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(02/18/08 5:00am)
The No. 10 North Carolina men's lacrosse team had some serious first-game jitters - for about one quarter.
UNC opened its season Saturday against the Bellarmine Knights at Fetzer Field, and after 15 minutes of play, the flat-footed Tar Heels trailed 2-1.
"Everyone was kind of rushing, trying to score a million goals in the first couple of minutes," junior attacker Bart Wagner said. "Sometimes you gotta realize that games are 60 minutes long."
Apparently, UNC came to that realization just after the start of the second quarter.
Shortly after an offside penalty left Bellarmine a man down, North Carolina sophomore Cryder DiPietro fired a shot into the top left corner of the goal. Barely a minute later, Wagner also found the net to give UNC its second lead of the game.
More importantly, those two goals triggered the Tar Heel offense. The Tar Heels blitzed Bellarmine all through the second and third periods, scoring six goals in each quarter. UNC ended the game on a 14-0 run.
"We settled in and started doing the right things on offense," Tar Heel coach John Haus said. "Making the safe pass instead of the home run pass."
The better passing also had an effect on defense as UNC cut down on the turnovers and failed clears that allowed the Knights to score early in the game. Also helping was the hulking size of the Tar Heel starting defense, of which only one member is shorter than 6 feet 2 inches.
Stellar in goal was UNC redshirt junior Grant Zimmerman, with six saves in just more than 46 minutes of action.
However, the Tar Heel defenders had little work to do, mainly because of the efforts of junior face-off specialist Shane Walterhoefer.
Walterhoefer dominated the center of the field all day, winning 12 of his 18 face-offs.
"He's arguably one of the best kids at that position in the country," Haus said.
North Carolina also got a lift from its bench, most notably senior Rob Driscoll and sophomore Sean Delaney. Both had two goals, and Delaney added two assists to lead the Tar Heels with four points.
"We feel like anyone on our first or second midfield lines can play," Walterhoefer said. "And having guys like Sean and Rob come off the bench really wears defenses out."
Bellarmine certainly looked threadbare defensively for most of the second half as the Tar Heels managed to spread their opponent's defense out and create easy chances to score. It seemed that the more at ease UNC became on the field, the more the scoring margin spread.
"We definitely had some first-game jitters, but once we got out here, we started to relax," Walterhoeffer said.
Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu
(02/08/08 5:00am)
The No. 3 North Carolina women's basketball team might as well have put Clemson in handcuffs Thursday night.Such was the character of the Tar Heels' defensive performance against the Tigers a total and complete shutdown.Clemson managed to score only 18 points in the first period and at one point was down by 46 points.From the outset UNC hurried and trapped Clemson with full-court pressure. The result was 18 Clemson turnovers as UNC hands and arms found their way into the Tigers' passing lanes to create easy buckets at the other end.The chief architect of that pressure was freshman point guard Cetera DeGraffenreid who picked Clemson pockets three times on the evening.UNC's patented half-court trapping severely limited Clemson's passing as the Tigers only recorded eight assists for the game.However when Clemson did manage to get into its offense" it barely saw the bucket because of the blue-and-white jerseys crowding around them.""I think sometimes" with the way we rotate and who picks up and all that stuff we make teams take quick shots UNC coach Sylvia Hatchell said. They know someone's coming; they just don't know how quick they're going to get there" ... so maybe they shoot it a little quick.""Whatever the Tar Heels were doing" it certainly had the desired effect on the Tigers. Clemson shot24.3 percent for the game including a anemic 17.9 percent in the first half. From behind the three-point line Clemson was even more atrocious going 9 percent on 1-11 shooting in the first half.Part of the problem could have been that UNC is a team filled with long athletic players and that length allowed for 12 blocked shots on the evening including five from senior LaToya Pringle.During several sequences" UNC blocked or altered multiple Clemson attempts.""We were trying to shoot over Pringle and Breland a lot and that's just not going to happen" Clemson head coach Cristy McKinney said. (Lele) Hardy did a great job on the boards" but she's gotta realize who's there when she gets it.""Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu
(01/18/08 5:00am)
Helter-skelter.
That's what happened to Boston College's offense through 40 minutes of traps and full-court pressure at the hands of the North Carolina women's basketball team.
By the end of the evening, the Eagles were constantly looking over their shoulder, and with good reason, as UNC players always seemed to be swarming their opposition.
The Tar Heels were certainly productive in that regard, as BC turned the ball more than 32 times. More importantly, UNC took its opponent completely out of its game plan.
The Eagles base most of their offense around their two freshmen stars in the post - Carolyn Swords and Stefanie Murphy.
But their statistics against the Tar Heels would not reflect it. Murphy finished the first half with two points, and Swords didn't record a field goal until the 12:05 mark in the second half.
Instead, the Eagles stuck to the 3-point line, launching 18 attempts from deep, but only connecting on five, while Murphy and Swords only put up 13 shots between the two of them.
Key in shutting those two behemoths down was UNC's LaToya Pringle, who guarded Swords so well that the 6-foot-6 center barely got the ball at all during the first half, harassed by the smaller but longer Pringle.
"It's always hard to guard anybody who may have me by 100 pounds," Pringle said. "But we worked on it in practice, preventing their girls from getting . on the blocks."
Throughout the night, Boston College's advantage in height and muscle was neutralized by UNC's quickness and athleticism.
