University of North Carolina Athletics
Sunday, November 8
Chapel Hill
Noon
North Carolina
vs
Louisville (ACC Championship)
UNC edged Syracuse Friday to earn a rematch with Louisville, which beat the Tar Heels earlier this season.
Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati
UNC Playing For ACC Title From Unfamiliar Underdog Spot
November 7, 2020 | Field Hockey
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The North Carolina field hockey team will play its eighth-straight game at home on Sunday and its 31st on the Karen Shelton Stadium turf, but this one will look different: for the first time since moving into Shelton Stadium the start of the 2018 season, UNC will take the field there as the underdog.
The second-seeded Tar Heels (9-1) face top-seeded Louisville (8-1) Sunday at noon for the 2020 Atlantic Coast Conference championship. The Cardinals gained the top seed by winning the regular-season matchup, 3-1 on their home turf on Oct. 2. That victory ended a 47-game winning streak for the Carolina program. UNC, which as the lower seed will play Sunday as the visiting team, hasn't lost since and now gets a shot at revenge.
"We're one of only two teams that had the privilege of practicing today and in any season that's what we're looking to do, be among the last two teams standing," UNC coach Karen Shelton said Saturday afternoon after her team wrapped up the season's final practice. "We're proud of that and whatever happens it's been a good year and we have the spring to look forward to, so it's not even over yet."
In any other year, UNC would be finishing ACC Tournament play then looking ahead to the NCAA Tournament, but Sunday's game will mark the end of the 2020 fall season. Play will pick back up in the spring, when the NCAA Tournament is scheduled to be held. The fact that the season will continue into the spring of 2021 also makes the final game of the fall different in that it's not a good-bye for the seniors, some of whom would be December graduates in normal times.
Capping the fall with an ACC Tournament that shifted from Duke to UNC just a little over a week ago, the Tar Heels have fought their way to the final game. After playing as the No. 1 seed in each of the last two seasons and benefiting from the bye into the semifinals, this year Carolina played a quarterfinals game on Thursday while that rest day went to Louisville. UNC beat seventh-seeded Boston College (which saw its regular season trimmed to two games by Covid challenges) 4-0, then fought its way through third-seeded Syracuse 4-3 in overtime Friday to reach the finals.
Underdog or not, the title game is a familiar spot for the Tar Heels, who will play for their 23rd championship in program history and their fourth in a row.
"We've worked hard, we played two hard games and we found a way to win," Shelton said. "That's what good teams do. We're excited to play on Sunday – we have ourselves to play for and our pride and our families. We're going to give it our best."
The second-seeded Tar Heels (9-1) face top-seeded Louisville (8-1) Sunday at noon for the 2020 Atlantic Coast Conference championship. The Cardinals gained the top seed by winning the regular-season matchup, 3-1 on their home turf on Oct. 2. That victory ended a 47-game winning streak for the Carolina program. UNC, which as the lower seed will play Sunday as the visiting team, hasn't lost since and now gets a shot at revenge.
"We're one of only two teams that had the privilege of practicing today and in any season that's what we're looking to do, be among the last two teams standing," UNC coach Karen Shelton said Saturday afternoon after her team wrapped up the season's final practice. "We're proud of that and whatever happens it's been a good year and we have the spring to look forward to, so it's not even over yet."
In any other year, UNC would be finishing ACC Tournament play then looking ahead to the NCAA Tournament, but Sunday's game will mark the end of the 2020 fall season. Play will pick back up in the spring, when the NCAA Tournament is scheduled to be held. The fact that the season will continue into the spring of 2021 also makes the final game of the fall different in that it's not a good-bye for the seniors, some of whom would be December graduates in normal times.
Capping the fall with an ACC Tournament that shifted from Duke to UNC just a little over a week ago, the Tar Heels have fought their way to the final game. After playing as the No. 1 seed in each of the last two seasons and benefiting from the bye into the semifinals, this year Carolina played a quarterfinals game on Thursday while that rest day went to Louisville. UNC beat seventh-seeded Boston College (which saw its regular season trimmed to two games by Covid challenges) 4-0, then fought its way through third-seeded Syracuse 4-3 in overtime Friday to reach the finals.
Underdog or not, the title game is a familiar spot for the Tar Heels, who will play for their 23rd championship in program history and their fourth in a row.
"We've worked hard, we played two hard games and we found a way to win," Shelton said. "That's what good teams do. We're excited to play on Sunday – we have ourselves to play for and our pride and our families. We're going to give it our best."
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