PAGE 14
SCOREBOARD
WOMEN ASSASSINATE
GEORGE WASHINGTON
TAR HEELS ADVANCE
TO ELITE EIGHT AGAIN
BY GRAY CALDWELL
SENIOR WRITER
The Tar Heels made sure Sunday night that history
didn’t repeat itself.
Ten years ago, the fifth-seeded George Washington
Colonials upset No. 1 seed UNC to go to the Elite Eight.
Sunday, the fifth-seeded Colonials (29-4) were faced
with the same opportunity, but this time the Tar Heels
(33-3) emerged victorious, 70-56,
to advance to the Elite Eight for the
third straight season.
“This team, they would love to be
back in the Final Four and actually
WOMEN’S
BASKETBALL
GW 56
UNC 70
do better than they did last year,"
UNC coach Sylvia Hatchell said. “In the locker room
it’s like, ‘OK, we got this one out of the way, let’s get
ready for the next one.’”
“We’re happy to be where we are, but we know that
we’ve got our work cut out for us with Purdue.”
All week the focus was on the point guard battle that
would decide the matchup UNC’s Ivory Latta versus
George Washington’s Kimberly Beck, both finalists for
the Nancy Lieberman award presented to the nation’s top
point guard. In reality, neither guard shone in the game,
and the spotlight was more on the play in the paint.
Erlana Larkins shook off a six-point performance
from last week against Notre Dame by scoring 14
points, adding six rebounds and she assists. The story
of the game was North Carolina’s dominance on the
boards. The Tar Heels outrebounded the Colonials 45-
22, with 21 offensive rebounds.
“I think we were just being relentless going to
the boards,” UNC forward LaToya Pringle said. “We
know that in order to win a championship we have to
rebound, so we just took it personally on ourselves to
rebound and win the board battle.”
Pringle had an outstanding game, notching 16 points
and 14 rebounds (anew career high) in addition to her
four blocks in the first half, which helped her break the
single-season record at UNC. Pringle has 116, two more
than the previous record held by Dawn Royster.
“That’s like a stat my mom keeps up with, so she
called me before we came, you know, ‘you need two to
tie and three to break it,’ so I was going for it this game.
I knew I had it at halftime, and I was really excited.”
For the first few minutes of the first half, it looked
like the Tar Heels were in for another nail-biter as nei
ther team could gain any advantage. But UNC broke
the 10-10 tie just more than seven minutes into the half
by breaking off on a 24-5 run, and the Tar Heels went
into halftime with a 38-24 lead.
“It was early in the game, so I didn’t know how it
was going to turn out,” Larkins said. “But I knew that
if we kept swinging the ball and getting the ball inside
doing our high-low game, that it wasn’t going to stay
that close for long.”
The Colonials didn’t put up much of a fight the rest of
the way, and the Tar Heels cruised to a 14-point victory.
It just wasn’t Beck’s, or George Washington’s, night.
Late in the first half, UNC inbounded the ball with
two seconds left on the shot clock. Beck stole the
pass and drove toward the basket, only to have her
SEE VICTORY, PAGE 13
SOFTBALL
Tar Heels extend
win streak to 25
BY GABE HIATT
STAFF WRITER
In a weekend engulfed by March
Madness, the North Carolina soft
ball team proved that the basket
ball players aren’t the only ones
with a flair for the dramatic.
With two comeback wins, the Tar
Heels swept the three-game series
against Boston College at Anderson
Stadium to
extend their
school-record
winning streak
to 25 games.
The series
began with a
doublehead
er Saturday
afternoon that
looked like trou
ble for UNC.
Sophomore
pitcher Amber
Johnson
received a cold
SOFTBALL
BC 4
UNC 9
BC 0
UNC 1
BC 2
UNC 3
ONLINE
Lisa Norris
came up big for
UNC both on
the mound and
at the plate.
welcome, surrendering three runs
in the first inning and another in the
third. The Tar Heels’ struggles at the
plate offered her no solace, and she
was replaced.
“Everybody has bad days,”
coach Donna Papa said. “Amber
had actually told the trainers she
wasn’t feeling very well, she just
didn’t tell the coaches.”
The rhythm of the game
changed with freshman pitcher
Danielle Spaulding as the fresh
face in the circle.
Spaulding pitched more like a
Spoils
MEN'S LACROSSE UNC 8 Maryland 14
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North Carolina's LaToya Pringle goes up for the ball during the Tar Heels' 70-56 victory against George Washington on Sunday in
Dallas. The win advanced UNC to the Elite Eight where it will face No. 2-seeded Purdue, which UNC beat in last year's Sweet 16.
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Sophomore pitcher Lisa Norris
winds up for a pitch against BC
this weekend. North Carolina
went on to take the series 3-0.
veteran, with eight strikeouts and
no runs allowed in the last four
innings. The only hit was a pop fly
that was left untouched after mis
communication between the first
and second basemen.
“Coach just gives me the con
fidence to go out and pitch well,”
she said.
