NCAA CHAMPIONs M
aryland was the overwhelming favorite to win its third straight NCAA championship. It finished the regular season without a blemish and reversed its fate from last year with its first-ever Big Ten
tournament crown. Its senior class went 44-0 at home under the leadership of three-time Tewaaraton winner Taylor Cummings. Naturally, the Terps took over national headlines, while the Tar Heels felt underrated. “We were a little underestimated because we had some rocky games, a lot of one-goal games,” Messinger said. “People thought, ‘Carolina’s good, but are they great?’”
While Levy recognized the Tar Heels weren’t “a sexy team” with “crazy stats,” they believed in themselves. “The story is for the media and the game is for the players,” assistant coach Katrina Dowd said. “I don’t allow them to buy into that until it’s all said and done. We talk about the journey and the story, but right now we have 60 minutes to make history. We have 60 minutes until the story is complete.” Ward watched game film the night before and knew the Terps would throw hitches and shoot high. Levy had analyzed film from Maryland’s Syracuse, Johns Hopkins, Penn State and Northwestern games and devised a game plan to be ready at all times to slide to Megan Whittle and Cummings, the Terps’ top offensive threats. Maryland had improved since its 8-7 win over North Carolina on Feb. 27, but Levy said more than anything, “The bigger change was in us, realizing who we were and what we were capable of doing collectively as a team.” Levy walked her players down memory lane in her pregame speech, reminding them how great their teammates were — how McCool was double-teamed by Duke with 30 seconds remaining in the ACC semifinal, lost the ball and then chased her pursuers 100 yards down the field to secure the one-goal win; how Mallory Frysinger checked Kayla Treanor to stop Syracuse dead in its tracks when they were two men down in the final seconds of the ACC final; and how Caylee Waters made critical saves in relief of Ward against Penn State in the
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NCAA semifinal to get them back to the championship game. “Everyone doubted us,” Tracy said. “It fueled our fire. It only made us come together and play harder.” For the last time this season, Hendrick hopped in the center of her team’s huddle to lead the pregame chant: “We’re all we got! We’re all we need!”
The intensity of the tradition was at its peak that Sunday afternoon. Levy said only one percent believed North Carolina could win the championship, and that one percent was in the Tar Heels’ locker room. “We don’t need anything else to be successful,” Hendrick said. “You’ve got to buy in right now. You’ve got to believe right now.” North Carolina scored six straight goals and led 6-4 at halftime. Messinger found every seam in Maryland’s vaunted defense, assisting on four of the goals. At halftime, she addressed her team one more time. “Those who have the will to win cannot be beaten,” she said.
“She speaks the least, [but] says the most,” Reed said.
Messinger opened the second half with her first of two goals. The Terps came within one four minutes later on Cummings’ only goal of the game, but again, the Tar Heels answered with a five-goal run. North Carolina was well on its way to dealing Maryland its worst loss since 2007.
“There were 15 seconds left and we were up by six and Mallory and I were yelling at our defenders to not let up, as if there was some way were going to lose in the last 15 seconds,” said Ward, who bounced back from a shaky start against Penn State and went the distance with 14 saves. “That dedication to play the full 60 minutes, which we were focusing on all season, it was never that high until that championship game. I think that’s why we won by such a large margin.” For all the talk about Cummings and the Maryland dynasty, history will show that North Carolina and the Tar Heels seniors were just as good. “Remember, we kept asking all
year, ‘Who are we?’” Levy said to her team afterward. “We’re damn national champions!” Now that’s a great answer.
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July/August 2016 » LACROSSE MAGAZINE 27
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