No. 9 ranked North Carolina got the No. 8 seed in the NCAA tournament and thus got to play its first round game at home. Unfortunately for the Tar Heels, they were matched up against Maryland, which had a better record, was higher ranked (eighth) and had won the ACC tournament.

That ticked off Terrapin team came down to Chapel Hill and dominated early and late to defeat the Tar Heels 13-6 to advance to play top-ranked Syracuse in the second round.

In the first few minutes, Maryland got up 3-0 but UNC’s Billy Bitter keep the Heels in it with two goals to draw the home team to withinn one goal. But the Terps, who had a 7-2 faceoff edge early, scored three more goals fairly quickly to get back up 6-2.

The Heels managed a pair of goals late in the first half, including a third by Bitter, to make it 6-4 at the break. It was still close at 7-5 until Maryland reeled off six straight goals to break it open.

Drew Synder led Maryland, 11-4, with four goals while Bitter finished with three for Carolina, 10-6.

The emotion on the Terp sideline was very high most of the game. Too bad for Carolina that the Heels didn’t either draw a different opponent in the first round or had to travel to College Park instead. The emotional edge may just have been reversed.

In other action, homestanding Duke held on to defeat Delaware 15-14. For more on that game, please click here.