Blue Devils continue dominance, beat UNC

Playing in front of a home crowd is usually advantageous to a team, especially in a big rivalry match.

But against Duke, the No. 8 North Carolina men’s lacrosse team can’t seem to shake the home field hex.

Thursday night at Fetzer Field, the Tar Heels fell to the No. 7 Blue Devils, 14-9. The Tar Heels have dropped 22 of the past 27 games with Duke.

But records and rivalries aside, UNC coach Joe Breschi said the Blue Devils simply played harder than his team throughout the game.

“It’s certainly a rivalry game so you expect to be excited,” he said. “But they outplayed us. They did a great job in the first half of taking the opportunities that they had … We just have to continue to try and get better.”

North Carolina’s national championship dreams were dashed by the Blue Devils last May, when UNC fell to the would-be national champions 17-9 in the NCAA quarterfinals in Princeton, N.J.

But this time, hosting Duke wasn’t about redemption. The Tar Heels were ready for a clean slate.

“It’s a new season and we’re a new team,” defenseman Ryan Flanagan said. “I don’t think anyone was thinking about that and I don’t think it had any effect on the game.

“It’s Duke-Carolina. You have a chip on your shoulder no matter what. It’s the biggest rivalry in college sports and I think they brought it harder than we did tonight.”

From the very start, the Tar Heels were forced to play catch-up.

Duke midfielder Justin Turri scored the first of his two goals less than a minute into the match, and the Blue Devils never looked back. The Tar Heels trailed for the game’s entirety, and were down by four goals two different times in the first half.

Of Duke’s 14 game goals, only five of them were assisted. Making good use of cage rolls and fast breaks, the Blue Devils didn’t need much help to get past UNC’s flattened defense.

It wasn’t until the third quarter that the Tar Heels appeared to play with heightened intensity. But by that time, it was too little, too late.

“Our coach always tells us to play a sixty minute game, and we didn’t play a sixty minute game,” senior attackman Billy Bitter said. “We definitely played a thirty minute game in the second half.”

Freshman attackman Nicky Galasso leads the Tar Heels in points, but Thursday night he was surprisingly silent. Galasso went into the game with a team-leading 11 assists, but registered only one against the Blue Devils.

Breschi harped on the intensity of the Duke-UNC matchup, and the pressure that brings to the rivalry.

“We had a plethora of freshmen out there that it was their first Duke game, and they played like it in the first half,” Breschi said. “In the second half they kind of settled in and played harder, which is all we ask them to do.”

But in a game where many things failed for the Tar Heels, Bitter was their only answer.

The senior led UNC with three goals and an assist, and took 10 of North Carolina’s 40 shots during the game. Though his team lost disappointingly, Breschi seemed positive when talking about his senior leader.

“He’s a terrific player,” Breschi said. “It’s the first time I think we’ve all seen him break a defense down as much as he did … That’s what we expect out of him. I think hopefully this will catapult him to some great things moving forward.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.