The first time Duke ever played North Carolina in lacrosse, which also happened to be the first officially recorded lacrosse game in the state of North Carolina, the Blue Devils upended the Tar Heels with a narrow 2-1 victory. Later that same year--1938 if you're counting--Duke downed UNC again, this time by a 9-4 tally.
Since then, the continued rivalry between the schools has leaned decidedly in favor of Carolina, with the Tar Heels winning 20 of the last 30 contests in 56 years. But the early part of this season has many believing this could be the year the history of 1938 once again repeats itself.
No. 6 Duke takes on No. 11 North Carolina tonight at Duke Lacrosse Stadium at 7:30 p.m.
"We've beaten everybody in our conference at least once, and everybody on our schedule somewhere along the line--except North Carolina," Duke head coach Mike Pressler said. "This is a game our kids really point to.
"But we're treating it as another lacrosse game. We're not going to get all wrapped up in the other things this game means. We're just going to play lacrosse."
Still, the fact remains that for all the Blue Devils' accomplishments under Pressler, they have yet to find victory against the Tar Heels. They've beaten both the other teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference (Maryland and Virginia). They've earned two bids to the NCAA tournament. They've registered the school's first-ever NCAA tournament win.
Yet the last time Duke defeated UNC was in 1987. Since then, the Tar Heels have bested the Blue Devils in 10 straight contests. Last year's contest was really no contest, as the Tar Heels rode a late-game surge to a 23-9 victory.
Why, then, should this year be any different? For starters, Duke has gotten out of the gates quickly, going 6-1 through its first seven games. Since losing at Maryland on March 4, the Blue Devils have run off five straight victories. The No. 6 ranking achieved this week is the highest in the history of the program.
By contrast, the Tar Heels have struggled this season, opening the year at 4-3. They have notched only one win over a ranked team, that an 11-8 downing of Notre Dame in their first game of the year. UNC's losses have come at the hands of Loyola, Princeton and Maryland.
But even with the opposite directions the teams seem to be heading, the mood around the Duke campus is only cautiously optimistic. After all, there is still a game to be played. And North Carolina--even in the ACC cellar--is still far from a pushover.
"Rankings really don't mean a lot," Duke senior midfielder Ross Moscatelli said. "It always comes down to that one game, and you can't really rely on the numbers. It's players against players, and it's that two hours that counts."
Where Carolina has beaten Duke in the past has always been in the running game, as the Tar Heels prefer an up-tempo style of play. Too often, Duke has attempted to match that style and has literally been run into the ground. This year, however, Pressler said his game plan will be different, as the Blue Devils are hoping to capitalize on their maturity and experience to control the game's tempo more to their liking.
"We need to control the ball more," Moscatelli said. "We need to try not to run up and down with them so much. We need to stick to our game plan, which is possessing the ball and taking good shots."
Should the Blue Devils stick to that game plan, they will no doubt have more than a fair shot at walking off the field tonight with their seventh win of the season. But with a key stretch of the season now upon them, their coach has constantly reminded them even a loss would not mean the end of the world.
"We've told our players that we're approaching this part of the season as a five-game stretch," Pressler said, referring to the string of five games that began last Saturday and continues tonight, Saturday against Harvard, next Wednesday against Massachusetts and the following Sunday at Hobart. "This is the meat of our season.
"Whatever happens against North Carolina, it's not an end-all situation. I just want us to play the best we can, as hard as we can and as smart as we can. If we do that, I feel good about our chances."
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