University of North Carolina Athletics
Tar Heels To Host Maryland In NCAA First Round
May 8, 2006 | Women's Lacrosse
May 8, 2006
CHAPEL HILL -- The University of North Carolina women's lacrosse team has received an at-large bid to the 2006 NCAA Tournament, the NCAA announced on Monday night. The Tar Heels, who went 12-5 this season and were the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season co-champion, will play their first-round game at home on Sunday at 1 p.m. against ACC rival Maryland (12-7). Earlier this season, Carolina beat the Terrapins, 11-9, on April 15 in Chapel Hill.
Carolina is the tournament's No. 5 seed. Duke is the No. 1 seed, followed by No. 2 Virginia, No. 3 Georgetown and No. 4 Northwestern.
The winner of Sunday's game at Fetzer Field will advance to play the winner of the game between Stanford (12-5) and No. 4 seed Northwestern (16-1) on Saturday May 20 in the quarterfinals. The winners of the four quarterfinal games will advance to the semifinals and final May 26 and 28, to be played at Nickerson Field in Boston, Mass.
"We're excited to be part of the tournament this year," Carolina head coach Jenny Levy said on Monday night. "There are some teams who had good seasons but didn't get the chance to be here [in the NCAA Tournament]. We played a tough schedule, and four of our five losses were to teams ranked in the top five. I felt like we deserved the top-five seed we got, and now we'll play Maryland.
"I'm a little surprised at the seedings. Nobody though Northwestern would go in as the No. 4 seed, that's for sure. They only had one loss all season, and that came to the No. 1 team in the tournament [Duke]. And you throw in that they're the defending NCAA champions and they've been beating people by such big margins, it's surprising.
"We're playing a very talented Maryland team. We knew it would be a tough game in the first round no matter who we were playing, and it definitely will be."
Carolina is returning to the NCAA Tournament for the second season in a row. UNC reached the quarterfinal round in 2005 before losing at Duke. The Tar Heels are making their eighth NCAA Tournament appearance in 11 years as a varsity program.
Carolina is 12-5 this season and were ranked No. 5 in last week's IWLCA poll. UNC reached the semifinals of the ACC Tournament in Baltimore on Apr. 28 before losing to eventual ACC champ Virginia 12-10 in overtime. Maryland is 12-7 this season and was ranked No. 6 in last week's IWLCA poll.
For ticket information for Sunday's game, please click here.
