Heels, Terps play for title

North Carolina will shoot for its sixth NCAA field hockey title today in Winston-Salem. But the third-ranked Tar Heels will have to get past top-ranked and defending national champion Maryland to win their first title since 2007.

Today's noon championship game at Wake Forest's Kentner Stadium will be televised by the CBS College network.

The Tar Heels (19-2), who are playing in their 12th championship game, defeated Virginia 3-2 on Friday in the semifinals.

Senior Danielle Forword, junior Elizabeth Drazdowski and sophomore Taryn Gjurich scored goals for the Tar Heels in the semifinals.

UNC features a balanced offense, with four players with 35 or more points.

Senior Melanie Brill had 40 points (17 goals, six assists), freshman Kelsey Kolojejchick had 38 points (15 goals, eight assists), junior Katelyn Falgowski had 36 points (six goals, 24 assists) and Forword had 35 points (15 goals, five assists).

The Tar Heels have notched 12 shutouts this season.

Maryland (23-0) defeated Princeton 7-5 in the semifinals on Friday.

The Terrapins defeated North Carolina 4-1 in Chapel Hill in the regular season.

Football

Florida linebacker likely out: Top-ranked Florida likely will be without starting linebacker A.J. Jones against rival Florida State next week.

Jones, sixth on the team with 37 tackles, injured the medial collateral ligament in his right knee during Saturday's 62-3 win over Florida International.

"A.J. Jones won't play probably," Meyer said.

Division II shootout: West Liberty and Edinboro have made a habit of offensive shows.

Zach Amedro threw for 540 yards and six touchdowns, Kevon Calhoun ran for 173 yards and four more scores, and the Hilltoppers outscored Edinboro 84-63 on Saturday in the second round of the Division II playoffs.

The teams combined for 1,394 yards of total offense, breaking the division record of 1,369 set in Chadron State's 76-73 triple-overtime win over Abilene Christian on Nov. 23, 2007.

Their combined 1,170 yards passing broke the mark of 1,065 set by Western New Mexico and West Texas A&M on Oct. 8, 1994.

The offensive onslaught shouldn't have been too surprising, though: The teams racked up more than 1,000 yards total offense when Edinboro (Pa.) handed West Liberty its only loss, 42-30 in their season opener on Aug. 29.

Amedro finished 27-of-32 passing in the first Division II playoff game hosted by the small school near Wheeling, W.Va. The senior has 4,580 yards passing and 47 touchdowns this season, and went over the 10,000-yard mark for his career against the Fighting Scots (9-4).

He was outdone everywhere but on the scoreboard by Edinboro quarterback Trevor Harris.

The senior was 50-of-76 for a playoff-record 630 yards in his second game back from a knee injury that required minor surgery.

Harris tossed five touchdown passes and ran for two more scores before a crowd of more than 4,000 at Russek Field.

Both quarterbacks are among the nine finalists for the Harlon Hill Award, given to the best player in Division II college football.

"Zach's had a phenomenal season," West Liberty coach Roger Waialae said before the game, "and Harris has had a phenomenal career."

Harris had already surpassed 11,000 yards through the air, making the shootout the first game in Division II history with two 10,000-yard passers. Most of his throws went to Gary Nolen and Marcus Johnson, who each had 11 catches for 262 total yards.

The Associated Press

Men's golf

Duke signs two: Duke coach Jamie Green has announced the signing of Austin Cody from North Charleston, S.C., and Yaroslav Merkulov of Penfield, N.Y., to national letters of intent.

According to the National Junior Golf Scoreboard, Cody and Merkulovare ranked fourth and fifth, respectively, in the 2010 class. On the Golfweek/Sagarin Junior Ratings, Merkulov is listed third and Cody is listed No. 6 in the class of 2010.

Saturday's results

Cross country

Duke defends IC4A title: The Duke men defended its 2008 title with a first-place finish at the 101st Annual IC4A Championships in New York.

Thirteen teams competed in Saturday's 8K championship race, with Duke finishing the day with 41 points. Second-place William and Mary totaled 67 points, followed by George Mason (113 points).

Sophomore Andrew Brodeur led the Blue Devils with a third-place individual finish in the field of 123, posting a time of 25:28. Senior Ken Sullivan was fourth (25:29) and junior Ryan McDermott was eighth (25:35).

Volleyball

Duke 3, North Carolina 0: Amanda Robertson blasted a team-high 13 kills to lead host Duke (26-5, 16-3 ACC) to a 25-18, 27-25, 25-16 win over North Carolina (15-15, 11-8).

From college news releases

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