I've been lax in my coverage of the Tar Heel Olympic sports, but they have not – UNC has won the ACC field hockey and men's soccer championships, and they and the women's soccer team are currently motoring through their various NCAA playoff fields. Of the three, women's field hockey is the first to play their title game, where this afternoon UNC meets Maryland for the title in Louisville, Kentucky.

If this sounds familiar, it should be. Carolina and Maryland played for the national title in both 2009 and 2010, with UNC winning the former and the Terps the latter. The Tar Heels also beat Maryland for the championship in 1995, and the two schools have bestrode field hockey like the Collossus of yore lately, accounting for every title since going back to 2005. (When you consider that Wake won the three prior to that, the last time an ACC team didn't win the trophy was 2001. A non-ACC team hasn't even played the championship game since Penn State lost to UNC in 2007.)

Unlike the two previous years, UNC is the favorite here, having beaten Maryland 2-1 in their previous meeting in October in Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels have only lost once this season in an early September game against Old Dominion. Since then they've won 18 straight, including eight shutouts and five overtime victories. Their closest match of the year was Friday's against Connecticut, where UNC, after falling into a 3-0 hole came back to force two overtimes before getting the winning goal.

That's even more impressive when you consider Carolina has been without midfielder Katelyn Falgowski for most of the season due to her national team obligations; she returned for the final game of the season, allowing junior Kelsey Kolojejchick more time at forward, where she's responded with six goals in three tournament games. Also look for awesomely-named Jaclyn Gaudioso Radvany, second in scoring with the highest shooting percentage of the starters.

If anything is going against UNC today, t's the fact that Maryland, by virtue of a 4-0 win over Old Dominion, won't be nearly as drained as the Tar Heels will. But this is an experienced team, and should be able to handle the terms to get coach Karen Shelton's seventh national championship in Chapel Hill.

As part of the September meeting of UNC's Board of Trustees, the minutes of the previous meeting are approved and posted online. And since the July meeting is the one that resulted in the immediate firing of Butch Davis, you'd think they'd be interesting to read.

I'll save you the time; they're not. Davis isn't mentioned. Presumably the discussion that led to his dismissal was one of the closed sessions, "pursuant to North Carolina General Statutes Section 143-318.11 (a) (1) (to prevent the disclosure of privileged information under Section 126-22 and the following); and also pursuant to Section 143-318.11 (a) (2), (3), (5), and (6). It's the (6) that's probably important here, as it states:

To consider the qualifications, competence, performance, character, fitness, conditions of appointment, or conditions of initial employment of an individual public officer or employee or prospective public officer or employee; or to hear or investigate a complaint, charge, or grievance by or against an individual public officer or employee. General personnel policy issues may not be considered in a closed session. A public body may not consider the qualifications, competence, performance, character, fitness, appointment, or removal of a member of the public body or another body and may not consider or fill a vacancy among its own membership except in an open meeting. Final action making an appointment or discharge or removal by a public body having final authority for the appointment or discharge or removal shall be taken in an open meeting.

On the bright side, clause 2 of that statute allows a closed session "to prevent the premature disclosure of an honorary degree, scholarship, prize, or similar award." Somebody's getting a prize!

Other than that, it's all committee formation, budgetary updates and facility upgrades. If you still want to read it, here it is (PDF).

In what has been an unsually disappointing fall sports season – no ACC championships, and women's soccer exiting the NCAA tournament with their worst loss in quite some time – UNC's field hockey team is within striking distance of their seventh title. The Heels survived an overtime game with Virginia to advance to the finals, where they'll meet Maryland. Not only do the Terps have a home-field advantage, but they've won both of the previous match-ups, 3-2 in College Park and 5-2 in the ACC championship. History is on Carolina's side though – two of their titles have come by beating Maryland in the finals. The first was in 1995, the second an upset in 2009. They'l' need all the support they can get for the third, so if you're in the area, swing by.

While you were planning the Thanksgiving menu for this week, the UNC field hockey team was feasting on turtles, as they upset top-ranked Maryland 3-2 to take home the NCAA crown. The game was decided by senior Danielle Forword's game winning shot off a penalty corner with 11.7 seconds remaining, giving the team it's second title in three years and avenging last year's championship game loss to the Terps. Maryland was undefeated and had beaten the Heels in their regular season matchup 4-1.

The title was the Heels' sixth all-time, and bore similarities to the 1995 title, where UNC also beat Maryland in Winston-Salem to take home the trophy. This season Carolina also put three players on the All-American first-team, and an additional three on the second and third teams - the three seniors who finished their careers in Chapel Hill with goals scored in the national championship game. More detail and highlights of the game can be found here.

In case you're unaware, both the UNC field hockey and women's soccer teams have their respective ACC tournaments this weekend, and neither team is starting from a number one seed.

