University of North Carolina Athletics
Tar Heels Head To Hofstra To Meet No. 9 Pride
March 15, 2006 | Men's Lacrosse
March 15, 2006
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y.--The University of North Carolina men's lacrosse team will play the fifth of 10 succesive games against teams ranked in this week's U.S. Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association coaches poll when the Tar Heels play at Hostra Wednesday night.
The game will begin with the opening face-off at 7:30 p.m. at Hofstra Stadium in Hempstead, N.Y.
Hofstra (2-1) is ranked ninth in this week's poll while North Carolina (2-4) is unranked.
Not only is Hofstra the fifth North Carolina opponent of 10 straight foes ranked in the Top 20 the Tar Heels are facing between February 26 and April 15 of this season but nine of those 10 opponents are ranked in the Top 15 including each of the top four squads in the nation.
North Carolina needs a win in a big way to not only right its own ship after four successive losses but to give the Tar Heels continued hope for claiming an NCAA Tournament berth in 2006. North Carolina must go a minimum 6-3 in its final nine games of the season in order to finish with at a minimum an 8-7 record that would make the Tar Heels eligible for selection to the 16-team NCAA Tournament field. The Tar Heels have seven regular-season matches remaining and could also play two more games in the 2006 ACC Tournament.
The Tar Heels have dropped four games in a row to nationally-ranked teams, but with six successive games coming up against nationally-ranked teams UNC is still in a position where it can plays itself back into tournament contention. Carolina is playing one of the most difficult schedules in the nation with 12 of a possible 15 regular season games being played against USILA Top 20 teams from the March 13, 2006 poll. That total includes a possible two games in the ACC Tournament which would be played against the current No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 teams nationally.
After opening the season with wins over Ohio State 14-5 and Air Force 8-6, the Tar Heels have dropped consecutive games against No. 14 Denver 11-8 on the road, followed by home losses to No. 4 Navy 11-3 and to No. 15 Pennsylvania 13-4. In its most recent outing, UNC fell at No. 11 Notre Dame 9-7.
Hofstra heads into the game with a record of 2-1. The Pride opened the season with an 11-7 loss at No. 7 Massachusetts but in the past two games the Pride recorded lopsided home victories, beating Brown 14-4 and No. 13 Johns Hopkins, the defending NCAA champion, by a score of 11-6.
The game against Hofstra will be the fifth in succession of 10 consecutive games for Carolina against ranked teams in this week's U.S Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association poll.
Of the remaining six games in that stretch, three will be played on the road and three at home. Following the game against No. 9 Hofstra on March 15 at Hempstead, N.Y., UNC will have games remaining against No. 3 Duke in Durham, N.C., against No. 1 Maryland in Chapel Hil, N.C., against No. 13 Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Md., against No. 2 Virginia in Chapel Hill, N.C., and against No. 20 Fairfield in . The Tar Heels end the regular season with a road game at Providence.
The Tar Heels will then play in the ACC Tournament beginning April 28 in Baltimore, Md.
So far this season UNC is 2-0 against unranked teams and 0-4 against ranked teams. With the next six games scheduled against ranked teams, the Tar Heels must lift their level of play quickly in order to achieve a successful season.
