CHAPEL HILL, NC – North Carolina outscored Notre Dame by a 8-4 margin in the second half and tied its season high with 16 goals overall as the third-seeded Tar Heels pulled away and defeated the sixth-seeded Fighting Irish, 16-10, on Saturday afternoon in the quarterfinals of the 2009 NCAA Division I women's lacrosse tournament at Fetzer Field.

UNC advances to next Friday night's NCAA semifinals in Towson, Md., and will face second-seeded Maryland, which beat seventh-seeded Syracuse, 12-10, on Saturday afternoon. The Tar Heels will be making their fourth appearance in the national semis, having also done so in 1997, 1998 and 2002.

"It was a great game today," UNC head coach Jenny Levy said afterward. "Notre Dame came in on a hot streak, and they won the Big East. I thought we did a really good job. My team did and coaches did a really good job planning this week and preparing for a tough Notre Dame team. I thought my kids played great. I'm always happy to have an opportunity to play in the quarterfinal game and obviously we've lost the past 4 quarterfinal games, so this was a great monkey off my personal back.

"It really takes a team effort to do it and put the ball in the back of the net and stop people on defense. It takes a team effort, and it takes some other kids to step up and play great, not just the superstars on the team. It's a great opportunity and we're excited to be heading to Towson next weekend. We don't really care who we play. That's been our motto for the whole tournament. We're just excited to have another week together. The team gets along great and works hard, and I'm excited."

In Saturday's game, Carolina got three goals apiece from Jenn Russell, Megan Bosica and Corey Donohoe, with Russell adding an assist as well. Kristen Taylor had a goal and three second-half assists. Kristen Carr and Chelsea Parks both scored twice for UNC, while Laura Zimmerman and Katie Brooks scored single goals.

Notre Dame's Jillian Byers tallied five goals and an assist to lead the Fighting Irish in defeat. Kailene Abt scored twice, Kaitlin Keena had a goal and two assists and Ansley Stewart dished out two assists. Jackie Doherty and Gina Scioscia both had a goal and an assist for Notre Dame

The Fighting Irish took an early lead before the Tar Heels regained the advantage and led throughout the rest of the game. Notre Dame jumped out to a 1-0 lead just 33 seconds into the game when Keena scored off an assist from Stewart, cutting in from the right of the net to score. Carolina responded with three goals in the next four minutes to take a 3-1 lead. Donohoe, Russell and Parks all scored unassisted goals during the outburst as UNC took the lead.

The Fighting Irish responded with a goal at the 22:34 mark to cut the lead back to one goal at 3-2 when Doherty took a pass from Stewart and scored after a flurry of shots in front of the UNC cage. Zimmerman sliced in from the left wing and scored to put Carolina back up by two goals at 4-2 with 16:36 left in the half.

Abt drew the Irish back to within a goal with 14:02 left in the half when she cut in from the top of the 12-meter arc and put the ball past UNC keeper Logan Ripley to make the score 4-3. Russell's second goal on a cut from the top right of the goal put Carolina back up 5-3 with 12:54 left before the break. The Irish again cut the lead to one goal when Byers took a pass from Scioscia and scored with 11:24 to go.

Bosica's free position goal 20 seconds later put the Tar Heels back up 6-4 and forced a Notre Dame timeout. Abt's second goal, on a free position attempt of her own, made it 6-5 with under 10 minutes left in the half. Parks' second goal, coming from a flat angle from the right side, gave Carolina a 7-5 lead with 5:18 to go. Just 10 seconds later, Scioscia scored a fast break goal off a pass from Byers to cut the lead back to one goal at 7-6. Bosica scored her second goal with 37 seconds left in the half, wrapping around the cage for an unassisted goal that made it 8-6.

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2009-05-16