SEE STREAK, PAGE 13
| www.dailytarheel.com |
GYMNASTICS
UNC rebounds on Senior Night
BY JOE MCLEAN
STAFF WRITER
Senior night for the North
Carolina gymnastics team was
everything the team could have
asked for: a supportive crowd, a
solid score to help qualify for the
NCAA Championships and a vic
tory against four other schools.
But to find out what UNC
is most proud of, you would
have had to look away from the
podium and the scoreboards
to a handmade banner hang
ing against the back wall of
Carmichael Auditorium.
On the sign, among a few pic
tures of the team read the words
“Senior Night ’O7 All about
the FUNNESS!”
Senior Christine Robella
coined the term last year while
trying to motivate the Tar Heels,
and the name stuck.
“I said something about, “They
don’t know the kind of funness
that we have!’ We have a great
time, we just have a lot of fun,”
she said.
Courtney Turco, another
senior, called ‘funness’ the “team
joke or team mantra.”
“It’s basically just for focus
ing, like not getting too serious
with yourself at meets and really
to just keep it in perspective why
we’re doing this.”
There was plenty to be happy
about in the team’s objective per
formance as well Friday, as UNCs
score of 194.300 was enough to
defeat Towson at 193.500, George
Washington at 193.225, Rhode
Island at 190.725 and William &
Mary at 189.225.
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DTH/LAUREN COWART
Senior Christine Robella is congratulated by the rest of her team after
earning a 9.825 on the vault at Senior Night in Carmichael Auditorium.
In what Coach Derek Galvin
called “her best meet of the year
so far,” Robella took first place
in three events and won the all
around competition with an
impressive score of 39.425. In
the vault event Robella tied for
second with UNC freshman Kara
Wright, as the top spot was taken
by another Tar Heel Christine
Nguyen.
Nguyen had, perhaps by her
own standards, a subpar perfor
mance after she fell on balance
beam and finished 19th. She had
never failed to finish first or tied
for first this season in that event
before Friday.
WOMEN'S TENNIS UNC 6 Maryland 1
The only other significant blem
ish was a number of gymnasts who
struggled on the floor exercise.
Galvin said the floor was unusu
ally bouncy, which threw some Tar
Heels off guard.
“It’s springier than any floor
we’ve competed on this year,” the
coach said. “Falls were because of
too much power.”
Rachel Schneider and Nguyen
both fell on the event, with Wright
also recording a penalty for step
ping out of bounds. But Galvin
said he wasn’t too concerned.
“I’d rather see them have too
SEE GYMNASTICS, PAGE 13
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MONDAY, MARCH 26, 2007
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DTH/JAMES MUNDIA
FROM WIRE REPORTS
BLACKSBURG, Va. —UNC right
hander Luke Putkonen held Virginia
Tech to just one run over seven innings,
and right fielder Tim Fedroff had a two
run home run among his three hits to
lead the No. 4Tar Heels (22-4,6-3 ACC)
to a 13-1 series-clinching win against
the Hokies (15-10,4-5 ACC) Sunday in
the series finale.
Putkonen moved to 5-0 on the
season and 11 -0 as a Tar Heel.
On Friday, UNC opened the series
with a 15-4 victory, but Saturday the
Hokies rebounded winning 6-3, setting
up Sunday's rubber match.
WOMEN'S LACROSSE
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DTH/PAUL KIERNAN
COLLEGE PARK, MD. Maryland
goalkeeper Ailie Buote recorded 13
saves and six different Terrapin players
scored goals as theTerps handed No. 1
North Carolina its first loss of the sea
son, 8-6, on Saturday at Chevy Chase
Bank Reid at Byrd Stadium.
With the win, No. 4 Maryland
improves to 8-1 this season, 3-1 in the
ACC. UNC falls to 8-1,1-1 and sees
its eight-game winning streak come
to an end.
The Tar Heels were led in scoring
by freshman Kristen Taylor, who tal
lied two goals and an assist. Senior
Christina Juras scored twice and fel
low senior Chrissy Rude had a goal
and an assist.
MEN'S TENNIS
CLEMSON, S.C.—North Carolina's
men's tennis team got victories from
junior Benjamin Carlotti and freshman
Chris Kearney over nationally ranked
singles opponents, and junior Karl
Wishart scored the clinching victory at
No. 6 singles as the Tar Heels defeated
Clemson 4-3 Sunday afternoon at the
Hoke A. Sloan Tennis Center.
With the win, No. 14 UNC
remained undefeated on the season
at 14-0 overall and 2-0 in the ACC.
Clemson fell to 19-6 overall and 2-3
in the ACC.
THIS WEEK |
TUESDAY
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
vs. Purdue
TIME: TBA
LOCATION: Dallas J
WEDNESDAY
BASEBALL
vs. Davidson
TIME: 6 p.m.
LOCATION: Boshamer Stadium
SOFTBALL
vs. Gardner-Webb
TIME: 3 p.m. and 5 p.m.
LOCATION: Anderson Stadium
FRIDAY
Mj£N*S TENNIS
vs. Miami
TME 3 p.m.
LOCATION: Cone-Kenfield
Center
WOMEN'S LACROSSE
vs. Georgetown
TIME: 7 p.m.
LOCATION: Fetzer Reid