The Sunday Slide: How "Back" is North Carolina?

Rumors of North Carolina’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.

Anyone with a level head knew of the Tar Heels’ injury-related shortcomings a year ago. And to their credit, other teams facing the same set of circumstances probably wouldn’t even have sniffed the NCAA tournament.

That’s a credit to the players, but also to Jenny Levy and her staff for recruiting. You can’t reach the tournament like they did without depth.

Much of that depth is still in Chapel Hill. And those injured difference-makers are back. Oh yeah, and so is an insane class of freshmen.

It was so refreshing to see Brooklyn Walker-Welch back to her dominant ways this weekend after missing all of last year. Against Florida, she kickstarted transition, ran the length of the field in a clunky leg brace, passed to an offensive player and then hung around to find open space on the crease. She buried it.

Walker-Welch brings incredible defensive skills but also high lacrosse IQ. She’s a leader in every sense. You can replace starting spots, but it’s hard to replace that knowledge.

It’s probably too early to say North Carolina is all the way back. They’re quite talented but also quite young in a lot of places. But if this isn’t the year, then you don’t want to get in North Carolina’s way next year. Or probably the year after that.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS

Holy Cross was in my “not sure” list entering the spring. And that wasn’t meant to belittle the work of the Crusaders. It’s just hard to see a team randomly turn a corner one year and expect the same level of production the next.

But here they are. Holy Cross is 3-0 with resounding wins over Fairfield (22-13), UAlbany (16-8) and Iona (18-5). Naturally, the offensive standouts are carrying the load. Sally Zinsner’s 24 points and 15 goals lead the team, but Isabela Miller has also already reached 20 points.

Duke looks like it could be a thorn in the side of ranked teams. The Blue Devils began a brutal three-game stretch against Johns Hopkins, Boston College and Notre Dame by taking the Blue Jays to overtime at Homewood Field. Ashley Mackin, who had five goals, scored the winner for Hopkins.

Navy-Villanova was a surprisingly close one. It was quite the seesaw battle, too, with Navy leading by as much as four at 13-9 before sneaking out of Villanova with a 17-16 win. The Mids have some of the most impressive offensive depth in the country, and that clearly wasn’t the problem Saturday.

It wasn’t a stellar day for the goalies, but one game doesn’t define a season. Plus, it was actively snowing during the game. There’s no cause for concern with Navy.

Funny enough, as exciting as it is to write player profiles, we often joke internally about the “feature curse.” Write a story about a player or team and curse them to lose or underperform. It’s 100 percent not corroborated by facts. Just a journalist thing.

So, it was nice to see Emma Ward ball out against Maryland after Beth Ann Mayer’s great feature about her last week. She had three goals and four assists in a convincing 15-9 win.

McKenzie Blake is a baller.  Princeton fell just short against Virginia, but Blake is the clear alpha on a Princeton team that looks like it’s matured a ton since last year.

Tip of the cap to Ohio State. The Buckeyes are consistently a tough team to analyze. There have been peaks and valleys for the last five or so years. A 2-0 start with wins over Denver and Louisville are a great start, and it can’t be understated how far that could go in the eyes of the Selection Committee.

Circle March 23 against USC for when the gauntlet begins. But Ohio State could be 8-0 or 7-1 by then. Nice start, for sure.

MY PICKS

Thank you, thank you. That’s right, I had a 5-0 week.

And thank goodness after that 3-2 fiasco in week one. I was the lone contrarian who chose Yale to beat Michigan. I valued the home team, plus the offensive depth and overall chemistry of the Bulldogs, who only graduated one starter.

Now it’s time to stack another great week on top of it.

FUN WITH NUMBERS

7, 10 • Goals and draw controls by Chase Boyle, the February USA Lacrosse Magazine cover star, in a 17-4 win over American.

15 • Combined points by sisters Ashley and Chloe Humphrey in North Carolina’s 14-9 win over Florida.

16 • Points by Hofstra’s Nikki Mennella in the Pride’s first two games of the season. She had four goals and three assists on Friday and three goals and six assists on Sunday.

17 • Saves by Paige Pagano in South Florida’s 11-8 win over Mercer. The Bulls have started their inaugural NCAA season with three wins.

26 • Goals scored by Clemson in a 26-6 win over Stetson, marking the most goals scored by a Division I women’s program so far this season. Eleven players scored, led by Kayla MacLeod’s six goals. Clemson dropped 20 goals on Vanderbilt earlier in the week, too.

47 • Home winning streak for Northwestern snapped by Boston College on Saturday. Jake Epstein was there to cover the action for us.

80% • Percentage of James Madison’s goals scored by Maddie Epke and Savannah Derey in a 15-11 win over in-state rival Virginia Tech. Epke and Derey each scored six times.

100% • Shooting percentage for Maddie Dora, who netted six goals in USC’s 17-6 win over Cal.