University of North Carolina Athletics
From Fetzer To Finley: Cavorting In The Commonwealth
April 9, 2001 | General
April 9, 2001
By Dave Lohse
Associate Athletic Communications Director
Last Friday a pair of University of North Carolina athletic teams loaded up their respective modes of transportation and ventured north of the border to take on teams from the Old Dominion. Little did they know when they started their trips that their fates on Saturday would prove so similar in nature.
oth John Haus' Tar Heel men's lacrosse team and Sam Paul's North Carolina men's tennis team ventured to the Commonwealth of Virginia needing to win to maintain post-season hopes. It was that simple. And both teams headed north as heavy underdogs.
For the men's lacrosse team the opponent would be fourth-ranked Virginia, just two years removed from its 1999 national championship and an NCAA semifinalist last season. After a rough start the Wahoos were flying high on a four-game winning streak that included victories over both Johns Hopkins and then top-ranked Maryland.
The Tar Heels were headed in the opposite direction. UNC had started the season 4-1 but in its last three outings it had lost games to a trio of Top 10 teams--Duke, Maryland and Johns Hopkins. Virginia may have been 5-3 and North Carolina 4-4 heading into the game but the momentum the two teams carried into last Saturday's game at Klockner Stadium in Charlottesville belied the one-game difference in their records.
For the Tar Heel men's tennis team things were shaping up no differently. The Tar Heels had lost at Wake Forest last Wednesday 5-2, ending a four-match winning streak for UNC and dropping the Tar Heels' record to 8-6 overall and 4-1 in the ACC. With second-ranked Duke slated to visit Chapel Hill on April 9, the Tar Heels needed to find a way to pull off an upset of 2000 NCAA finalist Virginia Commonwealth if they were going to give themselves some breathing room in pursuit of the team's ninth NCAA bid since 1992.
VCU was not expected to be in a welcoming mood. The Rams had been upset last season in Chapel Hill by the Tar Heels 4-3 and Coach Paul Kostin has seen his team drop only seven home dual matches in his entire tenure at VCU. In addition the Rams had five starters back from last year's team which advanced all the way to the NCAA championship match before losing to Stanford 4-1.
What transpired on Saturday in the Commonwealth (Virginia, Massachusetts, Kentucky and Pennsylvania are the four states which are officially referred to as commonwealths) was nothing short of heroic if you look at the world through Carolina Blue eyes.
oth teams pulled off amazing victories as the men's lacrosse team upset the Cavaliers 7-5 and the men's tennis team won four of six singles matches to turn back VCU by a 4-3 score for the second straight year.
Neither of the victories guaranteed Carolina of a spot in the post season for 2001. But without them both teams would almost assuredly have been eliminated from NCAA consideration. Despite the fact that Carolina's men's tennis team lost at home to #2 Duke Monday by a 5-2 score the Tar Heels still control their own fate as the season winds down. UNC is now 9-7 overall and 4-2 in the ACC. On Monday the Tar Heels played Duke much tougher than anyone expected. Matches at Georgia Tech Friday and Clemson Sunday will go a long way in determining whether the Tar Heels get an NCAA bid. A sweep and Carolina is almost assuredly in the tournament. A split and the Tar Heels probably need to win at least one match in the ACC Tournament to be sure of getting in. Regardless, the win over VCU put the Tar Heels in a position where they can now control their own fate.
The men's lacrosse team's win at Charlottesville was even a bigger shocker. UNC had lost six in a row to the Wahoos and Carolina was a woeful 1-18 in its last 19 games against ACC teams. But all that mattered little. Led by a spectacular defensive effort by senior Bobby Gormsen, solid goaltending by Kris Blindenbacher and an offense just opportunistic enough, the Tar Heels stole away with a 7-5 victory. The win was Carolina's first over Virginia since April 21, 1996 when the Tar Heels had defeated the Cavaliers 13-11 in the ACC Tournament championship game at Charlottesville. Even more so, the five goals that Carolina surrendered were the fewest by a UNC opponent in an ACC game since April 25, 1992 when the Heels had beaten Virginia 14-5 in the ACC Tournament semifinals at College Park, Md.
While neither of these teams has done enough to close the book on the 2001 season, the victories achieved on Saturday were the kind of character building wins that erect programs, not simply seasons. Neither squad may make the post season this year. That might happen. But their fates are in their own hands now.
And the tenacious character of their efforts in the Commonwealth last Saturday will serve both teams well in the years to come.