"Most people think that just because we're a lean team that they can just push us around, and it's just not going to happen," Pringle said. "You're not going to push us around, just because you're taller and bigger than us."
And no one was quicker or more athletic than UNC's freshman point guard Cetera DeGraffenreid. Oftentimes DeGraffenreid was a one-woman full-court press, forcing BC's guards into hurried passes that were easily picked off.
"I think she brings a great lift," Tar Heel junior Rashanda McCants said. "Her energy's so high, especially when she's playing defense, you can feel it. It's like, 'Alright, T's out there, lets go,' because you know she's going to get a steal somewhere."
McCants was often the beneficiary of that pressure, as several times she simply had to reach out and snatch a poorly thrown pass out of the air and streak downcourt.
UNC head coach Sylvia Hatchell was also pleased with her team's performance heading into a brutal stretch at Connecticut, against Maryland and at Duke.
"I thought we had moments of brilliance out there," Hatchell said.
"I thought at times out there our defense looked really good."
Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.
(01/17/08 5:00am)
Erlana Larkins is back in her element.
Always a bruiser in the low post, the senior power forward has stormed through the opening games of North Carolina's ACC schedule.
Maybe it's the glove of padding she's sported on her left hand since suffering a fracture in a win against Liberty. Maybe it's simply talent.
Whatever the reason, Larkins has come out swinging at the start of conference play, averaging 18 points and 9.3 rebounds. Compare that to her season averages of 12.6 points and 8.4 boards, and the improvement is dramatic.
When asked about Larkins' improvement in the past couple of games, UNC coach Sylvia Hatchell just smiled like she knew what was coming all along.
"That just shows how tough she is," Hatchell quipped after a win against Virginia Tech.
Larkins' renewed dominance in the post is just part of the Tar Heels' change in play now that the conference season is upon them. Already an elite scoring team, several UNC starters have upped their scoring in conference games.
However, nowhere is the recent improvement more pronounced than in Italee Lucas. The freshman guard struggled at times early in the season and often looked out of sorts in Hatchell's hyper-speed offense. However, against N.C. State last Sunday, Lucas had zero turnovers for the first time this season.
If Lucas - a highly touted high school recruit - can give UNC another reliable option at the point to go along with Cetera DeGraffenreid, the Tar Heels will have truly impressive depth, something that injuries to several key Tar Heels have done their best to prevent this season.
Senior point guard Alex Miller went down with a knee injury Nov. 16 against Coppin State. Then there was Larkins' hand injury against Liberty on Dec. 30, and shortly thereafter freshmen shooter Rebecca Gray started sitting out games because of a right foot injury.
But those injuries - which have forced UNC to go deeper into its bench - might just end up helping the Tar Heels come March.
Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.
(01/11/08 5:00am)
BLACKSBURG, Va. - As Virginia Tech's women's basketball team blared loud music and artificial fog filled the air for their grand entrance, the North Carolina women's basketball team stood around the foul line and calmly drained foul shot after foul shot.
Such was the story of UNC's 79-59 victory against Va. Tech: The Hokies threw everything they had at the Tar Heels, but nothing could stop UNC from coolly dropping balls through the basket.
(11/26/07 5:00am)
There are rare moments in athletics where everyone involved recognizes that a game is a classic, even as it happens.
Saturday afternoon's women's soccer game at Fetzer Field was one of those times.
North Carolina and Notre Dame squared off in a rematch of last year's national championship game, and it had all of the same intensity.
Between 22 fouls, three yellow cards, a late-game comeback and a raucous crowd upwards of 2,000, the game had all of soccer's most exciting elements.
"I'm a little disappointed for the fans that this wasn't a final four game," Notre Dame head coach Randy Waldrum said.
Often, the field looked like the aftermath of a battle as player after player laid her body on the line for her team. Two players sustained injuries as the game became more and more physical, and the Tar Heels clawed their way back into contention with two second-half goals.
"It is the most nerve-racking score in soccer, to sit on a 2-1 lead," UNC coach Anson Dorrance said. "And I knew that was going to make it hard for Notre Dame."
It seemed as if the crowd was holding its breath for most of the game.
Any time the ball entered either team's box, the air seemed to grow tense. Every corner kick or Michele Weissenhofer flip-throw seemed sure to produce the pivotal goal. Even the goals themselves seemed to be tense, especially Nikki Washington's header that slowly floated over the hand of Irish goalie Lauren Karas and into the net.
They had to fight for every inch. For two teams so evenly matched, every ball was contested and neither team could dominate for very long.
One of the most entertaining players to watch on the field was UNC's dynamic freshman Meghan Klingenberg, who added an extra level of passion to the game.
In the 17th minute, after a ball went out of bounds, Klingenberg took a kick to the quadriceps from Irish forward Kerri Hanks. After Hanks got a yellow card for the kick, Klingenberg gave the forward a piece of her mind, yelling at her all the way down the sideline. Never mind that Klingenberg, as a freshman, was going up against one of the most respected players in the nation and Notre Dame's leading scorer - she refused to back down.
For the rest of the game, Klingenberg seemed to take it as her personal mission to embarrass the defender. Again and again, she made long runs down the field and dribbled around and through Notre Dame's defense.
The rest of the Tar Heels took a lift from Klingenberg's fire, and turned the game, win or lose, into a classic.
