The last time North Carolina beat Duke in Chapel Hill was Mar. 19, 2003, when the two teams had different head coaches. Upon his arrival in 2006, John Danowski quickly established the Blue Devils as a powerhouse on the road, while the Tar Heels have only lost one game at home since the hiring of Joe Breschi in 2009, albeit to their Tobacco Road rival.
But when Duke heads down to Fetzer Field at 7 p.m. tonight, Danowksi insists you can throw out all that history.
“This year we haven’t been very good [on the road], and the past is really of no relationship to this team,” Danowski said. “This is different because it’s just a quick bus trip, but we do treat it like any other away game… we just try to keep it as normal as possible.”
During Danowski’s tenure as head coach, the No. 15 Blue Devils have a 12-2 record in true road games, but one of those losses came this season to Pennsylvania on Feb. 26.
The last time the two teams met was in the quarterfinals of last year’s NCAA Tournament, when Duke (4-2, 1-0 in the ACC) prevailed in a lopsided 17-9 victory. The teams split the season series last year, with the No. 10 Tar Heels (5-1, 0-0) coming out on top in the regular season matchup in Durham.
“I think [both teams] are younger, we both return some really good players, but we’re both younger and trying to figure out who we are,” Danowski said. “They return a really nice nucleus, and they added some really terrific young players.”
One of the main pieces returning is Ryan Flanagan, who earned Co-National Defenseman of the Year honors last season. Flanagan led the team in caused turnovers last year and joins new goalkeeper and junior transfer Matt Holman in shoring up a solid defensive unit. Holman’s brother, Marcus, is a sophomore attackman who leads North Carolina with 13 goals this season.
Flanagan and Holman are tasked with containing an emerging Blue Devil offense that has scored 41 goals in its last three games, after scoring only 10 in its prior two contests. Danowski credits some of the improvement to personnel adjustments, notably moving Jordan Wolf and Christian Walsh to attack.
“We’re constantly tweaking, trying to figure out what’s best for this particular team at this particular year,” Danowski said. “Another part is just getting to play games together. Young teams need to play and need experience.”
Leading the production is Zach Howell, who leads Duke with 17 goals. His 2.83 goals per game rank sixth best in Division I.
Whereas the Blue Devils already have one conference victory under their belt after defeating Maryland last week, the matchup tomorrow kicks off ACC play for the Tar Heels.
“These games create great excitement. You come to Duke to play North Carolina,” Danowski said. “Since North Carolina represents great lacrosse and you respect their program so much, you want to measure yourself—are you good enough to compete with North Carolina?”
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