A sense of irony hung over Conte Forum on Wednesday night. It was the first night of the final ACC-Big Ten Women's Challenge, but the matchup in Chestnut Hill pit two teams against one another for what felt like a throwback game to a previous era. Boston College ran out of one tunnel as the ACC's host institution, and the Eagles sought to win their second consecutive year in the competition after losing in 2019 and missing the 2017 and 2018 iterations altogether.
The Eagles had beaten Penn State last season to earn their first victory in the Challenge since beating Purdue, 58-56, in 2015, but history hadn't exactly been kind to a program that beat the Nittany Lions in the first-ever competition in 2010.