"The people who came, I think we made them into soccer fans," Dorrance said. "It was a wonderful game for everyone to watch."
Contact the Sports Editor at sports@email.unc.edu.
(11/26/07 5:00am)
The No. 5 North Carolina women's basketball team put Furman in a lockdown Sunday afternoon en route to a 77-36 victory.
The UNC defense forced 21 turnovers and held the Paladins to 19.7 percent shooting on the day. Two of Furman's starters did not make a basket, and no Paladin scored in double figures.
"We had a few breakdowns," head coach Sylvia Hatchell said. "But defensively we're doing some things better."
Whatever breakdowns the Tar Heels might have had, they certainly contained them well.
Part of that could be because of the long arms of UNC's forwards, who swatted 11 FU shots. LaToya Pringle and Jessica Breland led the way with five blocks combined.
Also contributing to the effort was the one-woman full-court press of Cetera DeGraffenreid. Leading the team with three steals, DeGraffenreid spent most of the afternoon flying around the court and wreaking havoc.
"No one except me knew how good this one was going to be," Hatchell said of DeGraffenreid. "I knew she was underrated without a doubt."
Offensively, DeGraffenreid led the Tar Heels with 16 points and four assists.
She was joined in scoring by fellow freshman guard Rebecca Gray. Gray found the mark early and often, racking up 11 points at the half to lead the team. In the first half, she shot 4-5 and 1-2 from downtown.
"Rebecca is just a solid player; fundamentally she is just good," Hatchell said. "She can handle the ball, she can shoot the ball, she can pass. She's not real flashy, she doesn't want to be the star - she wants to win."
Their production was needed on a night where Rashanda McCants did not start, played only 17 minutes and scored eight points, 10 below her season average of 18.
"I was just out there playing," DeGraffenreid said. "Rashanda does what Rashanda does, and if she's not going to score she's going to go out there and do something good."
While McCants didn't post her usual scoring numbers, she did fill up the stat sheet with two blocks, a steal and a number of other tipped passes as she found FU passing lanes.
Continuing her struggles of late was Italee Lucas, the third and most highly-touted freshman in UNC's class this year. Lucas at times looked spectacular, penetrating through the lane and dishing to an open teammate. But she also recorded seven turnovers.
"I think some of it's decision-making," Hatchell said. "I told her just make the simple pass instead of making that flashy, spectacular pass. Tonight she probably had three or four of those that we did not catch."
Another area that the Tar Heels struggled in was rebounding. While Erlana Larkins led the way with 13 rebounds, UNC only out-rebounded FU by five.
Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.
(11/26/07 5:00am)
Revenge is certainly sweet.
Top-seeded North Carolina fell 3-2 in the third round of the NCAA women's soccer tournament at the hands of the team they beat in the championship last year - Notre Dame.
Both teams came out guns blazing. UNC recorded a shot in the second minute and the Fighting Irish returned one of their own in the third.
But while both teams fired early and often, Notre Dame proved more accurate. Although the teams logged the same number of shots and the Tar Heels earned three corners in the opening 13 minutes, it was Notre Dame that came away with back-to-back goals.
The first goal came off a throw-in from flip-throw specialist Michele Weissenhofer that soared into the box and connected with the head of Brittany Bock.
"If you look at today's game the goals were interesting kinds of goals - to some extent they were quirky," head UNC coach Anson Dorrance said. "If you look at their first goal, it was especially incredible because they've got this throw-in artist who can just heave the ball into the middle of your box, and I think one of the best headers in collegiate football in Brittany Bock."
Even more unusual than the flip-throw was the following goal, which came a mere 14 seconds later. UNC botched a header back to goalie Ashlyn Harris, who bobbled the ball straight to a streaking Weissenhofer, who easily placed the ball into the wide-open net.
The two-goal deficit was the first time that UNC has trailed by such a margin at halftime since Sept. 1, 2006.
But Dorrance said his team didn't panic.
"I never doubted that they would continue to compete," he said. "I think if there's a quality that is consistent with our kids, they've got a great mentality."
Dorrance's confidence was rewarded shortly into the second half. A Notre Dame handball in the box set up an Allie Long penalty kick, which she buried to make the score 2-1 and cause the Fighting Irish to start looking over their shoulder.
"It was just such an intense game," Weissenhofer said. "And there was such high pressure, just very intense. But I was looking at the clock and I was like, 'Oh my gosh, can it go any slower? What's going on?'"
Weissenhofer herself gave the Irish a little breathing room in the 61st minute with a breakaway goal.
But Notre Dame barely had time to catch its breath. Nine minutes later, following one of Notre Dame's 13 fouls on the evening, Jessica Maxwell's free kick bounced through the box and Nikki Washington touched it home to make the score 3-2 and set the stage for the final minutes.
In a microcosm of its season, UNC spent the final 20 minutes attacking to no avail. In the final seconds, Casey Nogueira broke through the Irish defense, but her shot was saved to ice the game and send Notre Dame to the quarterfinals.
The loss is only UNC's seventh ever in the NCAA tournament.
Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.
(11/20/07 5:00am)
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Georgia St. 64
UNC 99
It happened almost too fast to see.
One second, the No. 7 North Carolina women's basketball team was down 6-0 to start its game against Georgia State.
The next thing anyone knew, the Tar Heels were nine points into a 20-0 run that put them in the driver's seat for good, cruising to a 99-64 victory.
