EAGLE EYE: Kate Weeks prepares to unload the ball in recent action for the Boston College women’s lacrosse team Weeks, a former Hun School standout, enjoyed a big senior campaign this spring for the Eagles, scoring 76 goals to help BC reach the NCAA championship game. (Photo by John Quackenbos/BC Athletics)

When Kate Weeks committed to attend Boston College and join its women’s lacrosse team, she was hoping to get in on the ground floor of something big.

“In my gut, I thought that this team wanted to win more than they wanted to do anything else in their life,” said Weeks, a former Hun School standout who started her BC career in the fall of 2013.

“It was an unbelievable passion that other maybe more established programs didn’t have. I wanted to be part of growth instead of going to an already established program.”

Weeks, a 5’9 attacker, grew into a star for the Eagles, going from five goals as a freshman to eight as a sophomore, 43 as a junior, and 76 this spring in her final campaign. The increase in Weeks’s production mirrored a rise in fortunes for BC, who advanced to the NCAA championship game this spring as it made the program’s first-ever appearance in the February.

In reflecting on her progress, Weeks believes she was steeled by her early struggles.

“I don’t even know what happened; I think something just clicked with me and I was ready,” said Weeks.

“I worked so hard at that and now that my career is over and thinking back I would rather have it happen like that. I like that I had to work my tail off to get where I was my junior and senior year. It wasn’t fun at the time but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

As for BC, the team had to work hard to find an offensive rhythm, coming off a 10-9 season in 2016.

“We had to find our own identity as a team because we lost Sarah Mannelly; she was a Tewaaraton finalist,” said Weeks.

“We had to find a new flow and how everyone could contribute in a different way. The pressure is on every year to be the first one to break through the glass ceiling and make it to the final 4, let alone a national championship game.”

Weeks got into the flow early on this spring, scoring five goals in a season-opening 19-8 win over Holy Cross and then tallying a carer-high eight on an 18-10 victory over Massachusetts in the next game.

“Game by game, I stayed focused on the process,” said Weeks, who ended with 106 points this spring on 76 goals and 30 assists. “I was focusing on the game and winning at the end and doing whatever I had to do to help us win.”

After losing 15-12 to Duke on April 8 to drop to 10-5, the Eagles sharpened
their focus.

“That was a huge wake-up call to us because that was a game we could have won,” said Weeks.

“We just faced some adversity and because of that adversity everyone just kind of buckled down and something clicked. Our coaches said it too, like something clicked and and what was happening with this group. We still don’t know what it was. It was unbelievable and we realized that we could do it.”

Earning an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, BC took its attack to a higher level, beating Canisius 21-9 and Syracuse 21-10 to advance to the quarterfinals.

“We worked ten times harder because we knew people were going to be scouting our offense,” said Weeks.

“So with that, going into the NCAAs, our thing was to stay grounded. The coaches told us: ‘You stay humble, you stay focused and just do your job.’”

In the quarters against seventh-ranked USC, the Eagles kept rolling with a 20-14 win.

“When we beat USC to make it to the Final Four, that was everything that you wish for the program and wish for yourself,” said Weeks, who tallied three goals and six assists in the victory. “It was what you dreamed of as a little kid.”

As icing on cake, the Final Four was being held in Gillette Stadium, about 30 miles away from Boston.

“It was such a motivation for us too, our team kept saying before going into Syracuse, we want to go home,” said Weeks.

“We wanted to play at Gillette, it was unbelievable. All of the police officers at Gillette, everyone we saw, it just felt like the whole world was rooting for Boston College.”

That special homecoming nearly came to a premature end as BC trailed Navy 9-6 in the semis at halftime before pulling out a 16-15 win.

“The message at halftime was stern; we were just not playing well at all, we weren’t playing how we usually play,” said Weeks

“We were shooting shots that were bad shots. Our coaches separated us into offense and defense and they said you guys talk and figure out why you are good and you have to start doing it again. We had to refocus, the Navy team was good.”

Weeks and her teammates were excited to get a rematch in the title game with top-ranked and undefeated Maryland, which had beaten the Eagles 21-13 on April 8.

“We respect Maryland a lot; they have a very good program and very good coaches,” said Weeks.

“But we were in the mindset that we just made it to the finals too, we were more than qualified to be there with them. Everyone was looking at us as the underdogs but our team was so focused and so hungry, we did not see ourselves as the underdogs at all. Our coach’s message to us was that with a team like Maryland, you have to attack them early, you don’t have time to hold back in the first half.”

Displaying that hunger, BC battled Maryland to a 5-5 stalemate in the first half. The Terps started the second half with a 5-0 run but the Eagles didn’t fold, narrowing the gap to 11-10 with 14:00 left in regulation before falling 16-13.

“You can’t get into a gap with them or with any team in the NCAA tournament,” said Weeks, who had two goals and an assist in her college finale as the Eagles ended the spring with a 17-7 record.

“That definitely killed us a little bit.”

While the defeat to Maryland stings, Weeks won’t dwell on that when she looks back at this spring.

“We are all huge competitors to the farthest sense. Losing is not OK with us,” said Weeks.

“Just being with the girls was the main thing. We kept saying the thing that pushed us to the Final Four in the tournament is that we wanted to spend another week with our best friends. We didn’t want to leave each other so we just fought, blood, sweat, and tears. That is what I will always remember.”

The historic NCAA breakthrough can’t be taken away from the squad. “Being the first team to do that to break through the glass ceiling means a lot in the end,” said Weeks.

“We owe it to our alumni because they created the foundation of this program and that is why we were able to go as far as we did.”

In assessing her brilliant final campaign, Weeks knows that she owes a lot to her teammates and coaches.

“A lot of my goals are assisted,” noted Weeks, crediting BC head coach Acacia Walker and assistant coach Jen Kent with having a huge influence on her game. “The reason I was able to have such a successful season statistically was that the girls around me were absolutely great.”

Having also enjoyed a great experience off the field at BC, Weeks is now pursuing success on Wall Street.

“They really pushed me academically and honestly made me a better student,” said Weeks, a communications major who will be starting a job as a broker for Marsh & McLennan in New York City this July.

“They didn’t take it easy on us because we were athletes; they made us be the best students that we have to be. We were taking finals in a hotel room in Liverpool before playing Syracuse.”