University of North Carolina Athletics
Tar Heels Host Duke Wednesday Night
March 19, 2003 | Men's Lacrosse
March 19, 2003
CAROLINA GAME NOTES
UNC vs. Duke
Wednesday, March 19, 7:30 p.m. Fetzer Field, Chapel Hill
TAR HEELS FACE HUGE GAME VERSUS DUKE: Although it is too early to count the Tar Heels out of the post-season by any means, Wednesday's matchup with Duke could all boil down to a one-game season now for the 13th-ranked North Carolina men's lacrosse team when it plays eighth-ranked Duke Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. A win over the Blue Devils and the Tar Heels greatly improve their hopes for a spot in the 2003 NCAA Men's Lacrosse Tournament and build momentum for an upcoming stretch of tough games. Lose to the talented Blue Devils and the Tar Heels' will be faced with some huge must win scenarios in the following three games for sure and the rest of the season in total. Carolina, which has started the season 3-2, kept itself in the hunt with two big wins last week, 9-8 at Ohio State and 10-6 against Denver at home. Those two wins followed heartbreaking back to back losses to Navy 9-8 in four overtimes and to a very good Notre Dame team 10-8. If the Tar Heels are able to topple the Blue Devils on their Fetzer Field turf, Carolina will make a strong argument for a rise in next week's rankings. But the Blue Devils are as hot as any team in the country right now. Duke is 6-1 with four straight wins to its credit. The only loss for Duke was at #2 Maryland on March 1.
CARLYLE CUP IMPLICATIONS UNC and Duke will be playing for Carlyle Cup points Wednesday night. The all-sports trophy between the two schools is sponsored by Carlyle and Company Jewelers, Inc. Duke leads this year's standings 17 to 12.5.
SO FAR PRETTY MUCH BY THE BOOK: Carolina will be the underdog in its next four games as all four opponents are ranked above the Tar Heels in this week's U.S. Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association poll. That stretch begins Wednesday against No. 8 Duke and the following three games are versus No. 2 Maryland, No. 4 Johns Hopkins and No. 1 Virginia. With one exception the first five Tar Heel games have finished in accordance with the team's rankings at the time. UNC lost to Notre Dame when the Fighting Irish were ranked higher and beat Bucknell, Ohio State and Denver when Carolina was ranked higher. The one exception was the wild four overtime affair at Navy when the Mids won 9-8. UNC was No. 9 at the time and the USNA was No. 14.
NORTH CAROLINA VS. DUKE UNIVERSITY: Based on North Carolina's varsity program having started in 1949, the series stands at UNC 35 wins and Duke 14. The Blue Devils have a different series record as their varsity program started earlier and they played club teams from UNC until 1949. Duke has dominated the series of late with nine wins in the last 12 meetings. Carolina did upset the Blue Devils last year in Durham by a 9-7 score.
AN EIGHT-WIN SEASON FOR CAROLINA: When North Carolina finished last season 8-5 it gave the Tar Heels eight wins in a season for only the second time since 1996 when UNC finished 12-5. Carolina's only other eight-win season since then was 2000 when the Heels were 8-6. Carolina has also had only its second winning season since 1996. Carolina was 6-7 in 1997, 7-8 in 1998 and 6-9 in 1999, then went 8-6 in 2000 and 6-6 in 2001 in Coach John Haus' first season.
CAROLINA VERSUS THE ACC: Carolina's 9-7 victory in that game at Duke last season was truly a breakthrough win for Coach John Haus' young team. The win was only the third for Carolina in its last 25 meetings with Atlantic Coast Conference opponents, a skein of frustration which started with the opening ACC game in the 1997 season. From 1997 through 2000 under coach, the Tar Heels went 1-16 against ACC teams (0-4 in 1997, 0-5 in 1998, 1-3 in 1999 and 0-4 in 2000). The only win in that time was a 10-9 regular season win over Duke in Durham in 1999. Since John Haus took over as head coach of the Tar Heels prior to the 2001 season, the Heels have been able to win two of their past eight games against ACC teams. In 2001, Carolina posted a 7-5 win at Virginia and then the Heels won 9-7 at Duke last season. Since the start of the 1997 season UNC is 1-8 versus Virginia, 0-7 versus Maryland and 2-7 versus Duke. The Tar Heels have not beaten Maryland since 1996. Carolina has not posted a win against an ACC opponent at home since beating Virginia 19-18 in 1996. Beating ACC teams is Coach John Haus' top priority as he continues his tenure with Carolina.