"I guess it's just really a point in time where you have to pick it up," junior forward Rashanda McCants said. "It was really slack, but straight from the beginning."
(11/20/07 5:00am)
Tyler Hansbrough chipped in 26 points and Wayne Ellington added another 19 as the No. 1 North Carolina men's basketball team routed South Carolina State 110-64 Tuesday night.
The Tar Heels came out firing early and Ellington racked up 14 points in the first half alone on 4-7 shooting as UNC put up 61 points in the opening 20 minutes.
"I thought Wayne got us off to a great start early," head coach Roy Williams said. "I thought that 20 was his career high, and I left him in one extra possession and he got a wide-open three and missed it. So I told him I did my job, he didn't do his."
While Ellington and Hansbrough provided the majority of the offense, five Tar Heels scored in double figures. Bobby Frasor also flashed some ability to shoot from the outside going two-for-two from beyond the arc.
"I think my shot is better than it ever has been since I've been at Carolina." Frasor said.
Alex Stepheson made the most of his 20 minutes of play, logging a career high 11 points. Stepheson was also a rebound away from a double-double, finishing with nine.
"He did some nice things," Williams said of the sophomore forward. "I think he's continuing to grow every day. We've got to get more rebounds out of Deon, we've got to get better defense out of Alex, because Alex can be really good defensively. . He can really block a lot of shots, but he's making bad decisions about which ones to go after and which ones to leave alone."
While Stepheson was caught out of position a few times over the course of the game, UNC as a whole played lockdown defense for most of the game, trapping and pressing extensively. The pressure defense was effective, as it forced SC State into 32 turnovers on the night and allowed UNC to score 22 points off turnovers in the first half alone.
"We're more gifted than South Carolina State is, we're bigger, and we should win," Williams said. "But I was pleased with our intensity."
After heading into the locker room at halftime with a 27-point lead, the game's outcome was never in doubt for the second half. The most interesting things to happen in the second period were Quentin Thomas missing a two-handed dunk as he attempted to put UNC over 100, and walk-on J.B. Tanner hitting a three-point shot from beyond the NBA line.
"At first I didn't really think about it," Tanner said. "But once I let it go I realized that it was a little bit farther than I thought it was, but that's alright with me it went in."
Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.
(11/19/07 5:00am)
Ariel Harris and Jessica Maxwell were chatting in the backfield about how well their team was playing Sunday afternoon.
The only thing unusual is that the conversation took place during the No. 4 North Carolina women's soccer team's second-round NCAA tournament victory over UNC-Greensboro.
That two defenders had enough time to shoot the breeze in the backfield is indicative of how much UNC dominated both UNC-G and its first-round opponent High Point.
In the two games, UNC out-scored its opponents 9-2 and only allowed seven shots.
"I was really excited about the quality of the goals we've scored today," head coach Anson Dorrance said Sunday. "This is a team that has struggled to score goals this season, and for us to score a couple of wonderful goals is really tremendous."
The Tar Heels set the tone for the weekend in the 14th minute against High Point on Friday, as sophomore forward Whitney Engen knuckled a shot into the goal from 30 yards out.
Engen, who jump-started the UNC attack all weekend, got on the stat sheet again a mere 62 seconds later, winning a High Point goal kick and heading the ball forward to a breaking Casey Nogueira, who put the ball in the back of the net.
After that sequence, High Point did not challenge again and the Tar Heels cruised to a 6-1 victory.
Against UNC-G, they would have slightly more trouble.
After 45 minutes of play, it looked like UNC was locked in a nail-biter against the Spartans, as the Tar Heels clung to a one-goal lead. Attack after UNC attack fizzled, and shot after shot found the gloved hands of UNC-G goalie Katherine Ryan, who saved five shots in the first half alone.
But then lightning struck.
In the 55th minute, the UNC-G midfield was setting up for an attack until sophomore midfielder Nikki Washington sprinted up among the Spartans and stole the ball for a clear run at the goal.
Washington outran the defense and managed to slip her shot past Ryan to make the score 2-0 and let Dorrance and the UNC bench breathe a little easier.
"That sort of broke the game open for us," Dorrance said.
"Down on the bench as soon as she got it, Libby Guess, who's my undergraduate assistant, and Jaime Gilbert . all declared it would be a goal, and that's the kind of confidence we have in her now."
But Washington was not finished for the day. Six minutes later she again streaked up the sideline after winning the ball and lobbed a cross that found a flashing Nogueira who tipped the ball over Ryan for the third goal of the game.
"Me and Casey kind of have the weird connection," Washington said. "It sounds kind of creepy, but a lot of the time last year - me playing wide mid and her playing forward - I could always get that diagonal ball to the backside, so last year I had three or four assists to Casey on the exact same ball."
UNC-G managed one last-ditch effort as time was winding down, as Katelynn Donovan's free kick in the 75th minute caught the Tar Heel defense off guard and led to a Karla Davis goal.
"The last 10-15 minutes it's a real game," Dorrance said. "They're in our end, they're challenging our backs, and I credit Eddie Radwanksi, who does a great job with that side."
The Spartans had a potential second goal overturned on an offsides call that Radwanksi questioned.
"I'd love to see the replay of that second goal," Radwanksi said. "I'm not going to argue it, because I wasn't on the line, but I played professional soccer for 15 years, and I've got a pretty good eye, and I thought it was a good goal."
