By R.L. Bynum

A young Carolina women’s lacrosse team took No. 17 Richmond’s best shot and withstood it Sunday to reach the NCAA tournament quarterfinals for the 20th consecutive season.

Senior attacker Melissa Sconone’s first career hat trick led No. 4 Carolina to a 16–12 victory Sunday over the Spiders in the second round of the NCAA tournament at Dorrance Field in Chapel Hill.

Reigning national champion UNC (16–4) will play host to No. 5 Denver (21–0), which Sunday beat Albany 8–6, at 5 p.m. Thursday (ESPNU) in a quarterfinal contest for the right to play in the semifinal round, to be played in Cary, seeking the program’s fourth national title.

Junior attacker Caitlyn Wurzburger, who had two goals and an assist, assisted on Sconone’s third goal to give her 200 career points, becoming the 13th in program history to do that.

Carolina built first-half leads of 3–1 and 5–3, with two Sconone goals and scores from redshirt sophomore attacker Reilly Casey, freshman attacker Caroline Godine and senior midfielder Olivia Durks.

Richmond seized control with four consecutive goals — two from Lindsey Frank to give her a first-half hat trick — to take a 7–5 lead with 7:38 left in the first half. Casey and Dirks each scored again, but an Arden Tierney goal gave Richmond an 8–7 halftime lead.

Carolina regained the lead with goals from freshman attacker Marissa White and Wurzburger in the first 2½ minutes of the second half. But Richmond grabbed the lead back with Grace Muldoon’s second goal and a score from Sarah Roycroft.

UNC led again after goals by Wurzburger and Godine. Sophia DiCenso’s goal cut Carolina’s lead to 12–11 by the end of the third quarter. White’s second goal with 8:10 left in the game opened up a two-goal edge.

Richmond trimmed the lead to one on a free-position goal from Lindsey Frank, her fourth goal of the game, with 5:09 remaining. But UNC got two consecutive goals from fifth-year attacker Lauren Figura and one from Long to put the game away.

Carolina sophomore goalkeeper Alicia Nicholas made seven saves. Senior defender Emily Nalls had a game-high four ground balls and freshman midfielder Kaleigh Harden had a game-high eight draw controls.