PAGE 12
SCOREBOARD
MATT ESTREICH
STREICH ZONE
Dynasty is
not what it
used to be
It doesn’t happen very often
that a team loses a regular
season game and gamers
more headlines than had it won a
conference championship.
It’s probably just as rare that
when that same team doesn’t win a
national championship, it receives
more media attention than had it
plastered its opponent in the final.
But such is the case when
you reside in the world of North
Carolina women’s soccer.
The program is the most suc
cessful of any sport ever played
in the history of the NCAA. The
Tar Heels won 14 of the first 16
NCAA titles ever contested.
The program has claimed every
ACC Tournament title except
two and prior to last season the
Tar Heels were a fixture in all 22
NCAA final fours ever held.
Yet the Tar Heels have strug
gled these past couple of years,
though keep in mind, when you
talk about UNC women’s soccer,
you’re speaking in relative terms.
UNC has one national title since
2000 and has had some recent
notable losses. In October, the Tar
Heels lost to Duke for only the
second time in the history of their
rivalry. Also, that loss was UNC’s
first in the regular season at Fetzer
Field in more than a decade.
So what does this all add up to?
The rest of the country is finally
catching up to UNC —and it only
took them about 20 years.
Though North Carolina still
consistently nabs Olympic-cali
ber recruits, the popularity of the
game has spread outward from
Chapel Hill to places such as
Portland, Ore., Santa Clara, Calif,
and South Bend, Ind.
As the game has grown nation
wide on the high school and club
level, rival schools are finally get
ting their pick of an increasingly
talented pool of potential players.
Even Friday night’s opponent,
Western Carolina, showed signs of
life against a Tar Heel team that
in the past would have run the
Catamounts back to Cullowhee.
As far as Sunday’s 6-2 rout,
Virginia Commonwealth co-head
coach Denise Schlite-Brown
went as far as saying the Rams
handled the Tar Heels at times.
“I thought we dominated for
chunks of the game,” Schlite-
Brown said.
Legendary head coach Anson
Dorrance won’t be able to simply
roll the ball out on the field and
watch his Tar Heels plow through
the opposition with ease.
Not to say that that’s the way
Dorrance ran his team in either the
past or present in feet, it’s a testa
ment to his brilliant coaching that
his Tar Heels still are über-competi
tive in this parity-laden age.
But there is no question that
the coach with 601 career wins
under his belt will find it a little
tougher to squeak out wins in
today’s NCAA compared to when
his teams rattled off a record 101-
game unbeaten streak.
Ask Dorrance why teams such
as Western Carolina and VCU
can compete with the Tar Heels
and he’ll conjure up theories that
would make Isaac Newton proud.
“In soccer there’s a huge range
of results that have nothing to
do with the capacity of the teams
to play the game at a high level,”
Dorrance said. “You... have this
incredibly bizarre aspect of our
game that often doesn’t deliver
the superior team the victory.”
If that were true, then how
come Dorrance’s Tar Heels didn’t
lose a game from 1990-94?
Though UNC’s recent fall from
grace has sent them tumbling from
a perennial position as the nation’s
top team to No. 2 this year, in
terms of where this program came
from, that drop is pretty dramatic.
If the Tar Heels don’t keep up
their hot play, the program will
be stuck on 18 championships.
But then again, that’s a nice
problem to have.
Contact Matt Estreich
at estreich@email.unc.edu.
Sports Monday
VOLLEYBALL UNC 3 Georgia Tech I
# MARYLAND 33 <® UNC 30
SHELL SHOCKED
TWO LATE TERP TOUCHDOWNS, MISSED KICK SEND UNC TO OVERTIME LOSS
BY JACOB KARABELL
SENIOR WRITER
As he ran toward the end zone,
North Carolina safety Kareen
Taylor held the ball in front of
him with one hand pointing it
toward the end zone.
That ball might have been
pointing toward Charlotte. Or
Boise, Idaho. Or San Diego. Or
any of the bowl games that could
have extended invitations to the
Tar Heels.
Taylor ended up being penalized
for taunting because of his celebra
tion after giving UNC a 10-point
fourth-quarter lead, and Maryland
came back to top the Tar Heels,
33-30, in overtime Saturday. Now,
UNC will have to point toward a
win at Virginia Tech if it wants its
season to continue past Nov. 26.
“We have to learn how to finish
until the last play until the clock
says 0:00,” said receiver Jesse
Holley. “We have to know how to
finish. We’ve still got two games
left, and we’re going to grind them
out. We’re going to fight.”
The Tar Heels (4-5, 3-3 in
the ACC) did fight against the
Terrapins (5-4, 3-3), but a series
of fourth-quarter miscues allowed
the Terps to leave Kenan Stadium
with the win.
The first came on the series fol
lowing Taylor’s interception return,
with Maryland facing a third-and
long in its own territory.
UNC defensive end Kentwan
Balmer appeared to have quar
terback Sam Hollenbach wrapped
for a sack, but the signal caller
escaped and found a streaking Jo
Jo Walker for a touchdown.
And Hollenbach bested that
67-yard output on the Terps’ next
offensive play.
This time, the receiver was
Danny Melendez, who froze cor
ner Bryan Bethea on a double
move and easily strode 80 yards to
give Maryland the lead though
kicker Dan Ennis missed the extra
point.
SEE FOOTBALL, PAGE 11
Penalty-kick
thriller ends
in heartbreak
BY DAVID MOSES
SENIOR WRITER
CARY lt’s been 220 minutes.