The Tar Heels will host the NCAA Tournament's third round on Saturday when they take on Notre Dame - a rematch of last year's NCAA championship game.
Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.
(11/16/07 5:00am)
The top-seeded North Carolina women's soccer team starts its quest for a second-straight national championship as it hosts the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament at Fetzer Field this weekend.
UNC opens up action at 5 p.m. today against High Point University. If they win, the Tar Heels will take on the winner of Memphis and UNC-Greensboro at 1 p.m. Sunday.
After "struggling" to a 7-3 record in the early part of the season, UNC has not lost a game since Sept. 30.
"There was a point in the end of September where we were being ranked as low as 10-15," head coach Anson Dorrance said. "What was cool is since then we've gone on a nice run and not only are we a No. 1 seed, we are the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament."
Coming off an ACC Tournament championship, the Tar Heels seem to be hitting their stride at exactly the right time. Notably, midfielder Nikki Washington has provided much-needed scoring in this last stretch of the season. Washington scored in all three ACC tournament games en route to being named the ACC Tournament MVP. The sophomore is also second on the team in both goals and assists, with five of each on the season.
"Her best quality is her ability to beat defenders on her own," Dorrance said. "Her dribbling ability and her speed and acceleration is extraordinary. . She's impossible to stop one-on-one."
One player who the team would surely like to get more involved is junior Yael Averbuch. After being named national player of the year last season by some publications with 16 goals, Averbuch has been held to five this year. But the midfielder still has the capability to rocket shots from any part of the field.
"I think what happens is she snuck up on everyone last year," Dorrance said. "Now that they know who she is, she's addressed in each pregame. So now obviously she's a focus for every team's defense, they're trying not to let her shoot because she's developed a reputation for having one of the most powerful shots in the game."
Averbuch, however, seems more focused on the task at hand as UNC enters crunch time.
"In the early games in the tournament for us it's about us playing our game," Averbuch said. "We're not as much concerned with our opposition."
One reason that the Tar Heels can afford to take that approach is the play of their freshman class. In particular, Megan Klingenberg and Rachel Givan - both of whom have logged more than 1,100 minutes on the year. Klingenberg has also scored four goals and assisted three others.
With all of those weapons, it's no surprise that the team has set a high standard for itself.
"There's a kind of sense of pressure always on our team whether we are defending national champions or not," Averbuch said. "On this team the only thing that is acceptable is to win."
Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.
(11/14/07 5:00am)
The No. 8 North Carolina women's basketball team was enjoying itself Tuesday night in Carmichael Auditorium.
Unfortunately for Elon, the fun came in the form of UNC's 98-53 victory against the Phoenix.
Keeping up the press defense for most of the night, UNC logged 22 steals and harassed the Phoenix into 32 turnovers on the night.
Key to that effort was the play of freshmen Italee Lucas and Cetera DeGraffenreid. The two speedy guards combined for 10 steals.
DeGraffenreid, in particular, stood out on the defensive end of the floor.
During one sequence in the first half, Elon had a fast break that looked like an easy layup. But DeGraffenreid came streaking up the court and launched her 5'6" frame into the air to swipe the shot from behind.
"She's a great athlete," head coach Sylvia Hatchell said. "She really got up."
The play also grabbed the attention of UNC's expert shotblocker Latoya Pringle.
"You know we always get excited when a point guard you know, a shorter one like at 5'2" . whenever they get blocks, it's kind of like one in a million," Pringle said. "We congratulate her, and let her know that it probably won't happen for another couple of games."
Pringle also put in some work on defense, blocking three Elon shots.
However, her biggest contribution came in the form of 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting.
Pringle was one of four Tar Heels in double figures for the evening. That contribution helped ease the burden of All-American forward Erlana Larkins, who played a mere 15 minutes and recorded only three rebounds and six points.
Often, the person feeding them the ball was Lucas, who led the team in assists with eight. While Lucas also turned the ball over eight times, she frequently slashed through the lane and found wide-open teammates for easy buckets, including a first-half assist to Jessica Breland around the back of the Elon defender.
Junior Rashanda McCants continued her strong play this year, leading all scorers with 16 points while tallying seven rebounds and four assists.
Another important contributor was Breland, a sophomore forward. She recorded her second straight double-double with 11 rebounds and 12 points.
While she mainly stayed in the post, Breland flashed a little bit of ball-handling potential in a fast break during the first half when she grabbed a rebound and streaked up the court where she dribbled behind her back twice to get by Elon defenders.
"They're kind of rusty," Breland said of her dribbling moves. "I used to do that stuff in high school."
Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.
(10/15/07 4:00am)
It happened just that quick.
North Carolina's offense looked as sluggish as the Sunday afternoon weather for much of the first half. The defense for Wake Forest (7-5-2, 2-2-1), brought down cross after cross, and UNC (11-3, 5-1) was called offsides five times during the first 30 minutes.
But with eight minutes to go in the first half, Tobin Heath played a perfect through ball to a streaking Jaime Gilbert who placed it ever so precisely into the side netting for the only goal of the afternoon to secure UNC's 1-0 victory and extend its winning streak to four games.
"For Jaime Gilbert to get the game winner, she's a great kid . she's got all kinds of experience," coach Anson Dorrance said. "And for her to take that ball down and just place it perfectly in the side netting, that's just a tremendous goal."
