UNC Tar Heels to face Duke Blue Devils in NCAA Men's lacrosse quarterfinals

Durham, NC - The top-seeded Duke men's lacrosse team will face eighth-seeded North Carolina in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Tournament on Sunday afternoon in Annapolis, Md. Face-off is set for 3 p.m., and the game will be televised live by ESPNU.

The Duke-North Carolina tilt will serve as the back end of a doubleheader at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium as UMBC and Delaware will square off at 12 noon. Tickets are available through the Navy Athletic Ticket Office at 800-874-6289 or at www.navysports.com.

The Blue Devils secured a spot in the quarterfinals with an 18-3 victory over Providence last Saturday, improving to 15-2 on the season. Zack Greer scored five goals while Matt Danowski handed out seven assists in the win over the Friars. Duke is 10-10 all-time in NCAA Tournament action including a 2-5 mark in quarterfinal games. The Blue Devils and Tar Heels have met one other time in NCAA Tournament play with Duke claiming a 16-14 decision in the first round of the 1998 event.

Duke and North Carolina will meet for the third time this season on Sunday, marking the first time the Blue Devils and Tar Heels have played one another more than twice in a single campaign. The Blue Devils picked up wins in both the regular season (9-7 in Chapel Hill) and ACC Tournament semifinals (13-9 in Durham) earlier this year. The Tar Heels lead the all-time series with Duke by a 39-25 count, but the Blue Devils have won five straight and nine of the last 12 meetings.

Following his two-goal, seven-assist outing against Providence in the opening round, Danowski currently leads the nation with 81 total points on 38 goals and 43 assists. He pairs with Greer, who has 78 points on a nation-leading 56 goals and 22 assists, to form the most prolific scoring tandem in the country with a combined 159 points. The Blue Devil defense, which has not allowed double figures in the scoring column since the season-opening game, is led by goalkeeper Dan Loftus, who ranks second nationally with a .637 save percentage.

The Tar Heels, who defeated Navy, 12-8, in the first round of the postseason on Sunday afternoon in Chapel Hill, enter the weekend at 10-5. Bart Wagner paces the North Carolina offense with 43 points on 23 goals and 20 assists this year while Michael Burns has scored a team-high 27 tallies. Grant Zimmerman has started all 15 games in the Tar Heel net and owns a .522 save percentage along with a 9.30 goals against average.

The winner of the Duke-North Carolina quarterfinal game will advance to the national semifinals in Baltimore on Saturday, May 26 to face the winner of Cornell-Albany.