Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 5/18/13
From press Releases and Staff Reports
Third-seeded North Carolina scored three times in the first minute of the game, pouncing on unseeded Virginia and winning, 13-9, in the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals on Saturday afternoon at Fetzer Field. With the victory, Carolina (16-3) advances to the NCAA semifinals for the fourth time in the last five seasons.
When the Tar Heels come to Villanova Friday for the semifinals, the game will serve as a homecoming for today’s standouts, Emily Garrity (Strath Haven) and Margaret Corzel (Merion Mercy), as well as Kelly Devlin (Downingtown East).
Garrity, a senior and 2009 Phillylacrosse.com Player of the Year, dominated the midfield, grabbing seven draw controls while adding three caused turnovers, two draw controls and two groundballs. Corzel, an All-Phillylacrosse.com pick in 2009-10, collected five groundballs and a draw control. Devlin, a sophomore who earned All-Phillylacrosse.com honors in 2010-11, added a caused turnover.
The Tar Heels will be making their seventh appearance in the NCAA semifinals. (1997, 1998, 2002, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012), all under head coach Jenny Levy. The Tar Heels will face the winner of Saturday night’s quarterfinal game between second-seeded Northwestern and seventh-seeded Penn State.
“Obviously, we’re very excited,” Levy said. “Every program in the country wants to play on the last weekend with the opportunity to advance and play for the national championship. I thought the key to the game was how we started. I looked up and we were up by three goals less than a minute into the game.
“The second half was really sloppy for us,” Levy continued. “We had some chances to widen the lead but didn’t, so credit their goalie [Kim Kolarik] for making some big saves. I also thought Emily Garrity was a key today for us. She had seven draw controls, three caused turnovers and two goals, which is great.”
Carolina jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first three and a half minutes, led 10-2 at halftime and won despite five consecutive Virginia goals in the final 16 minutes of the game that made the final score 13-9 after UNC had built a commanding, 13-4 lead.
The Tar Heels got five goals and six total points from Abbey Friend in the game, tying her career highs in both categories. She also had six points in last weekend’s NCAA second round win over Loyola. UNC also got three goals, two assists and five ground balls from Kara Cannizzaro. Emily Garrity had a fine all-around game, controlling a career-high seven draws, forcing three turnovers and scoring twice.
Brittney Coppa had two goals and an assist. Freshman Aly Messinger set a season high with three assists, Morgan Rubin scored a goal and Sam McGee had an assist.
Kelly Boyd scored three times to lead Virginia. Ashlee Warner and Casey Bocklet both had a goal and two assists for the Cavaliers, who also got two goals each from Courtney Swan and Liza Blue.
Syracuse 13, Florida 9
Freshman Kelly Cross (Upper Dublin) had a goal and a groundball and junior sister Amy Cross had tw groundballs and a caused turnover while defender Kasey Mock (Pottstown) helped shut down Florida’s potent attack to lift the Orange at the Carrier Dome.
The Orange will make its second straight appearance in the national semifinals and fourth since 2008. Syracuse, the No. 4 seed in the tournament, will face top-seeded and undefeated Maryland on Friday at Villanova.
The Orange extended its winning streak to 13 games and improved its record to 18-3. The Gators end the year with an 18-3 mark.
Maryland 14, Duke 9
Taylor Trimble (Episcopal Academy) had a goal and two draw controls and defender Tara Stokes (Shipley School) contributed three caused turnovers, two groundballs and a draw control for the Blue Devils in their quarterfinal loss.