Until Gilbert's strike, the UNC offense simply looked stagnant. The ball stayed on Wake Forest's side of the field, but UNC was unable to create any substantial offense.
But after the goal, Tar Heel attacks penetrated deeper and deeper into the backfield and then into the box, especially in the second half.
Part of that had to do with fiery freshman Meghan Klingenberg, who made a run down the right side of Wake's defense in the 72nd minute. WFU defender Casey Luckhurst made a sliding tackle from behind that brought Klingenberg to the turf and earned Luckhurst a yellow card.
"You know, Kling's a little saucy, so when she gets fouled she kind of riles everyone up," Gilbert said. "So definitely when she got fouled we just came alive, she was definitely angry about it."
For the rest of the half, UNC's forwards and wings attacked Luckhurst's side of the field. First Klingenberg, then Heath and finally Casey Nogueira all took turns dribbling around a hapless Wake Forest defense for dangerous crosses.
On one play, Heath dribbled down the right side and launched a cross to the smallest player in the box - 5-foot-4 Nikki Washington - whose header was just high.
"We pinged the ball around a little bit," Dorrance said. "We created many chances, obviously this isn't a high goal-scoring team, so we have to be capable of winning games 1-0 like we did today."
A huge part of winning those games is defensive pressure from all positions on the field, and Dorrance said the Tar Heels achieved that goal Sunday.
Despite taking no first half shots due to that pressure, WFU started to mount an attack late in the game and challenge the UNC defense. But Tar Heel defenders proved too fast for the Wake attack to get past, though the Demon Deacons did squander several chances.
The key standout on defense was senior Ariel Harris. Whenever a Wake Forest forward looked to break free, Harris was there for the goal-saving tackle. From the sidelines, Gilbert watched her teammate preserve the win and the shutout.
"She was ill nasty," Gilbert said of her teammate. "Ill nasty."
Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.
(09/24/07 4:00am)
DURHAM - For 15 minutes on Friday evening, it looked like North Carolina's women's soccer team would have some trouble.
But after Ohio State took four shots in the opening moments of the first round of the Duke/adidas Classic, the Tar Heels shifted into a higher gear.
Casey Nogueira scored her first of three goals 15:36 into the first half and the weekend was UNC's party from then on.
"I really thought for one half this weekend you saw what all of us are excited about with Casey Nogueira," head coach Anson Dorrance said. "When Casey Nogueira learns to play with passion and to play the game that is sprint and defend, she goes from being a good college player to being a world-class player."
UNC lit up the scoreboard in the second half against Ohio State with four goals. Nogueira completed her hat trick, and Caroline Boneparth and Whitney Engen also scored.
Boneparth's 90th-minute goal should particularly please Dorrance, who earlier in the season remarked that he felt his team lacked a killer instinct.
To score a goal after the game was already decided could mean that the Tar Heels continued attacking for the entire game, part of what their coach wants to see.
"I thought in the second half against Ohio State we found it, and we lost it again on Sunday," Dorrance said of the elusive killer instinct he wants his team to have. "So we're still searching for an identity, but I have seen some good signs."
While The Tar Heels handled Ohio State with little trouble, San Francisco provided more of a challenge Sunday.
Carolina-blue jerseys weaved in and out of the San Francisco defense seemingly at will, but for much of the first half they couldn't get past goalie Katie Hodgson. Making nine saves on the day, Hodgson kept the Tar Heel attack flustered until sophomore midfielder Tobin Heath set up Yael Averbuch, who ripped a shot from the top corner of the box past Hodgson's outstretched hand.
"All game I was trying to look for Yael at the top of the box to shoot," Heath said. "She's got a cannon."
Heath's assist was her third of the weekend. The dribbling midfielder tore apart both UNC's opponents with any number of techniques, including UNC's second goal against San Francisco.
"Well, Tobin's an extraordinary player, and she's playing with great variety right now," Averbuch said. "We all know Tobin can beat one, two even three players on the dribble."
While Heath and company were scoring the points, their defense was shutting down the opposition. UNC allowed only 13 shots on the weekend with no goals, and in particular San Francisco didn't manage a shot until the 36:48 mark.
Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.
(09/18/07 4:00am)
Brianna O'Donnell is a woman with two passions.
On one hand, the sophomore goalkeeper for North Carolina's No. 1 field hockey team is the fiery heart of a defense that has shut out its last three opponents.
But on the other hand, that intensity also extends halfway across the world to O'Donnell's other passion: an orphanage in Third World Kenya.
O'Donnell spent her past two summers in Kibera, Kenya, volunteering at a local orphanage where she brought the same energy and drive that make her an elite goalkeeper to helping orphans in a Third World country.
After working through an organization and then raising money on her own so that she could give more to the orphanage, O'Donnell spent her summer vacation time helping children there.
"I've always been interested in Africa . just because of the Feed the Children commercials. I'd wake up on Saturday mornings and lay in bed and watch them for hours and hours," she said.
Even without O'Donnell's humanitarian resume, her list of accomplishments is already impressive.
Last season she played every minute in goal as a true freshman and ranked ninth nationally in save percentage.
UNC head coach Karen Shelton was not surprised.
"The timing was right with the goalkeepers. You don't need one every year, and so a lot of times it's the time and the place," she said. "But I certainly feel like we got the best one that was available in that recruiting class."
