2021 NCAA WOMEN'S LACROSSE CHAMPIONSHIP

May 28, 2021

Jenny Levy

North Carolina Tar Heels

Media Conference

Boston College 11, North Carolina 10

JENNY LEVY: Just congratulations to Boston College. I thought they played great. Specifically Rachel Hall I think had a day, did a really good job. But overall just really proud of my team. We were down by quite a few and came back and made it interesting at the end. Just a little bit too late, but overall I thought the defense did their job.

We did a great job in the center circle in the draw and unfortunately for us we didn't do what we normally do, which is execute offensively. It's been a great season. It's a great team. Very proud of all the players and all the hard work they've done this season, and just a lot of gratitude to be where we were today and obviously extremely disappointment in the result, but the journey has been awesome this year, and you're never going to replace it.

Q. Coach, what do you think the turning point from the game today was?

JENNY LEVY: You know, for us or against us?

Q. Just for the game in general.

JENNY LEVY: I didn't think there was one specific time. I just think we did a good job on the draw. We earned a lot of possessions. Our defense got stops. I think Charlotte North had two, and the one she had was in transition on turnover, which is unfortunate. I don't even remember the other one she got. But I thought our defense did a good job.

I don't think there was necessarily a turning point, I just think we weren't capitalizing on our possessions on offense, and I think that puts a lot of stress on the defense. They handled it in the second half. But we've got to do a better job. We held them to three goals in the second half, but the attack at that point really needed to step up and finish on opportunities.

Q. Today Hoeg had two of the last three goals of the game. Kind of seemed like she was trying to will you guys back into it at times. Can you talk about what you saw out of her late in the game today, and then after that, what she's meant overall to the program?

JENNY LEVY: Yeah, Katie wants to perform. I really thought the ball needed to be in her stick in the second half a lot more. She's going to try to make a play. I talked to her on the sidelines. She said, If I can get the ball in my stick I think I can do something with it. We trust her, and she's been a leader and a great player for us for five years, and she's an unbelievable human being. Integrity, character, work ethic, passion for the game. She's just great. We've loved her. She's loved us.

It's a disappointing day for someone like Katie Hoeg, but she has nothing to hang her head on. She's had an unbelievable career, and she manages her business day in and day out in a very noble way, and she's been a great leader for our entire program for five years.

Q. How do you describe Boston College's interior defense and how they limited some of the kind of incisive passing that you guys -- it's been a hallmark of your season so far.

JENNY LEVY: Yeah, they did a really good job. I thought there was a lot of interior defense, and at that point we really needed to get some better spacing, be a little bit more aggressive on the backside, be a little bit more patient. I thought first half we were really impatient with our possessions, and when a team is sliding so much, you can -- ball movement is going to beat it regardless of the interior defense.

I just thought we just were a little impatient today, and it played into what BC was doing defensively. It wasn't until the end where we actually didn't get like a lot of clean looks on the cage, but they did a great job today. Their defense did a great job.

Q. What's just something from today and honestly the season in general that you want to try and have your team take away for next season?

JENNY LEVY: You know, I just think the quality of our relationships and the team building mixed with the standards of excellence, of preparation and hard work. That's something that's always been a trademark of our program. This team with the COVID stuff that was going on, it really encouraged -- you really had to -- you just had to do it all even better. It made it a challenge to do what you normally did even harder.

It just shows you that we are capable of doing tough things, so the standards coming out of this year are even higher than they were last year because we did it with such adversity this year, and a lot of teams did it with a lot of adversity.

Q. What else did you notice about BC's defense that was different than perhaps a unit against which you were able to put up 21 goals just a few months ago? Obviously every team and unit evolves over the course of a season. BC then versus BC now, how can you diagnose that?

JENNY LEVY: I mean, last time we played them they chose not to slide. Today they very much were sliding and taking away -- they were inside the 8-meter. I don't know what to say. They were inside the 8-meter sitting in shooting space in three seconds quite a bit, so last time we played them, the middle of our critical scoring area was pretty open.

But that's not unusual. We've seen it all year. We've seen packed houses defensively all year, and it's not something that we can't handle. We just -- they did a great job. They played very much as a unit. They played very much as a team. They had a great game plan that was effective.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you so much for joining us, and congrats on a great season.