The Daily Tar Heel

Serving the students and the University community since 1893

Friday June 9th

Sports



UNC Kicks Off Season's Final Phase in Fine Fashion

North Carolina women's soccer coach Anson Dorrance looks at every season in three phases. The first phase: the regular season. It was not the Tar Heels' best after three losses, all of them in conference play. The second phase: the ACC tournament. The Tar Heels couldn't have been more dominant, yielding one goal in three wins for their 12th straight title. The third phase began Sunday before 2,538 fans at Fetzer Field: the NCAA tournament. And from the looks of things, North Carolina has forgotten the first phase and retained everything from the second. Alyssa Ramsey and K

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Flanagan, Tar Heels Run to NCAAs

FURMAN, S.C. - In what looked like a repeat of the ACC Championships, freshman Shalane Flanagan led North Carolina to a second-place finish in cross country at the NCAA Southeast regional on Saturday morning. N.C. State, the 2000 ACC champion, finished first with 72 points. North Carolina tallied 83 points. The Tar Heels' second-place finish guarantees them a trip to the NCAA Championships at Iowa State on Nov. 20. Flanagan crossed the line first in 20 minutes, 51 seconds to finish 20 seconds ahead of Duke sophomore Sheela Agrawal, who placed second.

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SportSaturday: Huard Ponders Future As UNC Quarterback

Things just haven't worked out the way Luke Huard imagined. Huard earned Washington player of the year honors from three publications as a senior at Puyallup (Wash.) High School in 1997. He was rated among the nation's top five passing quarterbacks. Huard looked ready to star at the collegiate level, just like his two older brothers before him. And the scholarship offers poured in. He signed with North Carolina on Feb. 4, 1998, and nothing has gone quite right for him since. In April of that year, national player of the year Ronald Curry announced he would attend UNC.

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SportSaturday: Weighing the Options

Ah, the life of a football recruit. Must be nice. All that attention. College coaches from all over practically knocking your door down to get you to sign that piece of paper that says you'll bless them with your presence. Traveling around the country on official visits to schools that treat you like royalty when you get there. National television exposure and big time attention from pro scouts soon to come your way. Must be nice. "It's fun at first, and it's a situation that a lot of people would love to be in," North Carolina freshman tailback Brandon Russell said.

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Basketball Tab: UNC's Center of Attention

Brendan Haywood might just be the nation's best at his position. North Carolina's 7-foot, 262-pound center is certainly the best big man east of the Mississippi. People out west might argue for Arizona's Loren Woods, but he's more slender (7-1, 251) and has battled through injuries during his career. "Some people say I'm one of the best big men in the country, and some people don't," Haywood said. "I don't go out there and focus on that.

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Basketball Tab: Quiet Forte Makes Noise on Court

Joseph Forte comes off as an unassuming guy. He's seemingly never in a hurry to get anywhere, and he speaks so softly that he's often difficult to hear. His game is another story. It maintains the smoothness of Forte's personality but is loud and bold at the same time, complete with long-range bombs, pull-up jumpers and drives to the basket. It's in your face whether you like it - as in the case of his teammates - or not - as in the case of opponents. Forte becomes another person on the court. If he beats a defender in practice, that guy might hear about it.

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Doherty Faces Easier Season Opener

One year ago, Matt Doherty was coaching his first game at a new school. One year later, he's doing the same thing. But much has changed in a year. Doherty's task to tip off 1999 was to lead his Notre Dame squad on the road against fourth-ranked Ohio State. The Fighting Irish won 59-57. Doherty's task this year? To lead North Carolina past Winthrop in the first round of the NABC Classic at the Smith Center. The teams square off at 7:30 p.m. "No one expected us to beat (Ohio State)," Doherty said. "This situation is kind of different.

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Basketball Tab: Doherty Puts Own Mark on Program

One year ago, Matt Doherty was coaching his first game at a new school. One year later, he's doing the same thing. But much has changed in a year. Doherty's task to tip off 1999 was to lead his Notre Dame squad on the road against fourth-ranked Ohio State. The Fighting Irish won 59-57. Doherty's task this year? To lead North Carolina past Winthrop in the first round of the NABC Classic at the Smith Center. The teams square off at 7:30 p.m. "No one expected us to beat (Ohio State)," Doherty said. "This situation is kind of different.

