University of North Carolina Athletics
From Fetzer To Finley: Carolina's Olympic Sports Have Done It All This Year
April 20, 2002 | General
April 20, 2002
By Dave Lohse
Associate Athletic Communications Director
Chalk up the 2001-02 athletic year as another sterling one for the Olympic sports program at the University of North Carolina. As the spring sports season begins its transition from conference championship to NCAA championship phase in the next few weeks Carolina's excellence has become abundantly clear once again.
On Saturday, the Tar Heels' women's outdoor track and field team won the Atlantic Coast Conference championship, giving UNC four league titles this school year. Three more Tar Heel teams will be in ACC championship matches on Sunday in women's lacrosse versus Maryland, men's tennis versus Georgia Tech and women's tennis versus Duke. In addition to women's outdoor track and field, Carolina has also won ACC titles this year in women's soccer, volleyball and women's swimming and diving. Carolina is bidding this year to lead or share the lead in the number of ACC titles won for the 15th successive year. The last time any school won more conference championships in a single school year than Carolina was 1986-87. Wow!
With the Sears Directors' Cup standings set to be updated again this coming Thursday, the Tar Heel athletic program currently stands a solid second in this year's rankings and barring a complete collapse in the spring, which appears highly unlikely, the Tar Heels are destined for a Top Five finish with a great chance to finish as high as second.
Also on Sunday, Carolina is likely to score the points necessary to clinch the 2001-02 Carlyle Cup competition, the all-sports trophy which was inaugurated as an annual competition between Carolina and Duke last year. In the first competition, Duke rallied from a prohibitive deficit to defeat Carolina 27-21. But this year has been different. Key wins in fencing, men's lacrosse and women's lacrosse which Carolina didn't get last year have staked the Tar Heels to a 25-14 lead heading into Sunday. Six points will be decided Sunday with Duke likely to pick up three in women's golf and Carolina three in men's golf. If ACC Tournament standings in those sports end that way UNC will be up 28-17 with only three baseball points to be decided next month. In other words, this year's Carlyle Cup could end up as a Tar Heel rout.
On a national level Carolina teams have excelled at a remarkable level this year. First off, there was a remarkable late-season surge in football that led to an 8-5 record and a Peach Bowl championship. Men's soccer and women's soccer both made the NCAA championship contests with the men winning their first ever title. It was the first time in history one school had both their men's and women's teams in the final in the same year.
Through the fall and winter seasons only two sports had failed to reach post-season competition-men's cross country and men's basketball. In team sports, football, women's cross country, men's soccer, women's soccer, field hockey, volleyball, women's basketball and women's gymnastics all qualified for either a bowl game as in football or the respective NCAA Tournaments in the other sports. In sports where individuals qualify for NCAA Championships, those individuals competed and scored points to earn an NCAA finish for UNC in women's indoor track and field, men's indoor track and field, men's swimming and diving, women's swimming and diving, wrestling and the coeducational sport of fencing.
Of Carolina's 11 spring sports, several have already played their way into post-season competition either as recipients of automatic bids or with results strong enough to earn at-large invitations to their tournaments. Teams likely to go are women's lacrosse, women's tennis, men's tennis, women's golf, men's golf and baseball. UNC will also send sizeable contingents to compete in the outdoor NCAA Championships in men's and women's track and field. Both the men's lacrosse and softball teams still have work to do but are by no means eliminated from post-season consideration yet. UNC's non-scholarship rowing team is not likely to receive an NCAA bid but coach Joel Furtek's young team has had an outstanding season.
Up to this point, it truly has been a great year for Carolina teams across the board. Sure, basketball season was hardly pleasant but hopefully we can all take some solace in the fact that so many other teams have performed so well this year and brought a great deal of honor to the Carolina athletic family.
