Runners place 3rd in Pre-National Meet

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - The No. 8 North Carolina women's cross country team turned in a strong performance Saturday at the NCAA Pre-National Meet at Indiana State University, finishing third out of 37 teams in the 6K Blue Race.

Tar Heels Carol Henry and Erin Donohue led the way, finishing second and fifth, respectively, in the race, which featured nine teams ranked in the top 25.

UNC's Meghan Owen placed 30th with a time of 21 minutes 24.4 seconds.

Alice Schmidt and Jennie Sucher rounded out the scoring for the Tar Heels, with Schmidt finishing 45th in 21:39.7 and Sucher completing the course 47th in 21:39.8. Jessica Perry was the only other UNC runner in the Blue Race, crossing the line in 22:26.4, good for 127th place.

Four Tar Heel women ran in the Open 6K, led by a 10th place finish from Nicole Boykin.

The men competed in the 8K Blue Race and finished 35th in the team competition. Brian McGovern was the only UNC harrier to finish in the top 100, as his time of 25:13.2 was good for 99th.

UNC wins close ACC match

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - The No. 2 North Carolina field hockey team jumped to a 2-0 halftime lead and hung on to the advantage to defeat Virginia 2-1 Sunday.

The Tar Heels are now 16-1, while No. 16 Virginia fell to 10-7.

Senior Kelsey Keeran opened the scoring with 19 minutes, 21 seconds to play in the first half with her second goal of the weekend. Keeran also scored in UNC's 2-0 victory against James Madison Saturday.

Junior Naomi Weatherald scored the winning goal on a penalty corner with 18 minutes left in the first half.

On the only UVa. penalty corner of the game, Erin Hayes scored to end the shutout and put the final tally at 2-1.

For the game, UNC had eight corners to the Cavs' one.

The Tar Heels held Virginia without a shot in the first half, but the Cavaliers got three in the second half.

Volleyball loses two in Fla.

CORAL GABLES, Fla. - The North Carolina volleyball team dropped its third straight match to an opponent from the state of Florida on Sunday, as the Tar Heels fell to Miami in four games, 26-30, 30-27, 30-25, 30-28.

UNC (11-10, 6-3 in the ACC) dropped another ACC match Friday night in four games to Florida State, 30-27, 30-25, 27-30, 30-28.

Senior Molly Pyles notched 17 kills and 18 digs against Miami (10-6, 5-3), while junior Dani Nyenhuis added 15 kills and 15 digs. Senior Norma Cortez, who was a junior-college national champion at nearby Miami-Dade Community College in 2001 and 2002, got the start at setter and led UNC with 33 assists.

Miami took over the momentum in game three, using its strongest offensive effort of the day to win the game 30-25.

The Hurricanes hit .333, as four different players hit .375 or better while UNC again had trouble finding offensive consistency and registered a match-low 14 kills.

Early in game four it looked as if Miami would roll past the Tar Heels to win the match, as the Hurricanes quickly jumped out to a 5-1 lead. But UNC responded, tying the match at 12.

From there on the teams matched each other point for point before Miami broke the deadlock to take a 27-25 lead.

North Carolina clawed back to 29-28, but could not regain the lead and dropped the game.