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Sports Monday I Defense Shuts Down ACC Opponents Duke attempted just one shot against UNC in the tournament final as the Tar Heels registered their second straight shutout. By James Giza Assistant Sport Saturday Editor DURHAM - If the North Carolina women’s soccer team and its fans were elated following the Tar Heels’ dominating perfor mance in the ACC tournament this weekend, just think how the groundskeepers must feel. Surely, the men and women who tend the field at Koskinen Stadium were off some where toasting the beauty of the rule that teams must switch sides after halftime. Had that rule not been in effect, the side of the field that UNC attacked would have got ten awfully chewed up -and the other side would have been in near-mint condition. UNC Finishes Off Pitt, Losing Streak North Carolina's football team put together a 98-yard fourth quarter drive to help put Pittsburgh away at Three Rivers Stadium. By Will Kimmey Sport Saturday Editor PITTSBURGH - It seemed the North Carolina football team found anew way to lose in each of its past four games. Blocked punts. Fumbles. Stupid penalties. Not being able to score in the red zone. The Tar Heels looked to be head ed down the same road Saturday against Pittsburgh. UNC held a 13-10 halftime lead but turned the ball over inside the Panther 30 twice in the second half and botched a field-goal attempt. Plus, Pittsburgh threw for nearly 200 yards after intermission. But North Carolina overcame it all and left Three Rivers Stadium with a 20-17 victory against a Pittsburgh team that lost to No. 2 Virginia Tech by the same margin a week earlier. “I’m very proud of our football team for fighting through adversity,” UNC coach Carl Torbush said. “We had lots of opportunities to lose the ballgame, but we didn’t. We kept fighting back.” It marked UNC’s first win since it knocked off Marshall on Sept. 23 -a string of four losses. “It’s not really relief, it’s happiness,” UNC defensive tack le Ryan Sims said. “We finished in the fourth quarter. The last three weeks, we’ve gotten beat in the fourth quarter when it really mattered.” This time, the Tar Heels (4-5,1-5 in the ACC) made the key fourth-quarter plays. Pittsburgh receiver Antonio Bryant, who caught eight balls for 212 yards and a touchdown, made per haps his biggest catch with 10:20 remaining. He downed a Panther punt on the UNC 2-yard fine. North Carolina was faced with traveling 98 yards if it want ed to extend its 13-10 lead and get some breathing room. A three-and-out series would give the Panthers momentum and good field position. The Tar Heels of the last few weeks might have folded. But not this week. See FOOTBALL, Page 11 Field Hockey Falters in Semifinals Against Virginia By Rachel Carter Assistant Sports Editor COLLEGE PARK, Md. - It wasn’t supposed to be like this. The two teams didn’t expect it. The media certainly didn’t, and the fans in the stands of Maryland’s Artificial Turf Stadium didn’t even know the rules. But as North Carolina sweeper Abby Martin would fittingly say Field Hockey Virginia 2 UNC I after the Tar Heels lost 2-1 to ninth ranked Virginia in the ACC field hock ey tournament semifinals, “Anything can happen. And it did.” Anything in this case was a Virginia team that had barely made it to the semifinals, needing overtime to beat fifth-seeded Duke. The Cavaliers hadn’t beaten the Thr Heels in five years, and UNC’s play this season proved that it earned its No. 2 national ranking. Behind the gutsy play of senior goal keeper Becky Worthington, Virginia pushed the Tar Heels hard and forced them into two overtime periods and two rounds of penalty strokes. UNC and Virginia each converted four of their five opportunities in the first round. Virginia jumped to a 2-1 edge against Tar Heel goalkeeper Amy Applying an over whelming amount of defensive pressure, par ticularly up top, UNC limited its three oppo nents to six shots and one goal and pitched consec utive shutouts against Florida State and Duke. “They compact the field. They make it small, so it’s easy for them to help each other,” said Blue Devils coach Bill Hempen after UNC beat his team 4-0 in the finals