Carolina's Postseason Woes Don't Keep Them From a Meaningless Trophy

This past weekend was a little rough for UNC athletics. The men's lacrosse team exited the NCAA's prematurely with a 17-9 loss to Duke, and the baseball team's sweep of Virginia Tech wasn't enough to get them into the eight-team ACC tournament. This means that barring an NCAA bid for the Heels in baseball – not unheard of, but not particularly likely, either – the women's lacrosse team are the last Heels standing, having made the semifinals of the NCAA tournament, being held Friday and Sunday in Towson, Md. They'll meet second seed Northwestern, and should they advance then play either top-ranked Maryland or unseeded Syracuse. The Heels have already dealt both the Terps and the Wildcats the only losses of their respective seasons, with the Northwestern victory coming in Evanston; either team would be happy to send UNC packing.

But what you're really dying to know is, how does that playoff loss to the Blue Devils impact the Carlyle Cup, that wonderful all-sport tally of games between Carolina and Duke that you occasionally remember once every couple of years? And the answer is, not at all. UNC has held the lead for most of the year despite some basketball results we'd all rather not think about, and sealed the the deal by blowing past Duke in the ACC track and field championships back in April. Depending on how quick the Carlyle Cup updates their website – and I'm going to go with "not very" here – UNC losing to Duke coughs back up a half a point from the total, giving us a final tally of Carolina 14, Duke 12. The Blue Devils haven't gotten their hands on this particular piece of hardware since the 2003-04 season.

So yay, I suppose. Doesn't really compensate for basketball, though.