Freshman Sydney Holman’s father, brother and mother huddled around her as tears streamed down her face. She did not want to believe what had just happened.
What had just happened was surely the most agonizing loss of the attacker’s young career.
The No. 3 North Carolina women’s lacrosse team fell to No. 8 Duke 7-6 in overtime, marking UNC’s third loss in their last four games, dropping the Tar Heels to 12-3 overall with a 5-2 mark in ACC play .
The Blue Devils’ Karrin Maurer scored a diving goal that bounced through goalie Megan Ward’s legs and into the back of the net with 26 seconds left in overtime, and the Tar Heels were unable to generate anything but a last-second heave as the Kenan Stadium clock hit triple zeroes and Duke’s players and coaches stormed the field.
But before the madness of the final seconds, the Blue Devils employed a familiar tactic that has permeated all three of North Carolina’s losses on the season — slowing the game down.
Coach Jenny Levy was quick to mention Duke’s strategy of holding onto the ball as long as possible and her team’s sloppiness when it finally secured possession as the key reason for UNC’s defeat.
“Obviously, a slow tempo was Duke’s strategy,” she said. “And when that happens you can’t have more turnovers than the other team because we had to make every possession count. Unfortunately in the women’s lacrosse game, stalling is part of the game. But it does work obviously, and we have to play better. We can’t worry that another team’s stalling.”
The Tar Heels like to get up and down the field as quickly as possible, and that shows as they lead the nation with an average of 16.71 goals per game . But the Blue Devils neutralized UNC’s high-powered offense by holding onto the ball for up to five minutes at a time.