Sunday. “The midfielders help the defenders, the mid fielders help the forwards, the forwards help the midfielders. It’s a team effort defensively.” As it has for much of the season, UNC’s defensive push began with senior forward Meredith Florance. qqg ’ W/f % 4§ * imv .JjßLjjj : Ir : IB H Mm A Footbalt UNC 20 Pittsburgh 17 Defensive Line, Peppers Terrorize Pittsburgh Offense See Page 11 DTH/RYAN VASAN North Carolina freshman tailback Willie Parker heads for the outside, eluding Pittsburgh defensive lineman Darrell McMurray. Parker rushed 16 times for 61 yards in the game and accounted for 68 total yards on the Tar Heels' final touchdown drive. BEfet VD ■ % 4. . fpH DTH/JEFF POULAND UNC midfielder Meredith Keller duels with Virginia's Mason White. Keller converted one of her two penalty-stroke attempts in the loss. Tran in the second round before sealing the victory on a Carrie Goodloe shot. “I didn’t think when we went to the new overtime period that we’d ever get to penalty strokes,” Shelton said. “I con sider it a miscalculation on my part that While Florance’s offensive prowess might draw her the most attention - her 22 goals lead the nation - her defensive play has been just as phenomenal this season. At no time was that facet of her game more apparent than in the second half of UNC’s 3-0 semifinal defeat of Honda State on Friday. After chesting a Seminole throw-in along the right sideline, Florance collected the ball and raced 80 yards downfield. It took a lung ing save from FSU goalkeeper Sarah Crawford to deflect Florance’s shot just wide right. “I think people forget about her defensive ly. She has probably been our best defender at times even though she’s a forward,” midfielder Jena Kluegel said. “Her presence up top has been contagious to everyone else on the team.” Florance must have started breathing on the Tar Heels’ water bottles after UNC yield ed a goal in the 10th minute of a 5-1 quarter final win against N.C. State on Thursday. FSU took its first shot of Friday’s game in the 52nd minute. Duke, meanwhile, got its only UNC midfielder Maggie Tomecka scored the game-winning goal in the semifinals against Florida State. I didn’t prepare my team better for penalty strokes.” Shelton’s miscalculation is under standable, considering that the Tar Heels dominated the game. They had 20 shots to Virginia’s nine and drew 13 shot of Sunday’s contest in the 59th minute. “There’s pressure all around you at all times,” Duke midfielder Kim Daws said. “It’s not just one person or a double team - it’s a triple team or four people on you at one time.” After UNC’s dominating performance this weekend, it’s easy to forget that its defense was one of its biggest questions entering the season. Having lost defenders Lome Fair and Lindsay Stoecker and midfielder Rebekah McDowell, it appeared that UNC would be yielding more than its share of goals this season. However, senior Julia Marslender, who was named to the all-tournament team, has performed admirably in the back, and fresh man Maggie Tomecka has used her height and strength to fill the hole left by McDowell. Said UNC coach Anson Dorrance, “Our organization and relendess pressure were about as good as I’ve ever seen.” The Sports Editor can be reached at sports@unc.edu. comers to the Cavaliers’ six. But the only numbers that matter are how many goals a team gets. With the second half less than a minute old, Virginia stole possession from UNC and drove deep into the Tar Heels’ territory. The ball was knocked into the circle and amid the chaos Virginia’s Katie Slocum barely touched the ball and direct- ed it slowly into the Tar Heel net. UNC jumped onto the board on its third penalty comer of the game. Martin took a pass from back Jana Toepel and dribbled it a few yards deeper into the circle before “It’s kind of fun. You're in the spotlight; you can try to he the hero. Sometimes you're not." Amy Tran UNC Goalkeeper shooting the ball past Worthington. That was the only time the Tar Heels would trip up Worthington. She finished the game with 11 saves. “I think we had our chances -a lot of chances -and we need to capitalize on those opportunities when we get them,” Shelton said. UNC was