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Basketball Tab: Tar Heel Men Hope New Look Leads to Instant Success

Matt Doherty can surely relate to what Dick Baddour went through this summer. There was Baddour, facing his toughest task to date in his relatively young tenure as the director of athletics at North Carolina. Coach Bill Guthridge had decided to retire, leaving the men's basketball program in its first true state of instability in almost 40 years. Baddour had a number of candidates to consider, although Roy Williams looked like the clear favorite. Doherty eventually emerged as the choice.

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Men's Soccer Set to Kick Off Postseason

They've been saying it all year long. Since their first exhibition against Virginia Tech on Aug. 26, the North Carolina men's soccer team has proclaimed that it is talented enough to be a national success story. "We all believe; we all have confidence that we can make the final four," defender Danny Jackson said after that game against the Hokies. And the rest of the nation is starting to believe Jackson & Co. UNC is ranked second in the nation as it heads into the ACC tournament tonight at Wake Forest's Spry Stadium.

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UNC Dynasty Facing Tough Tests

As unpredictable as sports can often be, one fact almost always can be counted on: The mighty eventually fall. It happened to the Boston Celtics. It happened to the New York Yankees a couple of times. And it could be starting to happen to the North Carolina women's soccer team. UNC, which has won 15 NCAA championships in the tournament's 18-year history, lost three ACC games this season.

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Carrieri, Bolowich Receive League's Top Honors

The North Carolina men's soccer team picked up a slew of awards from the ACC on Wednesday. Junior forward Chris Carrieri earned the top honor when he was named ACC Player of the Year. Carrieri leads the conference and the nation in scoring average (3.16 points per game) and goals per game (1.26). Carrieri spearheaded an All-ACC first team that also featured UNC defender Danny Jackson.

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Shelton, Field Hockey Wary of Golden Flashes

Today the North Carolina field hockey team will get its first look at Kent State, its opponent Saturday in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The team doesn't know a whole lot about Kent State. "There was a massacre there in the seventies," forward Holly Huff offered.

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Field Hockey to Host 1st-Round NCAA Game

The North Carolina field hockey team has been awarded the No. 2 seed of the NCAA tournament, earning a home bid for the first two rounds of the tourney. UNC (17-3) will face Kent State (19-3) on Saturday at 11 a.m. at Henry Stadium. Each of the top four teams in the nation host a bracket of the 16-team tournament. Massachusetts and Boston will meet in the other game at Henry Stadium on Saturday at 2 p.m. The winners of the two games will face off on Sunday for the right to continue onto the final four in Norfolk, Va., at Old Dominion on Nov.

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Volleyball Sneaks Past Tigers

CLEMSON, S.C. - The North Carolina volleyball team overcame a two-game deficit to defeat Clemson 3-2 (13-15, 12-15, 15-6, 15-9, 15-13) on Tuesday evening at Jervey Gym. North Carolina improved to 23-6 overall and 13-2 in the ACC with the win. Clemson fell to 12-16 overall and 5-9 in conference action. The Tar Heels jumped out to a 3-0 lead in game five before Clemson fought back and tied the game 3-3. UNC took the lead 10-7 before Clemson tied the game 10-10. The Tigers took their biggest lead of the game at 13-10 before the Tar Heels scored five unanswered points to capture the match.

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UNC Men, Women Trounce Duke

After earning big wins this weekend, the North Carolina men's and women's swimming teams were trying to avoid a letdown. Neither team experienced such a letdown against Duke as the men trounced the Blue Devils by a score of 184-58 and the women easily won 157-85. Both teams used a variety of swimmers to wear down the Blue Devils. The men had eight different individual winners, and the women had six. "I was thrilled with how well we swam tonight," UNC coach Frank Comfort said. "It was real impressive.

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Parker Quiets Rumors With Emergence

Fall Break came at a perfect time for Willie Parker. Parker, North Carolina's starting tailback coming out of spring practice, had dropped to third on the depth chart. He was still attempting to overcome a back injury that had hampered him through the Tar Heels' first five games. The Tar Heels had a bye week, and Parker went to his hometown of Clinton to relax from the pressures of an already frustrating season. But the scene that Parker returned to was anything but therapeutic. People flocked to Parker's house to ask him why he wasn't playing.

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Mejia Advances to ITA Nationals

North Carolina sophomore Marlene Mejia defeated Maren Haus of Wake Forest 6-0, 6-4 in the semifinal round of the ITA Southeast Regional Championships at Wake Forest to advance to the ITA National Championships in Dallas. "Marlene had a fantastic tournament," UNC coach Roland Thornqvist said. "Her game has matured. She knows where to go on offense and when to change it up, and that has made her a better player." The ITA National Championships will be the first weekend in February at the Brookhaven Country Club.

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