Stony Brook women fall to North Carolina in NCAA lacrosse tourney

The Stony Brook women’s lacrosse team challenged North Carolina in ways no other team has been able to this season. But it still wasn’t enough to hand the Tar Heels their first loss of the year.

Top-seeded North Carolina defeated No. 8 Stony Brook, 8-5, in the quarterfinals of the women’s lacrosse NCAA Tournament at North Carolina’s Dorrance Field in Chapel Hill Thursday evening.

North Carolina (20-0) plays No. 4 Northwestern in the semifinals May 27 in Baltimore. Stony Brook finishes 16-3 after falling in the quarterfinals for the fourth time in the last five seasons.

Stony Brook became just the second team this season to enter halftime with a lead over North Carolina, leading 4-3 at the intermission. The Seawolves also held North Carolina far below its scoring average of 17.6 goals per game entering the contest. The Tar Heels scored at least 20 goals in seven contests and posted at least 14 goals in each game.

Ellie Masera struck first for Stony Brook before North Carolina scored the next three goals of the contest. But the Seawolves scored the final three goals of the second quarter, including Siobhan Rafferty’s goal with 27 seconds left in the period to take a 4-3 advantage. Jaden Hampel scored two goals over 1:12 to tie the score at 3 for Stony Brook.

North Carolina scored the final four goals of the game, including Caitlyn Wurzburger’s goal with one second remaining in the third quarter to take a 6-5 lead.

Andie Aldave had three goals and an assist and Sam Geiersbach had two goals and an assist for North Carolina.

Masera and Hampel each had two goals for Stony Brook.