For nearly four hours the North
Carolina men’s soccer team has
played dead-even with Duke this
season.
When they met in the regular
season, the two played to a 0-0 tie.
And they did so again Sunday in
the ACC championship game.
But someone has to be crowned
the champion, so the match went
to a penalty shootout, where Duke
defeated the Tar Heels, 5-4, in
front of more than 4,000 fans at
SAS Soccer Park.
The No. 6-seeded Tar Heels (15-
3-3) recorded their 7th consecutive
shutout in the loss, as fifth-seeded
Duke (12-4-3) could not find the
back of the net in 90 minutes of
' :
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DTH/LARRY BAUM
Duke defender Tim Jepson goes head-to-head with UNC midfielder
Scott Campbell during the Tar Heels' ACC Tournament final loss Sunday.
www.dailylarheel.com
VOLLEYBALL UNC 3 Clemson 0
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DTH/RICKY LEUNG
Maryland running back Lance Ball (44), on his way to a 161 -yard day, stiff-arms UNC linebacker Durell Mapp during the Terps’ 33-30 overtime win.
Baker plays with poise, precision
BY DAVID MOSES
SENIOR WRITER
There was a controversial pen
alty call.
There was an interception
returned for a touchdown.
There were two deep touch
down passes.
And lost in all the chaos, all
the broken coverages and all
the hooplah was North Carolina
quarterback Matt Baker.
A senior who has sat the bench
regulation and 20 total minutes of
overtime.
“It was just the game we antici
pated it would be,” said UNC Coach
Elmar Bolowich. “It’s the second
time now that
we have played
for so many
minutes in over
time and cannot
find to score goal
either team.”
After a slow
first half, play
picked up in
the second half,
MEN'S
SOCCER
UNC 0
Duke 0
DUKE WINS
SHOOTOUT, 5-4
Clemson 0
UNC 2
with UNC having more clear scor
ing opportunities.
In a very physical game, Duke
tried, to take advantage of UNC’s
SEE DUKE, PAGE 11
for most of his career until this
season, Baker had undoubtedly
his best game as a Tar Heel on
Saturday against Maryland.
“That probably was my best
game,” he said. “Like I said, I’ll
throw for less than 100 yards and
no touchdowns as long as we win
the ball game.”
But Baker finished the game
25-for-40 with 335 yards and no
interceptions.
What was most impressive
NCAA TOURNAMENT
Tarpley nets hat trick
in blowout of Rams
Team advances to round of 16
BY DANIEL MALLOY
SPORTS EDITOR
Before each of this weekend’s
games, North Carolina coach
Anson Dorrance gave roses to
his seniors, on the off-chance
they would be playing their final
game at Fetzer Field.
But dominant NCAA
Tournament wins against
Western Carolina on Friday
and Virginia Commonwealth
on Sunday made the flowers a
mere formality.
Asa No. 1 seed, the Tar Heels
will host tournament games
until the final four —as long as
they keep on winning.
“It’s a huge advantage for all
kinds of reasons,” Dorrance said.
NCAA TOURNAMENT
Hoosiers hose UNC
Tar Heels out
of NCAAs
BY DEREK HOWLES
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR
WINSTON-SALEM -
North Carolina was playing
just 80 miles down the road,
in the famil
iar stadium
of archri
-3 val Wake
2 Forest.
Indiana
FIELD
HOCKEY
Indiana
UNC
had to travel almost 600
miles —and through five
states to get to the game.
(Hjp Sailg (Tor Ifari
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2005
CROSS COUNTRY UNC Women 6th, Men 14th
“Certainly the last two weeks (Baker)
has really picked it up. Tm really
proud of his efforts john bunting , UNC COACH
about Baker was his ability to
lead the team in not one, but
two fourth-quarter drives in an
attempt to win the game for the
Tar Heels.
Coming into the season, Baker
only had seen limited action in 10
“A lot of things make it so much
more comfortable for us.”
And the Tar Heels felt mighty
comfy all
weekend.
Sunday’s
6-2 victory,
VCU came
out swing
ing, putting
long balls
deep into
Tar Heel
WOMEN'S
SOCCER
VCU • 2
UNC 6
Western Car. 0
UNC 2
territory and gambling against
UNC’s defense. The thing about
gambling, though, is that you
lose more often than not.
After that back-and-forth
SEE VCU, PAGE 11
North Carolina car
ried with it a history of four
national titles and 21 previ
ous appearances in the NCAA
Tournament.
Indiana carried zero. And
zero.
But travel and tradition be
darned.
The No. 5 Tar Heels came
up empty in the first round
of the NCAA Tournament on
Saturday at Kentner Stadium,
3-2 losers in a season-ending
game they dominated every
which way but on the score
board.
SEE FIELD HOCKEY, PAGE 11
games, but he was thrown into the
spotlight and for the most part
has been delivering for UNC.
After taking a few games to
get into the groove, Baker has
SEE BAKER, PAGE 11
DTH/WHITNEY SHEFTE
Lindsay Tarpley (25), who had a
hat trick of her own, celebrates a
score by Kendall Fletcher (4), the
first in North Carolina's 6-2 win.
INSIDE
POINT GUARD EXHIBITION
Frasor and Thomas battle for
starting position. PAGE 11
DYNAMIC DEFENSE
The men's soccer 'D' pitches its
7th straight shutout. PAGE 11
COMING TUESDAY
WIDEOUT CLINCHES RECORD
Jarwarski Pollock notched his
166th career reception Saturday,
making him UNC's all-time lead
er. For more, see Tuesday's DTH.