University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Loyola
Tar Heels Use Second Half Rally To Edge Greyhounds, 8-6
March 10, 2000 | Women's Lacrosse
March 10, 2000
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - North Carolina's fifth-ranked women's lacrosse team rallied from a 6-3 halftime deficit Friday afternoon to defeat ninth-ranked Loyola 8-6 at Fetzer Field behind senior midfielder Meghann Mohler's career-high five goals. The win was Carolina's third in a row and boosted the Tar Heels' record to 3-1, while the Greyhounds lost their first game of the season after winning their opener this past Tuesday against UMBC.
After Mohler scored less than two minutes into the game to give Carolina its only lead of the first half, Loyola's Stacey Morlang and Megan Santacroce scored back-to-back free position shot goals to put the Grehounds up 2-1 21:36 before intermission. Mohler then tied the game at 2-2 on a free position shot goal with 17:49 left in the first half.
Neither team would score for more than nine minutes before Morlang scored her second of three goals off an assist by Krissy Warnock with 8:44 left in the half. Carolina won the ensuing draw control and just nine seconds later sophomore Lindsay Stone took a pass from Mohler and tied the game at 3-3. The rest of the half belonged to Loyola as the Greyhounds scored three goals in a span of 3:15 to lead 6-3 at the half. Morlang, Kory Miller and Stephanie Sweet scored in rapid succession to stake the Hounds to their halftime lead.
The second half was a different story, however, as the Carolina defense tightened up and did not allow a Loyola score after halftime. Mohler got the Tar Heels off to a good start when her third goal of the game cut the deficit to 6-4 just 1:06 into the second period. Neither team scored for more than 13 minutes before the Tar Heels started their game-winning rally. A goal on a free position shot by McPike cut the Greyhounds' lead to 6-5 with 15:52 to play. Just 1:18 later, Mohler retrieved a ground ball and scored in an unsettled situation to tie the game at 6-6.
The last two Carolina goals were things of beauty coming out of the Tar Heels' set offense. With 13:04 to play Mohler scored the game-winner as she cut across the middle and took a pass from sophomore Kellie Thompson to beat Loyola goalkeeper Tricia Dabrowski. With 8:21 to play in the game, Thompson added the insurance goal for UNC as she took a feed from behind the goal by sophomore Erin McInnes and beat Dabrowski >from in close.
Carolina had 26 total shots on goal to 19 for Loyola. UNC won the ground ball battle 26-10. Dabrowski had 10 saves for Loyola and sophomore Melissa Coyne had five saves for Carolina.
The Tar Heels will return to action on Sunday when they play 17th-ranked Vanderbilt (0-2) at Fetzer Field at 1 p.m.
