CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA. — No. 12 North Carolina fell to No. 2 Duke 17-6 Friday night in the semifinals of the 2008 Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament at Klockner Stadium. The Tar Heels fell to 8-5 on the season heading into the NCAA Tournament. NCAA bids will be announced on May 4 along with seedings and home fields for the first round. Duke improved to 14-1.

Shane Walterhoefer won 11 face-offs and is now just five shy of tying Kevin Frew’s career record of 446 face-off wins set from 2001-04.

Tim Kaiser and Cryder DiPietro each scored a pair of goals for UNC and Billy Bitter had two assists. Six Duke players scored two or more goals for the Blue Devils, who outshot the Tar Heels 53-33 and won the ground ball battle 49-40. A key in the game was the extra-man opportunities where the Blue Devils cashed in for six goals on 10 Tar Heel penalties.

The Tar Heels opened the scoring on a fast break goal with 8:47 left in the first quarter. Bart Wagner scored the goal off an assist from Mike Munnelly, the first point for the senior midfielder from Garden City, N.Y. since his freshman year in 2005. Munnelly had an assist and a goal in the ACC Tournament semifinals that year against Duke. The Blue Devils tied the score 49 seconds later on a goal by Mike Catalino off an assist by Max Quinzani. The goal came off a scramble situation after a save by Grant Zimmerman. With 5:25 left in the opening period the Tar Heels retook the lead at 2-1 on an extra-man goal by Cryder DiPietro, assisted by Billy Bitter. Twelve seconds later the Tar Heels made it 3-1 when Ben Hunt claimed the ground ball off a face-off and fed cross field to long stick Tim Kaiser whose bounce shot found the back of the net. It was Kaiser’s second goal of the season. From then on, the Blue Devils would outscore the Tar Heels over the last three quarters 16-3.

Duke went on a three-goal run in the first 3:25 of the second to move ahead for the first time at 4-3. All three goals were unassisted — by Zack Greer, Michael Young and Max Quinzani. Just short of eight minutes later Zack Greer scored off an assist by Matt Danowski and Duke’s lead stood at 5-3 at halftime.


Matt Danowski’s unassisted goal 3:30 into the third quarter boosted Duke’s lead to 6-3 before the Tar Heels scored back-to-back goals to pull within one tally. Just 16 seconds after the Duke goal, Tim Kaiser scored his second goal of the game off an assist by face-off man Shane Walterhoefer. The assist was Walterhoefer’s first point of the season. The Tar Heels then got Cryder DiPietro’s second extra-man goal of the match with 9:21 to play in the period off an assist by Kevin Federico. Duke answered with three goals by Danowski, Quinzani and Greer and the score stood 9-5 in the Blue Devils’ favor with 2:36 to play in the third period At 1:21, Catalino scored his second goal to double up the Tar Heels 10-5 heading into the final period.

Duke made it 11-5 on a fast break goal by Zack Greer at 12:07, assisted by defenseman Nick O’Hara. Steve Shoeffel scored at 10:22 to up the Duke lead to 12-5, the Blue Devils’ sixth goal in a row. At 9:29, Gavin Petracca scored a behind-the-back goal assisted by Billy Bitter to end the Blue Devils’ six-goal run. Duke went on to score the last five goals of the game, including four successive extra-man goals, to account for the final margin.