THE DEFENSE HAS NOT RESTED: North Carolina has been a much better defensive team than in the past few years through the first five games of the 2003 season. The Tar Heels have a goals against average of 6.88 goals per game in five games. Carolina averaged giving up 8.95 goals per game in 2001 and 8.78 goals per game in 2003.
GARRISON IS ACC PLAYER OF THE WEEK THIS WEEK: Senior middie Austin Garrison was named ACC Player of the Week Monday after his performance in two wins last week. The New Canaan, Conn. senior has three goals and one assist in each of the wins over Ohio State and Denver.
A BEVY OF CLOSE GAMES: Of Carolina's last 22 games, 13 have been decided by one or two goals, including three matches this year. Three have gone to overtime.
YOUTH WINS OUT: Carolina's top offensive stat leaders are a group dominated by underclassmen only two seniors and one junior are amongst the Tar Heels' top nine scorers so far this season. Austin Garrison as the second leading scorer, Kyle Bell as the fifth leading scorer and Andrew Lucas as the nine leading scorer are the exception to the freshman/sophomore dominance on the offensiv end.
BELL LEADS HEELS PAST BUCKNELL: Senior middie Kyle Bell led Carolina past Bucknell in UNC's season opener this year with the first hat trick of his career.
THE PROSSNER FILE: Carolina sophomore attacker not only leads the Heels in scoring with 16 points but he has at least three in four of five games. Prossner had successive hat tricks against Bucknell and Navy and then had two goals and two assists against Denver.
B. WILL STEPS UP: After a slow start, sophomore middie Bryant Will showed his best stats of the season so far in the last outing against Denver. Will had two goals and two assists versus the Pioneers.
FACING OFF: Carolina is batting .610 in the faceoff circle so far. The Heels will need that kind of effort against Duke tonight, the best faceoff team in the nation. Junior Kevin Frew is .635 in the circle and sophomore Paul Burnett is at .585. Frew won 16 of 17 faceoffs against Bucknell this year, best individual faceoff percentage in a game in UNC history and tied for fifth in number of faceoff wins in a game.
SPELLMAN BETWEEN THE PIPES: Sophomore goalkeeper Paul Spellman enters the Duke game with a 6.95 goals against average and .596 save percentage. His 18 saves against Ohio State equaled his career high set originally at Johns Hopkins last season. In 18 games as a Tar Heel, Spellman has had only one game where he did not have more saves than goals allowed. This season against Notre Dame he had six saves while allowing 10 goals.
CAROLINA IN THE POLL: UNC is ranked #13 this week by the coaches in U.S. Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association poll.
COACH JOHN HAUS: North Carolina head coach John Haus, a 1983 Carolina graduate, is in his third year as the head coach of the Tar Heel program. Prior to returning to UNC, he was the head coach at Washington College for four years where his teams were 47-21 and the head coach at Johns Hopkins where his teams went 20-7. As the Tar Heel head coach he is 17-13 in three seasons. In eight years as a collegiate head coach his teams are now 84-41. Including his time as a player, assistant coach and head coach he has been involved with teams that have a combined record of 189-76 in the collegiate ranks.
THE SCHEDULE TOUGHENS: The docket for the Tar Heel lacrosse team began heating up with Wednesday's game against No. 8 Duke. The following three games find the Heels matching up with No. 2 Maryland Saturday, No. 4 Johns Hopkins March 29 and No. 1 Virginia April 5.
THE LONGEST GAME IN NCAA HISTORY: When the North Carolina Tar Heels defeated the Navy Midshipmen on March 2, 2002 by an 11-10 score, they found themselves making some college lacrosse history too. The game was six overtimes in length and lasted 83 minutes and 39 seconds. That made it the longest game in college history. The longest previous games in history were five overtime affairs involving Cornell on two occasions. Even more remarkably it was the third successive season in which Carolina had beaten Navy 11-10. The Heels beat Navy 11-10 in Chapel Hill in 2000 on a goal in the first overtime of that game and the Heels beat the Mids in Annapolis, Md. in 2001 by 11-10 on a goal by Jeff Sonke with one second to play. This year's marathon event was finally decided when senior midfielder Pat Jackson intercepted a Navy clearing pass just inside midfield and scored into an empty net from 40 yards out. Carolina and Navy nearly topped that this season when the Mids avenged those three defeats with a 9-8 overtime win at Annapolis. It was the second longest game in UNC history. And remarkably the game went overtime only when Andrew Lucas tied it for UNC with three-tenths of a second left in regulation.