One reason for O'Donnell's success could be her immediate dedication to the team. O'Donnell committed to UNC before her senior year of high school even started on her junior day visit.
"We went to the football center, and we were watching a movie, and it was like the Carolina sports recap of the year, and it absolutely blew my mind," she said. "And like two hours later I committed."
She also forfeited her second semester of senior year - along with her senior prom - to come to UNC a semester early and get adjusted.
"I wanted to get out of Pennsylvania really bad, so I don't think I was worrying so much about that," she said.
Whatever the reason, she and her teammates certainly reaped the benefits. By the start of the season O'Donnell was integrated into the team, and even the leaders of the defense noticed her spirit.
"Personality-wise, she just always has this excitement about her that's really cool," senior back Xan Funk said. "I think it spreads through our backfield and through the team. She's really energetic."
O'Donnell's enthusiasm and passion for the job were most obvious after close losses last year. After UNC went down 4-3 to Wake Forest in overtime, O'Donnell was so distraught that tears of frustration and pain continued to run down her face in postgame interviews.
But this is one athlete who wants to use that passion off the field as well.
O'Donnell's trips to Africa required her to muster the same strength and intensity to face challenging situations.
In one instance, the orphanage's director was hiding toys for fear they would be broken and not replenished.
"Sometimes some of the things she does, it's just like 'Holy crap, get these kids these toys you're hiding in your room!' . They're kids; they need toys; they need to experience life," O'Donnell said.
She also experienced a face-to-face confrontation with the corruption rampant in many Third World countries.
"I fundraised money for the second trip when I went back, and I had a board director helping me organize projects . and he was ripping me a big one," she said.
"Honestly I caught it before it got really bad, but there was a donor that was donating 20,000 New Zealand dollars per year for the past two years to the orphanage, and it was going through this board member, and the orphanage never saw a dime."
Even several months later, a light comes into her eyes when she describes how she acted in response.
"I like uncovered this all, and I literally kicked him out of the orphanage," she said.
"And I was like, 'If you ever come back here, I'll find somebody and get you killed.' That's overexaggerating, of course."
While she plans to return to Africa this Christmas break, O'Donnell has turned her focus back to field hockey and North Carolina's run at a national championship.
Those efforts have been successful by any standards, as the Tar Heels have yet to lose a game. In fact, the defense has dominated most of their games, allowing only seven goals on the season thus far.
That goals against average ranks eighth in the nation and has UNC thinking seriously about going all the way.
"I can't wait for the day that we can say, 'Yeah, we're the national champions,'" O'Donnell said.
If anything's certain in the quest for that ultimate achievement, it's that the Tar Heels can expect some serious energy from their goalkeeper.
"I'm not very good at doing things half-ass," she said. "I want to commit everything I have to it."
Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.
(09/17/07 4:00am)
View the slideshow
Coming into the season, there were some serious questions facing the North Carolina defense.
On Saturday, all of those doubts were validated.
UNC's loss proves for the second week in a row that the Tar Heel defense is going through some serious growing pains. Inexperience in both the secondary and in the linebacker corps made the Virginia offense look a whole lot better than its No. 110 national ranking.
(09/14/07 4:00am)
Game and time: Virginia at North Carolina. Kickoff is at noon Saturday.
Site: Kenan Stadium.
TV/Radio: Lincoln Financial/Raycom sports will be covering the game in addition to local radio coverage on WHCL, 1360-AM, and WRDU, 106.1-FM
Records: UNC is 1-1 (0-0), UVa. is 1-1 (1-0).
Series: UNC leads 56-51-4
UNC personnel update: LB Chase Rice (ankle) is out for the season. DT Kyndraus Guy (knee) is expected to play.
The key matchup: UVa.'s pass rush against the UNC offensive line.
The Tar Heels have yet to establish a solid running game, and therefore their offense is based on the arm of T.J. Yates. While Yates' solid play has been a pleasant surprise, a large part of that is that the redshirt freshman quarterback has not really been pressured yet. UVa. has the pass rushers to cause that pressure.
All-American defensive end Chris Long is better than any player Garrett Reynolds (or anyone else on the UNC offensive line) has faced this year.
UVa. knows that it doesn't have the firepower to get into a shootout with UNC. Unfortunately, it also doesn't have the secondary to play Brandon Tate, Hakeem Nicks, and Brooks Foster man-to-man. So its only hope of holding the score down into the type of sloppy game that they can win is to generate constant pressure.
Final analysis/prediction: Coming off of a hard-fought loss to ECU, the Tar Heels will be out for some revenge. Kenan Stadium will be rocking with all the pyrotechnics fans can handle and Apache helicopter flyovers.
More importantly, once the Tar Heel offense starts rolling, not a whole lot has slowed it down so far this year. Granted, UVa. has some playmakers on defense, but UNC's electric receiving corps and passing game will be just too much for the Cavaliers.
Look for UVa. to blitz aggressively in hopes of breaking up Yates' rhythm. Long will probably get free a few times and cause some havoc in the backfield, but the UNC offense has been remarkably good so far at picking up the blitz.
In response to UVa.'s aggressive defensive attack, watch for misdirection running and short screens to running backs or receivers that turn into big plays after the catch.
Look for UNC tailback Anthony Elzy to punch at least one touchdown in from the goal line.
The bottom line: UNC 28, UVa. 19.
Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.
