Field Hockey gears up for NCAA run

Saturday afternoon in Chapel Hill, the North Carolina field hockey team embarks on what it hopes will be another lengthy run in the NCAA tournament.

Here’s everything you need to know about No. 3 UNC’s chances, courtesy of the DTH and coach Karen Shelton.

Tournament Talk

A 16-team field comprises the tournament, with four wins needed to take home the national championship trophy. UNC has won six national championships in the program’s history, but the Tar Heels have lost in the title game in each of the last three years. Maryland bested UNC in overtime in 2010 and 2011, and the Tar Heels fell 3-2 to Princeton in the 2012 championship game.

If UNC beats No. 18 Delaware in its first-round matchup Saturday, they’ll entertain the winner of Wake Forest and No. 8 Old Dominion, which beat UNC 3-2 in overtime Oct. 27, Sunday at Henry Stadium.

Late-Season Lapse

Faced with a taxing schedule and a tightly contested ACC tournament, UNC (16-5) dropped three of its last five games, including losses to No. 2 Syracuse in their regular-season finale and a 2-0 defeat to No.1 Maryland in the ACC title game.

The Tar Heels scored two big wins, though, topping Syracuse in the ACC semifinal and beating No. 12 Wake Forest in the ACC quarterfinal.

Shelton’s Take: “Everybody was disappointed [with the loss to Maryland]. I think we realize it was a tough tournament. If it had been the regular season and we had come out of that four-day stretch being 2-1, we might not have felt so bad about it. We know we didn’t play our best in the second half.”

Delaware, Beware

Shelton’s Take: “They’ve had a great season, maybe started off a little slow, but came on strong at the end.

“They’ve got a couple of strong players, really strong up the middle, and they’re a dangerous team. They rank highly in a lot of the national stats. They’re going to be a tough, tough first-round opponent.

“They’ve got strength, they’ve got a strong penalty corner, they’re strong in the back. They’ve got a number of things that make them a very dangerous opponent. They have our full and undivided attention, and hopefully we’ll be ready to play on Saturday.”

Top of The Heel

Coaches will often say, “Our best players have to be our best players” during postseason play. Whom will UNC turn to in moments of need during tournament play?

Shelton’s Take: “We have a number of players that we look to, and I’d like to think that all 16 that we play on a consistent basis will show up. Obviously, our goalkeeper Sassi Ammer is going to be important. [Midfielder] Emily Wold has been our most consistent player and our workhorse. I think Sam Travers at the back is important.”

Injury Report

Forward Sinead Loughran (undisclosed injury) is probable for Saturday’s game.

Can They Do It?

While vulnerabilities crept into their game at regular season’s end, the Tar Heels remain entrenched in the national-championship picture. Maryland (20-1) remains the odds-on favorite to win its third title in four years, while Syracuse, which UNC thrashed 6-1 in the 2012 national semis, will also take a hearty stab at the hardware. Syracuse and UNC can meet in the semifinals, while the Terrapins and No. 4 Duke sit on the opposite side of the bracket.

Shelton’s Take: “If you look at our season as a whole, we’ve been right there with everybody. We’ve had a great deal of success, and we played an incredibly strong schedule at the end of the year. Some of it’s a little bit of fatigue, but I think just going in, we can draw on a lot of experience and the fact that we’ve played a lot of tough teams, we’ve played back-to-back.

“We’ve challenged our group on a lot of different occasions in many different ways, and they’ve responded really well. They didn’t always get the win, but I do think we’ve improved each time we’ve lost. I like our potential. I think our potential is fantastic, and it’s just a matter of playing great each time we have the opportunity.

“I think we’re as good as a lot of the teams out there. We can win if we play our best at the right time.”