In women's soccer, the Heels are in fact a third seed, after a disappointing (for them) ACC sate that found them losing three games to Virginia Tech, Miami, and top seed Florida State. That being said, UNC is still the highest ranking team in the tournament, and easily slipped by their opening opponent Maryland today in Cary. They'll get #2 seed Boston College tomorrow, who was taken to double overtime today by Virginia in a game decided on penalty kicks. All signs look good for Carolina to advance to Sunday's championship game.

The field hockey team, on the other hand, is a two seed as a result of their only loss, at the hands of #1 Maryland. And that's both the Terps' seed and national ranking; in fact, Maryland, UNC, and Virginia are 1-2-3 both this weekend in Charlottesville and in the national polls. They're all practically guaranteed NCAA tournament slots, and seeded ones at that, despite the fact only four of the sixteen slots are given seeds. But let's be honest, with their football season going the way it is, Terps fans need something to hold on to. It is thus UNC's job to snatch that away from them.

Oh, and the women's field hockey national team also announced their roster today, and UNC placed six players on that sixteen team squad. Kate Barber, Rachel Dawson, Katelyn Falgowski, Jesse Gey, Carrie Lingo, and Amy Tran will get the chance to breathe the toxic air of Beijing while representing the United States. Dawson, Falgowski and Gey were all on last fall's national champion UNC team - Dawson was Player of the Year - but only Falgowski will be a student in Chapel Hill after the Olympics.

The U.S. has qualified for the Olympics in field hockey only for times - 1980, 1984, 1988 and 1996, winning a bronze in the Los Angeles games. 12 teams will compete in Beijing, up from 10 in 2004. 

Fifteen of the sixteen players hail from four different schools. In addition to UNC, Old Dominion, Maryland, and Wake Forest are sending 4, 3, and 2 players. The sixteenth hails from Indiana.

It only took three minutes and ten seconds for Katelyn Falgowski to score Carolina's first goal against Penn State. It would be the only one they needed, as UNC went on to spank the Nittany Lions 3-0 in the NCAA championship.

The Heels dominate the game, controlling the ball for most of it and only allowing three Penn State shots on goal to UNC's 12. The first of the Lions' didn't come until a penalty situation with 12:20 to play in the first half, and the other two both occurred after the break. UNC took a 1-0 lead into the half on the backs of excellent defensive play, and you could already see the spirit draining out of their opponents. Penn State trudged on and off the field to some desultory words of encouragement, and kept the ball in Carolina's backfield for the start of the second half. But after an absolutely gorgeous fake on a penalty shot in the second half with 26:42 left led to a Rachel Dawson goal, it was all but over.

The Heels' offense kept the ball in Penn State territory for almost all of the last fifteen minutes, resulting in a third goal, this time from Danielle Forword, and Carolina won the fifth national championship for Karen Shelton and the first in a decade.

The standing room only crowd of 2,374 was weighted towards fans in Carolina Blue, which was a bit of a surprise considering the relative distances of Happy Valley and Chapel Hill. UNC even sprung to send a pep band up for the game - any Penn State chants were drowned out by the cheers of pompom waving fans in blue.

UNC only had one senior (Dawson) among its four members of the all-tournament team, boding well for next year's squad attempt to follow the last two champions, Maryland and Wake Forest, in repeating the title run. Carolina never lost a game all season and posted 16 shutouts, including three in the tournament.

Want to see UNC hoist some NCAA hardware in the air this year? Don't want to wait to the end of basketball season? After last night, not really confident in March?

With regards to last night, Davidson is even better than you remember, and hey, slow starts are good omens. But none of that is the point of today's post. No, it's time for the first NCAA Championship of the academic year - Women's Field Hockey.

The Tar Heels, top seed of the tournament, undefeated for the season, and laden with talented seniors roll in to Maryland for the Final Four. Carolina meets the Huskies in the early game at 5:30. The Huskies have lost twice (twice!) this season, and have allowed their opponents to score in a solid majority of their games. Clearly they aren't in UNC's class. (I did mention Carolina has posted shutouts in 13 of the last 15 matches, didn't I?)

Should Friday go as planned, the Heels face on Sunday either Wake Forest or Penn State, who have five and seven losses this season respectively. Wake has been the closest thing UNC has had to an equal this year, taking the Heels to overtime in both of their previous meetings. Careful research on my part has discovered that Wake does not have the only collegiate member of the World Cup team. Advantage, Carolina.

The games are broadcasted on the internet, but if you happen to live in the area - like, say, me - you should head out to see the games in person. I haven't seen a field hockey championship in twelve years, where oddly enough UNC defeated Maryland on Wake Forest's campus, and will definitely be there Sunday. And not blogging, because I like to pretend I have some self-respect left. Anybody heading out to the game, I'll be the guy you don't recognize.

And if you can't make it out to College Park, there's always the next national championship. I hear they have some pretty good players, too.