Seawolves haven’t lost since.

After falling behind 9-3 in the third quarter, the Eagles mounted a comeback. Glenwood Landing’s Kylee Colbert scored two of her four goals for Boston College (10-8) in a three-minute span of the third quarter as Stony Brook’s lead was cut to 9-7.

Haydin Eisfeld scored her second goal of the game 3:12 into the fourth quarter to give Stony Brook a 10-7 cushion. That proved vital when Molly Driscoll and Giulia Colarusso scored four minutes apart for the Eagles late in the fourth.

After Colarusso’s goal, Olivia Schorr won the ensuing draw control, and although Boston College later gained possession, the Eagles had no shots on goal in the final four minutes. Eisfeld caused a turnover on a free-position shot with 11 seconds left to preserve the victory.

Stony Brook never trailed, taking leads of 4-0 after a quarter and 7-3 at halftime. Caporuscio’s third and fourth goals swelled the advantage to 9-3.

Julia Fusco, Keira Martin, Jeilinne Bonilla and Schorr also scored for Stony Brook and Natalia Altebrando made eight saves.

Eagles defender Shea Baker received her second yellow card of the contest 3 minutes, 45 seconds into the quarter, and the senior defender was ejected.

Said Boston College coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein, “It’s really hard when you have a game like that where you fight all the way back against a great opponent, four officials, and to come up short in the end is a heartbreaker.”