March 22, 2008
by Clare Lochary, Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Even if basketball is the centerpiece of the UNC-Duke rivalry, women's lacrosse has its share of March Madness.
The location was genteel Tobacco Road, but the UNC-Duke women's lacrosse game looked more like a Wild West shootout as the Tar Heels raced to a 16-14 victory over their crosstown ACC rivals, the Blue Devils. Sophomore Megan Bosica led all scorers with four goals and four assists as North Carolina (7-2) shot its way to a win.
It was the highest combined score in the teams' 20-game series, and the 11th game in series history decided by two goals or less.
"It's hard to play defense in our sport and if you do play good defense sometimes you're not rewarded," said Carolina head coach Jenny Levy, whose team rebounded from a 16-5 loss to Virginia last week.
"Duke-Carolina is always an emotional game. We worked our kids really hard this week, and they responded really well."
The offensive onslaught began when Bosica fed Kristen Taylor (3g) from behind the cage at 28:05. Duke scored the next three goals, but North Carolina put the game out of reach with 6 unanswered goals midway through the first half.
"We won doing what we want to do. We just stayed composed," said Bosica.
Duke's Megan Del Monte (4g) caught fire in the game's waning minutes, contributing an assist on Emma Hamm's goal (3g, 1a) and two goals of her own in just 90 seconds to close the gap to 16-14 with 4:36 remaining. But after a North Carolina time out, middie Katie Brooks nabbed the ensuing faceoff and the Tar Heels ran out the remaining time, proving a controlled end to a wild game. Del Monte's late push wasn't enough to offset the Blue Devils' combined 20 turnovers and 25 fouls.
"We have to learn how to work together more. There were individuals who had flashes of greatness, but we never came together," said Hamm.
Tar Heel goalie Amanda Barnes posted 7 saves, and the Blue Devils' Kim Imbesi had 9 stops. Reserve Regan Bosch spelled Imbesi for about 10 minutes in the second half when Duke was down 13-8 at 20:41, recording 1 save and allowing 3 goals.
Carolina's sag defense let the Blue Devils in close, but effectively shut down points leader Carolyn Davis. The senior attacker scored one goal on a bounce shot at 6:12 in the first half. The goal ended North Carolina's key 6-0 run, but the Tar Heels never allowed Duke back in the game.
"It got a little intense," said defender Amber Falcone. "We had a lot of long attacking sets and we had to make sure we were still talking. [The sag] worked really well. Our slides were on. "
The emotional punch of vanquishing Duke aside, the Tar Heels attributed their win to a punishing week of practice following the loss to Virginia. They consider all games from here on out to be a second season.
"Before Virginia, we weren't pushing each other hard enough. We hit a different level with our second season," said Taylor.
