5/21/2016 other sports Edit

Lacrosse Preview: Notre Dame vs. North Carolina

Jordan Wells • InsideNDSports

Staff

NOTRE DAME (11-3, 3-1 ACC) VS. NORTH CAROLINA (9-6, 3-1 ACC)

Where: Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio.

Rankings: Notre Dame checks in at either No. 5 or No. 6 nationally in polls. North Carolina ranks anywhere from ninth to 14th.

Time/TV: Noon ET on ESPN2.

Notre Dame looks to advance to its third straight Final Four on Sunday with a win over UNC.

The third-seeded Irish find themselves facing an intriguing matchup in the quarterfinals of the NCAA championship in conference foe North Carolina.

Head coach Kevin Corrigan's squad traveled to UNC on April 23 as the consensus No. 1 team nationally, with a 9-8 overtime loss to Denver the only blemish on their record at 9-1 overall.

A victory over the Tar Heels would have clinched an unbeaten ACC regular season for the Irish.

Notre Dame played how it needed to win for nearly 50 minutes, leading 14-9 at the start of the fourth quarter and 15-10 with just 10 minutes to play. But North Carolina won six of the final seven faceoffs, and scored seven goals over a span of 7:29 to eventually capture a 17-15 win.

"The biggest thing from the game at Chapel Hill was that at the end of the game we weren't winning face-offs and we weren't stopping them," Corrigan told UND.com. "There's only two ways to get the ball - either win face-offs, or stop the other team and clear the ball.

"We did not do either of those effectively in the fourth quarter. Up until that point we played some of our best lacrosse of the year. We had a five-goal lead with 10 minutes to play.

"So we know what happened at the end - we're not going to lose our mind over that. I'm not worried about a hangover from that."

Besides the revenge factor in play, there's a lot at stake in the matchup. North Carolina has dropped eight straight quarterfinal games, a streak that reaches back to 1994.

Conversely, Notre Dame has advanced to the Final Four each of the last two years, but couldn't capture the national title in either season.

So on one hand, you have the Irish with their quest for an elusive national championship, plus revenge for letting the head-to-head matchup slip away earlier in the year. On the other, a Tar Heels squad that's desperate to advance to the Final Four.

Additionally, the all-time series between the two squads is tied at 7-7. All 14 games in the series have been decided by three goals or less.