Check out this notebook from UNC’s 11-8 loss to rival Duke Wednesday night at Fetzer Field.
Grounding out
Wednesday night the North Carolina men’s lacrosse team’s inability to win groundballs and capitalize on opportunities on the offensive end lead to their eventual 11-8 downfall against its rivals, the Duke Blue Devils.
While the Tar Heels turned an 8-4 deficit at halftime into a one-goal game going into the fourth quarter, constant pressure on UNC’s defense and an inability to finish on offense led to the team’s demise.
“In the second half I was really proud of the effort to get us back in it,” coach Joe Breschi said. “Part of it was, in the second quarter, we didn’t have possession. In that third quarter we made a good push.”
For a Tar Heel team that held Duke to no shots on goal in the third quarter and scored three goals in the same time span, the game was well within reach.
But an inability to finish the game once again proved to be a detriment to the Tar Heels.
In the fourth quarter UNC earned only five ground balls, half as many as Duke, and only produced two shots.
But with just a few minutes left UNC had a possession that proved to be the deciding possession of the game.
“We had a good possession I thought,” senior captain Marcus Holman said. “I dropped it off to Joey Sankey and we tried to hit a skip pass.”
But that pass wasn’t open, and instead UNC lost the ball.
From that point on it was a game of keep-away for Duke as UNC watched the clock, and its chances at a win, deplete to nothing.
“We weren’t able to get it loose and pick it up,” freshman goalkeeper Kieran Burke said. “They’re a good stalling team and they were able to hold it out for the rest of the game.”
Though UNC battled valiantly to the end, Burke wasn’t going to make excuses.
“(It was) great to see us battle back and settle in on defense,” Burke said. “But a loss is a loss. It never feels good.”
Defensive adjustments
Despite third quarter success, the Tar Heels were held to half as many goals as they had against Princeton on Saturday.
Holman said he gives credit for that accomplishment to the Duke defenses ability to make critical adjusted when they needed to.
“They slowed their slides a little bit and their goalie made timely saves,” Holman said.
Holman also said that Duke’s defense did a good job of getting back on defense quickly, effectively limiting UNC’s transition opportunities.
But for Holman, the most frustrating aspect of the loss wasn’t Duke’s defensive prowess.
It was UNC’s inability to finish.
“We had a couple chances we couldn’t capitalize on,” Holman said. “At the end of the day, that’s the difference.”
Bitter’s bad day
Despite getting two assists against the Blue Devils sophomore Jimmy Bitter had a relatively unfortunate night.
Under constant tight coverage from the Blue Devil defense, Bitter had difficulty finding any sort of space to take shots, and when he did get opportunities he was stuffed every time.
Of his six shots, four were on goal, and Duke’s Kyle Turri stopped all four.
To add to the rough outing, in the fourth quarter, Bitter was checked in the groin by a Duke defender.
The physical play brought Bitter to the ground and drew a penalty flag.
After an injury time out, Bitter was replaced in the following man-up opportunity by freshman Patrick Kelly.
Whatever injury Bitter sustained wasn’t too serious, because after being given a few minutes to recover on the sideline, the sophomore finished the game on the field.
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