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The Daily Tar Heel

UNC faces Syracuse in NCAA quarterfinals

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Senior UNC midfielder Laura Zimmerman defends against Navy in the NCAA first round game on Saturday.

North Carolina women’s lacrosse may be going on the road for Saturday’s NCAA quarterfinal, but for many members of the team it will be a welcome return home.

Fifth-seeded UNC will take on No. 4 seed Syracuse at the Carrier Dome in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

Eight Tar Heels are from New York state, including senior midfielder Laura Zimmerman, who hails from Syracuse. Other key players from New York include senior attacker Becky Lynch and junior goalkeeper Lauren Maksym.

“We do have a lot of kids that will consider this a home game in many ways because they’re from the New York area and they’re excited to go play in front of a home crowd,” coach Jenny Levy said. “We’ll for sure be the underdog in the crowd, but I think that it’s exciting for my players to play in the dome.”

The Tar Heels haven’t faced the Orange this season, but the two teams share six common opponents. Both teams lost to the No. 2 seed Northwestern in close matches and beat top-seeded Florida.

“I think this game is going to be really evenly matched and come down to a two- or three-goal game,” junior midfielder Kara Cannizzaro said. “And it’s going to be really fun. I’m really excited about it. This is why you come to Carolina — to play games like this.”

In close battles, the difference will be made in the control of the 50/50 balls.

“I think the key is playing the game that we want to play, which means really strong performance on the draw, winning the 50/50 balls, like the draw control, the ground balls,” Levy said.

In the first-round game against Navy, Lynch was a major factor in UNC’s 17-6 draw control advantage. Lynch has led UNC at the draw all season with 43 wins.

Lynch will most likely face freshman Kailah Kempney in the draw. Kempney led the Orange to an 11-4 draw advantage in the second half in Syracuse’s first-round game against Dartmouth.

“I think some of the keys are getting draw control,” Cannizzaro said. “Possessions are obviously really important, especially when Syracuse plays some fast teams. They really like to slow the game down and run more of a stall offense.”

Getting ground balls will be another key component in maintaining possession and dictating the tempo of the game. In the 18 games played this season, UNC is 274-217 against opponents in total ground balls earned.

Though the stakes are higher, the Tar Heels prepared the way they do for any game — by focusing on playing their game, regardless of the opponent.

“All season we’ve had the mentality that we can play anyone, anywhere and it’s us that we have to focus on,” Lynch said.

“Whether that’s focusing on our game plan because of them or playing well. I think it’s really rolling on that chemistry that started against Navy and just seeing how far it can take us.”

Contact the Sports Editor ?at sports@dailytarheel.com.

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