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The Daily Tar Heel

Tar Heels outpace Duke to earn ACC women's lacrosse top seed

Duke had no intention of running with North Carolina. The No. 15 Blue Devils had to slow down the tempo to even have a chance of knocking off No. 3 North Carolina.

After the first seven minutes, things were going according to plan. North Carolina looked frustrated by Duke’s methodical attack. Trailing 2-1, the Tar Heels rushed and committed several uncharacteristic turnovers when they did manage to secure possession. 

Then came the run that sent the crowd at Fetzer Field into a frenzy on Saturday. The Tar Heels scored seven straight goals to take a commanding 8-2 lead. North Carolina (13-2, 7-0 ACC) went on to beat Duke (9-7, 4-3 ACC) 16-8 to wrap up regular season play. 

Although the Tar Heels were careless with the ball early on, they showed a great deal of patience when dissecting Duke’s defense.

Senior Sammy Jo Tracy exemplified that patience as she calmly probed behind the goal and waited until she found a cutting Ela Hazar. Right after Hazar caught the pass, the ball was already sailing into the goal. 

After receiving ACC Offensive Player of the Week and Inside Lacrosse National Player of the Week honors a week ago, Hazar continued to validate those awards with her play on Saturday. The sophomore tallied three goals and one assist to follow her six-point outing against Syracuse. 

As the Tar Heels built a comfortable lead, the clock became a factor and forced the Blue Devils to abandon their slow-paced attack. The faster tempo late in the second half allowed the Tar Heels to do what they do best. Run.

For North Carolina, the win was important because it should expect to see a similar style of play from opponents in both the ACC and NCAA tournament in an effort to slow down its transition attack.

Quotable

“Last time Duke played in Chapel Hill, it did the same thing and deflated the ball a little bit. So I thought it was key in the first half that we noticed that might be Duke’s game plan. To have a couple goals in the first half and go on a goal run for us, we were like ‘Hey, if you want to stall, go for it, because we’re up by 4 or 5 goals.’ I think our play has to be better when people want to stall, we needed to be cleaner on the draw, cleaner in transition, and really efficient offensively." — Coach Jenny Levy on Duke's approach to the game. 

Notable

In addition to Saturday being a season finale rivalry game, it was also senior day. Seniors Aly Messinger and Kelly Devlin both went out in style, scoring three and two goals respectively. 

Three numbers that matter

10: The Tar Heels have now won 10 consecutive games after losing to No.1 Maryland. 

6: The officials called 6 yellow cards on UNC, but the Tar Heels defended well when they were down a player. 

3: After going scoreless for the first 57 minutes, leading scorer Molly Hendrick scored twice in the final three minutes to end the regular season with 44 goals. 

What’s next? 

North Carolina begins ACC tournament play as the top seed on Thursday in Blacksburg. 

@david_adler94

sports@dailytarheel.com

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