(09/10/07 4:00am)
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - From Kansas to Chapel Hill to national championships, Roy Williams has always followed in Dean Smith's footsteps.
Those footsteps led the country boy from rural North Carolina all the way to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, where Williams was enshrined Friday night.
"Coach Smith, this is truly hard to put into words," Williams said, addressing the former UNC coach from the podium during the ceremony. "You were and are my mentor, my teacher, my friend. Ninety-five percent of what I do came from you."
It was fitting, therefore, that Smith was one of the members who introduced his protege, along with fellow Hall of Fame member and former North Carolina assistant coach Larry Brown.
Williams joined the elite club of basketball legends with some serious credentials of his own. He accumulated 500 wins faster than any college coach in the history of Division I basketball, won a national championship with UNC in 2005 and is the third coach in history to lead two separate teams to a national championship game.
And Williams' legacy is based not on his winning percentage or trophies, but on the relationships he forms with players.
Those relationships came out in force Friday night as a star-studded group of 22 former Jayhawk and Tar Heel players came out to support their coach and offer their congratulations.
Almost all of the players could relate just how their former coach had affected their lives.
May's story is typical of Williams' influence. When he arrived in Chapel Hill, May was overweight and often injured. Under Williams' tutelage, he slimmed down, gained enough speed to run his coaches' high-octane offense and eventually led UNC to the 2005 national championship in which he was named the Final Four Most Outstanding Player.
"Coach Williams just helped me become a man, so to speak," May said. "Always held me accountable for my actions on the court. He's a father figure, and he's my coach. He'll always be my coach."
Just as powerful as May's is the story of Wayne Simien, one of the players who Williams left at Kansas when he took the UNC head-coaching position in 2003. Simien, who committed to Williams and Kansas barely after he entered high school, was one of the players most embittered when Williams left.
"I gave my right arm for that man," Simien said after hearing the news of Williams' departure.
On Friday night, however, Simien had nothing but praise for the man who recruited him.
"He means so much to me as a player," Simien said. "I only played for him for two years, but I've known him since I was in the seventh grade. He's been not only a coach to so many of us here, but a positive male role model and a father figure, as well."
Perhaps the reason that Williams is so beloved by his players has roots in his own humble beginnings. Growing up dirt-poor in Asheville, Williams played junior varsity basketball for UNC. Later, then-Tar Heel coach Smith noticed the young man and added him to his staff after only five years of coaching at Charles D. Owen High School in Swannanoa.
"Probably one thing that started me was inviting him to work at our camp," Smith said. "It's amazing how the second day, all these 60 campers, he'd know their first name and then he'd make the guys working with him know them by Wednesday."
Smith later recommended his assistant for the head position at KU after then-head coach Brown left for the NBA.
"Kansas wanted a name coach, a successful and proven coach," Williams said. "And I was not even a household name in my own house."
Williams certainly became a household name in short order, making 14 straight NCAA appearances and four Final Fours with KU. After Matt Doherty resigned, Williams returned home to UNC, and the rest is history.
However, more than all of his accolades, the Hall of Fame coach takes more pride in the comments of his former players and colleagues than another trophy.
"I am the luckiest man in the world," he said during his acceptance speech. "With my family at home and my family on the court, no one has been more fortunate than me. I love you, and I thank you."
Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.
(08/31/07 4:00am)
When the door to the North Carolina locker room opened up Thursday, it sounded like a party was going on.
Whoops and yells and howls came roaring out of the tunnel beneath the newly christened Tar Pit. Think the Tar Heels are ready for some football?
"Everybody's real excited in the locker room," starting quarterback T.J. Yates said over the noise. "Everybody's crazy in there."
And it's not just the players who are feeling anxious. Head coach Butch Davis also was optimistic about his team's chances Saturday based on the final preparatory practices.
"One of the obvious asset tests that coaches look at every single day in practice is the number of mental mistakes," Davis said Wednesday.
"And, you know, it was sharp as a first practice. I thought that they've really grasped what we'd like to accomplish."
Davis has good reason to be pleased, as this week in particular has been the culmination of UNC's preparation for its first opponent.
Special drills, full-speed run-throughs and situational scenarios have all been used so far as the Tar Heel coaching staff prepares for the game. But Davis actually noted that the drills had little to do with tactics for James Madison.
"We've tried to have at least one if not two highly competitive drills that have almost nothing do to against the opponent," he said. "We had a two-minute drill at the end of the day, and we just ran our stuff against our stuff. We had some great quality work one-on-one with our receivers and (defensive backs) during the day today, so from that standpoint we're pretty far along."
Nonetheless, James Madison still looms and Davis is not taking his opponent lightly.
"They are a legitimately electrifying offense," he said of JMU. "The style and the scheme of the offense, you don't want to give them too many possessions and you don't want them on the field for a long period of time because they're going to wear you down."
The quarterback position, with Yates as the new starter, also received some special attention from the coaching staff.
"We do a drop-back drill where we'll have receivers out there running routes," Yates said. "(Offensive coordinator John Shoop) will be throwing these humongous, big balls at us so we can move in the pocket and keep out eyes downfield."
As practice winds down, Davis said the Heels are going to try to get some down time Friday and for one of Davis' pregame traditions - movie night.
"It's hard at this time of year to find something that the players haven't watched all summer long, so we try to take a look at what's coming up more current. . Hopefully it's not something too silly."
Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.