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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Drew Synder led Maryland, 11-4, with four goals while Bitter finished with three for Carolina, 10-6.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n