North Carolina
Duke
Women's Lax Advances to ACC Title Game with 12-8 Win over Duke
April 19, 2002 | Women's Lacrosse
April 19, 2002
DURHAM, N.C. - For the third time in school history, the second-seeded and fourth-ranked North Carolina women's lacrosse team advanced to the championship game of the ACC Tournament on Friday with a 12-8 victory over third-seeded and seventh-ranked Duke Blue Devils.
Carolina (12-2) will next take on Maryland (9-6) on Sunday at noon for the ACC Championship. The match will be played at Koskinen Stadium on the campus of Duke University.
Duke led 5-2 with 10:02 left in the first half before inclement weather forced a one hour and 48 minute delay. Prior to the weather delay, the lue Devils controlled the match led by senior Kelly Dirks with two goals.
North Carolina regrouped and came out on fire after the weather delay outscoring the Blue Devils 10-3 and outshooting Duke 33-8.
Leading the Tar Heel charge was Kellie Thompson with five goals and one assist on the afternoon. Thompson scored four of her five goals during a stretch where North Carolina outscored the Blue Devils 8-1 to take a 10-6 lead with 12:45 remaining in the contest.
Three other players scored for the Tar Heels as Brooke Young recorded three goals, while Christine McPike and Erin McInnes added two each.
Duke was led by senior Kelly Dirks with three goals and junior Lauren Gallagher with two goals and an assist. Senior goalkeeper Kristen Foster added 12 saves in net for the Blue Devils.
For the match, North Carolina outshot Duke 44-17 and registered a 44-19 advantage in ground balls. The Blue Devils held a 6-5 lead at the end of the first half.
North Carolina advanced to the ACC Championship games in 1998 and 2000. The Tar Heels lost their previous two title game appearances to Virginia (9-7) and Maryland (17-6), respectively.
PostGame Quotes
North Carolina Head Coach, Jenny Slingluff Levy:
On the effects of the rain delay
"I guess you could say that we were benefactors of the hour plus break.
It helped us to get back in the locker room and focus on what we needed
to do and not things that we couldn't control. "
On today's ACC semifinal victory over Duke
"I'm really proud of my team. All season they've showed the ability to
come back from a deficit. They kept their composure, and they kept
playing hard. I really thought that it was a team effort out there
today."
On increased defensive effort
"We really focused on the defensive end of the ball. At that point we
were down 5-2, and Duke's five goals had been given to them off the
8-meter. We asked our defense to sag in a little bit more to get
ourselves to the spot where we needed to be and to set the tempo of the
game with our defense. That's something that we rely on quite a bit,
and we were getting taken out of that in the first twenty minutes."
North Carolina Co-Captain, Kellie Thompson
On North Carolina's performance today
"I think we came out a little flat, and we've been the type of team
that, in the past, wouldn't have stepped it up like we did. I think it
shows how hard our team has worked all year, and this is where we want
to be. We stepped it up when we needed to."
North Carolina Co-Captain, Christine McPike
On her team's play today
"We played with heart. Even when things weren't going our way and got a
little sloppy, we backed each other up. At one specific point, I knew
that one person would have my back if anything happened. We were a real
team today.
On overcoming the early deficit
"I think we were feeding off of good plays. If one play went well, we
were feeding off of each other. One small thing went right, the next
small thing went right, and it started a whole big chain. If the
defense would get the ball, the midfield would clean up, and then the
attack would put it in the back of the cage."
Duke Head Coach Kerstin Kimel:
"I'm disappointed in how we responded to the break. We made too many
mistakes in the second half and got outscored 10-3 from the rain break
on."
"Sure the rain delay broke our momentum, but we can't use that as an excuse. Carolina had a break too and they chose to come out certain ways and we didn't."
"I don't think post-season is something that we can take for granted. We are 7-6 - its been a crazy year - there is a ton of parity this year. And of our 16-team field, there are seven automatic qualifiers leaving 9 spots for a lot of really good teams this year. Our next three games are going to be really critical. I think the big thing for us is that we cannot come out afraid to lose. We have to come out ready to compete. I think that we are as talented, if not more, than our next three opponents, but that's going to have to reflect in our play. We're going to have to come out with the same intensity and focus that we came out in the beginning of the game."
Kelly Dirks:
"We had a really good warm-up and that really helped the first 20
minutes of the game. Then coming out and not knowing how much time we
had, and stuff like that, I feel were factors. We felt that there some
of us came out to play the last 10 minutes we had to play, and we just
had some momentum killers that dragged us down - key turnovers, not
getting the draw, ground balls - things that we typically dominate."
Kristen Foster:
"We were definitely excited to come out and play, I that we just got
away from a lot of things that we did in the first half that were in our
game plan. We let a lot of fast break goals come down the field, we
weren't very organized on the defensive end and we just didn't control
the ball well on the offensive end. I think we had the intensity, but as
we started playing badly, we lost a lot of it though."
