University of North Carolina Athletics
Race For Carlyle Cup Coming Down To Wire
April 17, 2001 | General
April 17, 2001
The first annual Carlyle Cup race, neck-and-neck down the home stretch, could hinge on the ACC championships in four sports and the UNC-Duke baseball series.
The ACC Golf Championships and two Carolina-Duke rematches in the ACC lacrosse tournaments will all be played in Orlando, Fla., this weekend.
The three-game baseball series between the Tar Heels and Blue Devils is in Chapel Hill, Friday through Sunday.
Duke currently leads UNC in the overall Carlyle Cup competition, 20-17, after trailing last fall by 16-1 in the standings. Forty-eight total points are at stake, with 24.5 needed to retire the Cup, a sterling silver and enamel urn provided by sponsor Carlyle & Co. jewelers, for one year.
There were no head-to-head matches between Carolina and Duke in golf, so the men's and women's Carlyle Cup points will be awarded to the team that places higher in the ACC Championships at Disney World's Magnolia and Palm courses.
The Duke women golfers are favored to finish ahead of the Tar Heel women and gain the three Carlyle Cup points. However, the men's golf teams from both schools are much closer and have, in fact, taken turns finishing higher in common events this spring.
The Duke men edged UNC by four shots in last weekend's Intercollegiate at Finley Golf Course. Earlier in the season, the Tar Heels were nine shots better than the Blue Devils in the FSU tournament.
Carolina could also "win back" three points by defeating Duke in the ACC men's and women's lacrosse tournaments and possibly three more points by meeting and beating the Blue Devils in the ACC men's and women's tennis tournaments, also in Orlando this weekend.
Duke won the regular season men's and women's lacrosse matches to gain three Carlyle Cup points each. However, the teams will play again in both sports in the semifinals of their respective ACC tournaments. A win by UNC in either match "wins back" 1.5 points, since the season series would then be tied.
The same applies in men's and women's tennis, both won by Duke in the regular season. Should Carolina advance to the finals against Duke in the respective ACC tennis tournaments, it could win back 1.5 points in either match by upsetting the Blue Devils.
In all probability, however, Carolina needs to win the three points in men's golf and then take the best-of-three baseball series at Boshamer Stadium for another three points to keep Duke from clinching the Carlyle Cup.
If that occurs, and Duke wins the women's golf points, the Cup standings would be deadlocked at 23-23, with one point each in track & field and rowing left to be earned. The track point will be determined at the ACC championships, also at Disney World this weekend, and the rowing in the ACC meet at Clemson on April 28.
If the final Cup standings wound up 24-24, the tiebreaker provision would kick in. The first tiebreaker is head-to-head games or matches during the regular season, to date, Carolina has won 10 games or matches in the series and Duke has won 8.
