UNC women's lacrosse earns No. 3 seed in NCAA, will host Virginia in opening round

When the No. 3-seeded North Carolina women’s lacrosse team hosts Virginia in the first round of the NCAA tournament Saturday, the Tar Heels will be taking on a familiar foe.

UNC (13-5) beat the Cavaliers (9-8) twice during the 2010-11 campaign — once in the regular season and most recently in the quarterfinals of the ACC Women’s Lacrosse Championship.
North Carolina coach Jenny Levy was a member of UVa.’s national championship lacrosse team in 1991 alongside current Virginia coach Julie Meyers.

The Tar Heels won’t be surprised by the Cavaliers, Levy said in a press release.

“We’ve played them twice already this season and played them last year in the NCAA quarterfinals, so we know how good and how capable they are,” Levy said. “We’re excited to play anyone and expect a great game on Saturday.”

The Tar Heels ousted Virginia from the NCAA tournament last season with a 17-7 win. The victory earned UNC a spot in the final four, where it lost to five-time national champion Northwestern.
North Carolina helped seal its tournament bid Friday with a 20-4 win against High Point in its regular season finale.

Attacker Becky Lynch and midfielder Laura Zimmerman combined for UNC’s first six goals, and Lynch led UNC against the Panthers (15-4) with four goals and four assists. The junior now has 67 career assists, and a school-record 32 so far in the 2010-11 season.

The Tar Heels’ season-high 20 goals came from 27 shots – a shooting percentage that senior attacker Corey Donohoe said she was especially proud of.

“Even if a shot was there, we were passing that up for even a better shot,” Donohoe said. “The unselfishness of our team and playing with each other and getting other teammates open for wide open shots was really key to that high shooting percentage.”

Taking control early was the Tar Heels’ plan of attack – and it proved successful after North Carolina stormed to a 7-0 lead with almost 24 minutes left in the first half.

Monopolizing possession allowed the Tar Heels to go into halftime with a 15-2 lead.

“The team that gets the most possessions is usually the one that gets the most shots off, so draw control, I think, is one of the most important things in the whole game,” Lynch said. “We’ve been really been stressing that in practice and it’s working out for us in games.”

The Tar Heels had not played a game since their 12-7 loss to Maryland in the ACC Championship on April 24. But North Carolina’s dominance against the Panthers proved to its players that the team is capable of picking up right where it left off – at a high level of play.

The Tar Heels are no doubt looking to return to the final four for the third consecutive year.
But even after a successful regular season finish, the team isn’t looking too far ahead just yet.
“We’ve been off for two weeks… for us it’s good to get out on the field and shake out our legs,” Levy said. “And from there, (we will) just play one game at a time.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.