able to string together sev eral threats, but Virginia’s defense stopped it once it got in the circle. On one scoring opportunity, Martin charged hard up the right side of the Tar Heels Rip Athletes In Action UNC senior forward LaQuanda Barksdale (left) was 11-for-13 from the field on her way to 27 points as the Tar Heels won 90-66 Sunday. See Page 9. -% - *■ - " j _, a i jjj| DTH/EMILY SCHNURE Forward Anne Remy (left) keeps the pressure on Duke during Sunday's ACC tournament final match. field, passed to Toepel to avoid a UVa. defender and accepted the ball back 10 feet later. Martin drove into the Cavalier circle but lost control of the ball quickly. “As Virginia has always, they have a low defense, and they played a great defense inside their 25,” Martin said. “We were not able to penetrate the circle a whole lot. They were shutting down Jana Toepel, which is a lot of our attack on the right side.” With the Cavaliers all over the Tar Heels once they pushed into the scoring circle, UNC’s best oppor tunity to regain the lead came on, ironically, a penal ty stroke in the first overtime. Martin lined up against Worthington and shot the ball to her right -and right into Worthington’s outstretched right glove. Neither the Tar Heels nor the Cavaliers could score on any of their opportunities and were forced into the strokes. “It’s kind of fun,” Tran said of penalty strokes. “You’re in the spotlight; you can try to be the hero. Sometimes you’re not” The Sports Editor can be reached at sports@unc.edu. INSIDE: ■ Men's soccer beats Gamecocks. Page 11 ■ Rowers compete in big weekend races. Page 11 ■ Notre Dame shuts out UNC volleyball. Page 11 Swimming Pays Back Minnesota North Carolina's men's team erased memories of a loss to the Golden Gophers last year with a victory at home. .By lan Gordon Staff Writer Call it a blend of progress and timing. Last season, a young and inexperi enced North Carolina men’s swimming and diving team traveled to Minneapolis, Minn., to participate in a meet against Minnesota and Nebraska. The results were mixed. Then-No. 22 Men’s Swimming Minnesota ...171.5 UNC 198.5 UNC squeaked by the Comhuskers but was blown out of the water by the Golden Gophers, losing 234-135. This season, the Tar Heels were again ranked 22nd in the nation entering the weekend’s dual meet with Minnesota. They had an opportunity to exact revenge on the Gophers, who were ranked 10th and without Olympians Keam Ang, Alex Massura and Allen Ong. Perruquet Leads Women to Win Against Michigan See Page 9 And did they ever. UNC stroked past Minnesota on Friday and Saturday at Koury Natatorium, defeat ing the Golden Gophers 198.5-171.5. The Tar Heels are now 1-1 for the year, while UM dropped to 2-1. “I feel like we’ve improved a lot as a team, in general,” UNC junior Chris Helin said. “I think we’re more focused and more determined. We’re definitely a lot better than we were last year at this time.” Although Minnesota won 11-of-20 events during the two-day meet, UNC’s depth allowed it to stay on top for the entire competition. But the Tar Heels also received par ticularly strong performances from sprinter Kevin Emdl, individual-medley specialist Helin and distance swimmer Yuri Suguiyama. Each won two indi vidual events. Emdl set the stage early Friday with his performance in the 200-yard medley relay. Swimming the anchor freestyle leg of the meet’s opening event, Emdl reeled in UM’s Grant Buffer in his first 25 yards. The speedster then breezed by the Gopher after the turn to win the relay for teammates Kert Johnson, Sebastian Moity and Sean Quinn. “Within our group - within the sprint group as a whole - the attitude has changed,” Emdl said. “It seems that nobody fears swimming fast anymore. They’re not scared to go out and die in the middle of a race.” Emdl showed this determination later in the 50- and 100-freestyle races. He dominated both races, leading from start to finish en route to two individual victories. His time in the 50 - 20.37 sec onds - was just .20 off his career best in the event. But Emdl’s quick times were over shadowed by those of a freshman. See MEN'S SWIMMING, Page 9 14
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