UNC Hosts Duke Thursday In Battle of the Blues

March 15, 2011 | Men's Lacrosse

By: UNC Athletic Communications

March 15, 2011

#8 TAR HEELS HOST #7 DUKE THURSDAY IN BACKYARD BRAWL: The No. 8-ranked University of North Carolina men's lacrosse team will seek to build upon the momentum of its four-game winning streak while also opening its 2011 Atlantic Coast Conference season when the Tar Heels play host to seventh-ranked Duke Thursday at 7 p.m. at Fetzer Field. The game will be nationally-televised on ESPNU with Eamon McAnaney doing the play-by-play and former Tar Heel All-America Stephen McElduff serving as the telecast's analyst. Gates will open at 6 p.m. Thursday. General admission tickets can be purchased at the Carmichael Arena ticket office on game day and in advance at the Ticket Center on TarHeelBlue.com. Tickets are $5 general admission and free to UNC students, faculty and staff when they show their UNC One Cards. Live stats will also be available on TarHeelBlue.com via Gametracker.

SPECIAL PROMOTIONS THURSDAY FOR POLICE AND FIREFIGHTERS: A special halftime promotion is in store Thursday as members of the Chapel Hill Police Department will be taking on members of the Chapel Hill Fire Department in a friendly game of football. UNC will honor all police and firefighters with FREE admission for them and their immediate families with badge/ID.

CONTINENTAL TIRE BATTLE OF THE BLUES: One point in the 2010-11 Battle of the Blues competition will be on the line Thursday night. Battle of the Blues presented by Continental Tire is an all-sports competition between 23 common varsity sports at both schools. Point values are attached to the season series or higher finish in the ACC Championship in that sport. A total of 26 points is at stake, with the winner retaining the sterling silver and enamel cup that is painted light blue on one side and royal blue on the other. The winning school gets to display the cup with its colors showing for the next academic year. A total of 26 points is at stake. Two points will be awarded for the season series winner in football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The other 20 sports will each be worth 1 point. Should Duke and UNC tie in the competition, 13-13, the Carlyle Cup will be retained by the school that last won it. Points for each sport are awarded "winner-take-all" on which school wins more head-to-head meetings or has a higher ACC finish. If all head-to-head meetings are split, each school gets one-half of the designated point total. Post-season (ACC, NCAA Tournament) is included in head-to-head meetings. North Carolina currently leads the 2010-11 competition by a 9-7 score.

THE BASICS OF THE MATCHUP: The Tar Heels enter the game ranked No. 8 in the USILA coaches poll and No. 6 in the Inside Lacrosse Nike media poll. Duke is ranked No. 7 in the USILA coaches poll and No. 8 in the Inside Lacrosse Nike media poll. UNC is 5-1 and sporting a four-game winning streak after a season-opening win over Robert Morris 14-11, a loss at Ohio State 13-8, a come-from-behind win over Navy 10-8, a 13-9 victory over UMBC, a decisive 12-6 win over #9 Penn and a 9-5 victory at #7 Princeton last Friday. Defending NCAA champion Duke is 4-2 on the campaign and has won its last three in a row against Maryland, Loyola and Mercer. The Blue Devils opened their season with a win over Siena before dropping back-to-back games against Notre Dame 12-7 and Pennsylvania 7-3.

THE ALL-TIME SERIES WITH THE BLUE DEVILS: North Carolina leads the all-time series against the Blue Devils 38-26 dating back to the first meeting between the squads in 1952. That figure is not reflective of what has happened in the series in the last decade and a half, however. Dating back to a meeting in the 1995 ACC Tournament championship games, Duke has won 21 of the past 27 games against Carolina. That domination by the Blue Devils came after the Tar Heels had won 30 of the 31 meetings between the two squads from 1968 to 1995. Since 1995, Duke has had winning streaks of two games, three games, four games and 11 games against Carolina. The 11 straight wins came in a five-season span from 2005-09 and incuded four ACC Tournament and two NCAA Tournament wins. UNC did win three successive games against the Blue Devils from 2002-04.

LAST SEASON VERSUS DUKE: The two teams split a pair of games in 2011. On March 10, 2010, UNC defeated Duke 13-7 at Koskinen Stadium Stadium in Durham before an ESPNU national TV audience. Thomas Wood had a career-high five goals and an assist and Billy Bitter had four goals and an assist to lead the Tar Heels who never trailed in the game. Marcus Holman scored with 3:28 left in third quarter to break a 6-6 tie as Carolina scored four in a row and seven of the last eight goals of the match. The win broke an 11-game losing streak for the Tar Heels against Duke dating back to March 20, 2004. The victory also emphatically put an end to a 15-game ACC regular-season losing streak for Carolina which had dated back to a win over Virginia on April 10, 2004. The two teams met again on May 22, 2010 in Princeton, N.J. with the Blue Devils pulling away in the second half for a 17-9 win the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals. Zach Howell scored four goals and Ned Crotty and Max Quinzani had three each in the game for Duke. Crotty also had three assists for the Blue Devils. Jimmy Dunster led UNC with a career-high four goals. The teams combined for 26 goals in the game and only 11 saves.

LOOKING TO BREAK THE HOME HEX AGAINST THE DEVILS: North Carolina has struggled mightily against the Blue Devils since 1995 but even moreso in Chapel Hill. Of UNC's six wins against Duke since 1995, four have come in Durham and another was at the ACC Tournament in Charlottesville, Va. In the last 10 meetings between Duke and North Carolina in Chapel Hill, UNC is 1-9 against the Blue Devils.

UNC's LAST CHAPEL HILL WIN OVER DUKE: The last time the Tar Heels beat Duke at Fetzer Field the McElduff twins played prominent roles and the Iraq War had not yet started. It was a historic night indeed. On March 19, 2003, #13 UNC defeated #8 Duke 14-9 at Fetzer Field during a driving thunderstorm and 574 hearty fans. Stephen McElduff, the color analyst for Thursday night's ESPNU telecast, started on defense for UNC and his twin brother Andrew scored the opening goal of the game for Carolina. Jed Prossner led the Tar Heels with four goals and two assists while Mike McCall scored three times. Current Lehigh head coach Kevin Cassese was among three Blue Devils who scored twice in the game. Carolina led by as many as four goals in the first half but Duke pulled with two goals 2:25 into the third quarter. Carolina would score three goals in the last minute of the third period, however, to go ahead 11-6 and then score the first two goals of the final period to stretch the lead to seven goals en route to the victory. On a historical note, as the game was ending at Fetzer Field the U.S. began the military campaign in Iraq, commencing with the bombing of Baghdad and military invasion of the country.

THE FETZER FIELD WINNING STREAK: Carolina's lack of success against Duke in Chapel Hill will run head on into the Tar Heels' 17-game Fetzer Field winning streak on Thursday night. In fact, UNC has not lost a game at Fetzer Field since Joe Breschi became Carolina's head coach in 2009. UNC's only home losses under Breschi were two games in 2009 -- both against Duke -- but both played at Kenan Stadium. Carolina's last loss at Fetzer Field came on May 10, 2008, an 8-7 NCAA Tournament loss to Navy. UNC has won 17 straight at Fetzer Field and 12 straight home games overall since losing 15-13 to Duke at Kenan Stadium on April 26, 2009.