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The Daily Tar Heel

UNC women's lacrosse tops No. 16 Albany, No. 10 Vanderbilt

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Seven of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area's best local chefs competed Saturday at the Shrimp-N-Grits Throwdown hosted by The Carolina Inn

A little more than one minute into the first half of Friday night’s game against No. 16 Albany, Kara Cannizzaro buried the ball into the back of the net on a free position shot. From there, the No. 3 North Carolina women’s lacrosse team never looked back.

A rain delay lasting slightly more than an hour did little to postpone UNC’s offensive attack, which started fast and finished strong on the way to a dominating 16-7 victory at Fetzer Field. The Tar Heels also beat No. 10 Vanderbilt 18-9 on Sunday.

Less than a minute after Cannizzaro’s opening goal on Friday, Abbey Friend tallied two more scores, giving the Tar Heels a 3-0 advantage. After Albany responded with a goal of its own, UNC posted five-straight goals to go ahead 8-1.

“It was big that we just took it to them right away,” coach Jenny Levy said. “Any game plan they had, maybe to stall the ball or do something different on us, went away because we were able to pound them quickly.”

Perhaps even more striking was the ease with which the Tar Heels converted defensive stops and draw controls into offensive opportunities and, ultimately, goals.

The UNC transition game stood out Friday thanks to a 20-5 advantage in draw controls and a 19-11 edge in ground balls.

“Getting up the field is something we really like to do because it’s a true testament to our athleticism and how hard we prepare in the offseason,” said Friend, who finished with four goals.

Against Vanderbilt on Sunday, UNC was met with a bit more resistance, but eventually had its way in the victory.

A stingier defensive effort by the Commodores forced the Tar Heels to take their time on offense, but in the end, Vanderbilt couldn’t keep the Tar Heels off the board.

While still pushing the pace to get the ball out of their own end of the field, the Tar Heels often settled in the offensive zone, passing the ball around patiently before dodging and looking for shots.

Senior captain Laura Zimmerman said the Tar Heels moved the ball more slowly on offense to gauge how the Vanderbilt defense would react and to allow the UNC defense to rest after long defensive possessions.

“Capitalizing on those goals out of those possessions really helped us with the win,” she said.

Zimmerman facilitated much of the UNC attack, clearing the ball and running the offense, en route to scoring five goals and assisting two others.

Zimmerman and Friend, who also had five goals on Sunday, were two of five Tar Heels who tallied two or more scores during the game.

“We have a lot of different threats on the field, and if everybody plays hard and plays within our game, things are going to open up because all of our kids can dodge and feed and handle and finish,” said Levy.

“We’re not trying to isolate one kid to pull the wagon, so to speak. Everybody is responsible for putting the ball in the back of the net.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.

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