Duo goes to Santiago, field hockey team goes to work

So far, everything's gone according

to plan for the North Carolina field hockey team this season.

The Tar Heels have jumped out to a 6-0 start and are currently sitting pretty at No. 3 in the nation.

However, after UNC plays its next three games, its record might not be so attractive - or, at least, has the potential not to be - since the Tar Heels will be playing without

two of their top players.

The two players in question, junior midfielder/defender Rachel Dawson and junior forward Laree Beans, will be trading in their time at UNC for a chance to compete on the U.S. Under-21 team at the Junior World Cup in Santiago, Chile.

Coach Karen Shelton, who encouraged her players to take advantage of the opportunity, views the loss of the two starters optimistically.

"We'd like to think of it as a win-win situation," she said. "I look forward

to two other players playing and stepping up for us."

Considering the Tar Heels' next two opponents are No. 9 Old Dominion (3-3), who they'll face today, and No. 4 Duke (4-1), some sort of stepping up is certainly in order.

"If we have one traditional rival through the history of our program,

it's Old Dominion," Shelton said. "It's always a challenge, always an exciting game."

While the team's third competitor

in the sequence, Radford (3-2), should pose less of a challenge, fourth-ranked Duke, another traditional

rival of UNC, certainly will. Nonetheless, the Tar Heels are confident

they'll come out on top.

"The next two weeks are gonna be hard, but I feel like we're up to the challenge," sophomore forward Heather Kendell said. "It's gonna be a test of our abilities and I'm excited about it."

Though it's not clear who will fill in for Dawson and Beans just yet, the only four field players who have seen playing time other than the team's ten starters are freshmen

Kate Scholl, Britt van Beek, Leslie Barrows, and sophomore Jesse Gey.