Coming off its first ever national championship in soccer, the vaunted Tar Heels of North Carolina started 2002 at No. 3 in the national polls. After rolling through early opponents hindered with inferior talent, North Carolina was derailed by upstart Davidson and rising national power Yale. Since the setbacks, however, the Tar Heels have steamrolled the likes of Brown, Campbell and then-No. 9 Virginia.
No. 25 Duke (4-2-1, 1-1-0 in the ACC) will be the next stop for No. 13 North Carolina (6-2, 1-0), who holds a 34-30-6 lead in the all-time series and has won the last two contests, when the Tar Heels strut into Koskinen Stadium Saturday night at 7 p.m. The Blue Devils were outgunned last year in Chapel Hill, 1-0.
"They're the defending national champions and have an outstanding team," head coach John Rennie said. "It will be our fourth weekend in a row against a top-10 team. We expect it will be a very emotional battle."
The Blue Devils, who have been ranked as high as No. 17 in 2002, are much improved from 2001 when they went just 2-4 in the ACC. Last week's win over then-No. 2 Clemson had soccer pundits believing that last season was an aberration for Duke. A weekend loss to Maryland, however, has left critics awaiting further evidence of a Blue Devil resurrection.
"We're going to come out ready to play," goalie Justin Trowbridge said. "Against Maryland, we didn't feel like we had the same intensity we had against Clemson. We're going to come out much more intense against UNC."
Duke's most critical adjustment, however, has nothing to do with the game of soccer.
"We're going to try to get healthy this week," Rennie said last Tuesday. "We should get Matt White back. Joe Kelly has been out, he may or may not be back. And we've had a bunch of guys playing hurt; Matt Ahumada, Ryan Kerlew, a variety of players. We'll have a chance to recover."
Duke will have to be in top form against the Tar Heels, a team boasting three legitimate All-America candidates in defender David Stokes and forwards David Testo and Ryan Kneipper. The trio has catalyzed a North Carolina offense that has picked up where it left off in 2001, outscoring opponents 23-9 after just eight games this season. North Carolina's midseason slump may then appear difficult to decipher.
The Tar Heel's 1-0 loss to Davidson was actually dominated by the Tar Heels, who outshot the Wildcats 14-3. A Tar Heel defender scored an own goal in the 49th minute of play, and North Carolina was unable to recover for its first loss of the year.
The impetus of a loss to Yale isn't quite as difficult to identify, however. Although the stellar play of Lindsey Williams and Justin Burton��Yale's pair of All-America candidates��posed a challenge for North Carolina, the 2-1 loss can be attributed to Testo. The second leading Tar Heel scorer in 2001, Testo had been arrested on charges of assault during an altercation at a Chapel Hill bar previous to the game against Yale, a game from which he was suspended.
"They had some internal problems," Rennie said. "They had to rebuild their defense and they had some injuries, too."
Testo is back, however, as is the locomotive that is North Carolina soccer.
"Right now they're at the top of their game, and they still have as good an offense as anybody," Rennie said.
The Blue Devils are primed to slam the breaks on North Carolina's attack, however. Duke has spent the last week perfecting its set offensive plays and working on its Achilles Heel��defending corner kicks. Each of the Terrapins' three goals came on corners.
"We've really worked on getting across our men and getting in front of them, not letting them have free headers on goal," Trowbridge said.
This will be the first of many North Carolina games for Duke's contingent of seven freshman. The septet has been instrumental in Duke's return to the national ranks, and will be equally crucial against the experienced Tar Heels. Rennie dismissed doubts regarding his team's youth, however, and is confident they will be ready for Saturday night's clash.
"There's no need to have an added incentive for the Duke-UNC game," Rennie said. "It will be very emotional, very intense, and you have to be ready to match that intensity. It'll be a war."
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