North Carolina
Duke
Tar Heels' Bounce Back Season Ends in NCAA Quarterfinals
May 20, 2007 | Men's Lacrosse
May 20, 2007
Box Score |
Quotes |
Notes |
Photo Gallery 
ANNAPOLIS, MD. - Despite a strong effort by the UNC offensive midfield unit and a school record-setting performance by midfielder Shane Walterhoefer, the eighth-seeded University of North Carolina men's lacrosse team saw its season end with a 19-11 NCAA Tournament quarterfinal loss to No. 1-seeded Duke before 10,438 fans at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium Sunday afternoon. The Tar Heels finished the season with a 10-6 mark, a five-game improvement over last year's 4-10 record. UNC had the third most improved record in the nation in 2007, a remarkable feat for a team that has only four seniors.
Although Carolina was able to get up early on the Blue Devils, leading by as much as 6-1, Duke's attack combination of senior Matt Danowski and junior Zack Greer, considered the No. 1 and No. 2 attackmen in the nation, proved too much for the Tar Heels to handle as each player recorded 10 points in the game. Greer had seven goals and three assists and Danowski four goals and six assists.
Carolina had four different players record two goals - freshman midfielder Sean Burke, freshman attackman Gavin Petracca, sophomore midfielder Ben Hunt and sophomore midfielder Shane Walterhoefer. Junior midfielder Nick Tintle, freshman midfielder Sean Delaney and sophomore attackman Michael Burns each scored one goal for UNC. Tintle recorded two assists and sophomore midfielder Bobby McAuley and sophomore attackman Bart Wagner had one assist each. Wagner's assist allowed him to extend to consecutive game scoring streak to 28 matches over the past two seasons. That is the 10th longest scoring streak of any player in the nation at this point. Wagner will carry the streak into his junior year in 2008.
The game was the final in the career of four Tar Heel seniors -- midfielders Ben Staines, David Ryan and Tom Sciolla and attackman Sam Wagner. The Tar Heels were battling a Duke team which is a much more veteran unit. Duke's roster features 13 seniors and 10 of those players play major roles on a Blue Devil team which is now an overwhelming favorite to win the national championship next weekend in Baltimore, Md.
Duke outshot the Tar Heels 58-36 and won the ground ball battle 44-33. Both teams were successful offensively against the other team's goalkeeper with 23 saves recorded in the game while 30 goals were scored.
UNC did some of its best work in the face-off circle where sophomore Shane Walterhoefer won 18 of 32 face-offs. His 18 face-off wins allowed him to break the school record for face-offs won in a season. Walterhoefer won 222 face-offs this season. The old mark was 219 by Kevin Frew in 2004.
The Tar Heels hurt themselves with 18 turnovers in the game but did well in the clearing game with 12 successful clears in 13 attempts. A lack of ball control was an impediment to UNC's fortunes all day.
Carolina came out strong and scored five goals in the final 5:18 of the first quarter to take a 5-1 lead at the end of the opening period. The five goals were the most allowed in a quarter by the Blue Devils all season and the 11 goals by Carolina matched the most allowed by Duke all season.
After Duke opened the scoring on the 57th goal of the season by Zack Greer, UNC responded with successive goals by freshman midfielder Sean Burke, sophomore midfielder Ben Hunt, freshman midfielder Sean Delaney, junior midfielder Nick Tintle Nick Tintle and sophomore midfielder Shane Walterhoefer to go ahead 5-1 with three seconds left in the period. Carolina's last two goals of the quarter came in bang-bang fashion as after Tintle scored on an extra-man opportunity Walterhoefer won the ensuing face-off and drove to the hole to score just seconds later.
Walterhoefer won the opening face-off of the second quarter and scored five seconds later to increase UNC's lead to 6-1. His two goals, the first two of the season for him, came only eight seconds apart. But Duke outscored the Tar Heels 4-2 the rest of the half and Carolina had its lead cut to 8-5 at intermission. Duke actually ran off three goals in just 51 seconds after Walterhoefer's second goal to cut the Tar Heel lead to 6-4 but Carolina responded with goals by Ben Hunt and Sean Burke to lead 8-4 with 8:58 left in the half. Duke would score the final goal of the half to make the score 8-5.
The third quarter proved to be a nightmare for the Tar Heels as Duke outshot Carolina 22-6 and led in ground balls 16-9 while outscoring Carolina 7-1 in the period to take a 12-8 lead into the final period. Carolina had to play man-down defense four times in the third quarter and Duke capitalized with three goals in those four chances. Duke was all over the ground balls and the good bounces all seemed to go the Blue Devils' way as Carolina barely possessed the ball. Gavin Petracca had the only goal of the quarter for the Heels.
The Blue Devils never took their foot off the pedal, going full throttle in the fourth quarter as Duke outscored the Heels 7-2 to lead to a final score of 19-11. Duke stayed aggressive and relentless to the final buzzer and it paid off. The 19 goals matched the most Duke has scored all season. The eight-goal margin of victory was the first time the Blue Devils have beaten Carolina by more than four goals since a 13-8 Duke win in 2000. The overwhelming majority of games in the past few years between the two teams had been close contests decided in the final minutes of play.
Shane Walterhoerfer had 10 ground balls in the game and finished with 113 for the season, the fourth most in a year in Tar Heel history.
Duke improved to 16-2 and will now play fourth-seeded Cornell next Saturday in the NCAA semifinals at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Md. Third-seeded Johns Hopkins and unseeded Delaware will play in the other semifinal game. The Tar Heels finished 10-6 with half of their losses to the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Carolina returns 37 players off their 41-man roster next season and has also added a nine-man recruiting class in an effort to improve the team's depth, particularly on the defensive end of the field.
