Duke Tops Women's Lacrosse

They wanted to make history.

And the Blue Devils 10-5 win against UNC at Disney's Wide World of Sports

Complex did just that.

Duke tore up the Tar Heels to advance to the ACC championship game for the first time in school history.

"This is a very special team," Blue Devil coach Kerstin Kimel said. "It doesn't matter where were playing or who we're playing, our hard-core mentality helps us win games."

That hard-core playing style successfully drilled UNC into the ground.

"We were really confident coming into this game," Tar Heel junior attacker Lindsay Stone said. "It was a shock for us to lose."

It certainly wasn't lack of a game plan that disabled the Tar Heels. Their plan just came apart at the seams from the time the first whistle blew.

Freshman goalie Katelyn Hoffman made her third start of the season, and her first against an ACC opponent. It was obvious that her inexperience hurt the Tar Heels' defensive effort. She made two saves in 25:15 and allowed six goals.

Duke's offense, especially midfielder Kate Kaiser, made no qualms about taking advantage of Hoffman in the net.

After Stone converted a free position shot to put UNC on the board first, Kaiser retaliated by whipping three consecutive shots past Hoffman in 11:30. The Blue Devils scored twice more to round out five unanswered goals in 19:08 and build a four-goal lead.

Junior attacker Kellie Thompson, the Tar Heels leading scorer, finally found the back of the cage for the Tar Heels with 7:13 remaining in the half.

Duke senior Claire Finn danced around UNC's defense to blast in an unassisted goal and regain the Blue Devils four-goal lead with 4:45 left in the first half.

Only 2:13 later, Tar Heel coach Jenny Slingluff Levy yanked Hoffman and substituted in junior goalie Melissa Coyne, who started the opening 11 of UNC's 14 games this season.

"When Jenny asked me to go in, I was excited," Coyne said. "I just wanted to come in and be able to give a spark."

And that she did. Coyne saved a free position shot from Blue Devil attacker Kelly Dirks 1:22 after she entered the game, and Duke went scoreless for the rest of the first stanza.

While reinstating Coyne in goal made the defense noticeably more comfortable, it didn't solve all of the Tar Heels problems.

On the offensive end of the field, UNC was flailing. In the first half alone, the Tar Heels bobbled three free position shots. Four of UNC's six first-half shots went wide.

"We had a lot of opportunities we didn't finish," said Stone, an All-ACC selection. "We didn't capitalize on 8-meters when we got them. They pressured us really hard on defense, and we didn't handle it well."

The Tar Heels miserable offensive performance continued into the second half. While Duke rattled off a pair of goals from Kaiser and Courtney Rodgers, UNC senior midfielder Amy Havrilla shot wide and later lost control of the ball on a free position shot.

The Tar Heels dropped another pair of free position shots before the game expired.

UNC midfielder Betsy Gaines and Havrilla scored after the Tar Heels took a timeout with 17:43 remaining, but those two goals weren't enough.

Blue Devil Lauren Gallagher nailed an unassisted goal in with 8:50 remaining in the game to extend Duke's lead back to four.

Kaiser iced the victory when she threw in her fifth goal with 3:57 remaining, matching her career high.

"They have to stop talking about what they want to accomplish, because at this point they haven't accomplished much," Slingluff Levy said of her Tar Heels. "They need to put action into their words."

3 Tar Heels Named All-ACC

The 2001 All-ACC women's lacrosse team was announced Friday. Three Tar Heels joined Stone on the team. Junior midfielders Christine McPike and Kellie Thompson and junior defender Porter Wilkinson were also selected.

The Sports Editor can be reached at sports@unc.edu.