Dec. 27, 2007

By Dave Lohse

Associate Athletic Communications Director

Just 20 months removed from the end of a 4-10 season, which concluded in April 2006, the North Carolina men's lacrosse team found out in December it would be preseason ranked No. 5 by Face-Off Yearbook and Inside Lacrosse Magazine heading into the 2008 campaign. That's quite a turnaround for a team that went 9-18 combined during the 2005 and 2006 seasons.

As a result, just a year ago, Carolina was ranked No. 21 in the preseason, certainly not a very flattering status. But the Tar Heels beat eventual NCAA champion Johns Hopkins 13-10 in Chapel Hill en route to a 10-6 record and a season that did not end until the NCAA quarterfinals were played. It was only the fourth trip for the Tar Heels to the quarterfinals in 14 years and one of the team's best seasons over the past decade and a half.

Five of Carolina's six losses last year came at the hands of its ACC brethren and the other loss was a 19-8 blowout setback at Navy, a loss the Tar Heels avenged by beating the Midshipmen 12-8 in the NCAA first round at Fetzer Field. That win earned the Tar Heels a spot in the quarterfinals and was only the second NCAA win for Carolina since 1993. While Carolina saw its season cut short six days later the improvement from 4-10 to 10-6 in one season was quite remarkable.

Carolina had only five seniors in 2007 so the '08 team will return as intact as any team in the sport could probably expect when 45-50 men are usually on a team's roster. That's a good thing because Carolina will not sneak up on any teams as they did last year when the Tar Heels were ranked No. 21 in the preseason. The Tar Heels will be faced with those devilish expectations that a team can either thrive on or implode from. The Carolina game will be circled on a lot of teams' schedules this season.

That's what a No. 5 preseason ranking will do. The Heels are ranked behind only Johns Hopkins, Duke, Virginia and Georgetown. For a team that has not played on Memorial Day weekend since 1993, the expectations are high indeed.

Why should that not be the case? Shouldn't that be the way things are at a school like North Carolina? I can't imagine a coach at UNC who would want to coach a team that did not have high preseason expectations. Expectations normally mean that a team is garnering respect on the playing field and recruiting and competing on a high level.

Mentally that's what head coach John Haus' team will be facing when the season opener rolls around on February 16 against Bellarmine at Fetzer Field at 11 a.m.

Are these expectations warranted? Physically? Definitely! The Tar Heels have six preseason All-Americas on the roster - face-off man Shane Walterhoefer, a first team selection, defenseman Tim Kaiser and midfielder Nick Tintle on the second team, attackman Bart Wagner on the third team and attackman Gavin Petracca and midfielder Ben Hunt on the honorable mention list. The Tar Heels will be as deep as they have been since Haus took over as head coach in 2000.

Carolina will be experienced. The returning starting attack unit includes two juniors and a sophomore, the face-off man is a junior, a host of senior and junior short stick middies are on the roster and two seniors and a junior return at starting close defense. The starting goalkeeper is a junior.

A large part of this season may rest on how the season class handles the pressure of being a No. 5 preseason pick. They were freshmen on the 2005 squad that returned a lot of experience and talent from the 2004 season when UNC last went to the NCAA quarterfinals before it did so last year. That 2005 team was ranked preseason No. 7 in the Face-Off Yearbook/Inside Lacrosse poll, but it lost seven of its first nine games en route to a 5-8 season that was hard for everyone around the program to stomach.

This year's senior class remembers that year well. If those players handle the expectations well there's a great chance this team will play on Memorial Day weekend in Foxboro, Mass.

In the process Carolina lacrosse will be back on the map in a big way.