Nov. 6, 2001

The University of North Carolina field hockey team will travel to Ann Arbor, Mich., this weekend to begin play in the 2001 NCAA Division I Field Hockey Championship. The Tar Heels, ranked fourth in the nation and seeded fourth in the field, meet host Michigan Saturday at 11 a.m. In the other first round game in Ann Arbor, Michigan State will play Kent State.

The UNC-UM game is a rematch of a Sept. 8 meeting between the two. At the Temple Invitational in Philadelphia, Pa., UNC won 2-1 on goals from senior Abby Martin and freshman Charlotte Plugge.

Winners of Saturday's first round games will meet Sunday at 2 p.m. for a spot among field hockey's final four. The NCAA semifinal and championship games will be held in Kent, Ohio, on Nov. 16 and 18.

Tickets for this weekend's games are $5 for adults and $3 for students, seniors and children under 18 years of age. Tickets may be purchased at the field on the day of the game and are good for the date of purchase only.

Old Dominion was awarded the No. 1 seed in the field, with Maryland No. 2 and Wake Forest No. 3. The top four seeds traditionally have hosted first and second round games in NCAA field hockey play. This year, however, geographic distribution of teams was taken into account in an effort to cut down on travel. Thus, Michigan and Princeton, which were not seeded in the top four, join Maryland and Wake Forest as host sites.

Other squads in the 16-team field are California-Berkeley (which earned a spot in the bracket via a play-in game), Fairfield, Massachusetts, Northeastern, Ohio University, Ohio State, Syracuse and Virginia.

UNC is 14-6 this season, with all six of its losses coming to teams in the NCAA field. The Tar Heels, NCAA runners-up in 2000, are led in scoring this season by senior back Abby Martin, who has 13 goals and 13 assists for a total of 39 points on the year.

Click here for a link to the NCAA Bracket in pdf format.