Columbus, Ohio — The North Carolina men's lacrosse team earned its first NCAA tournament semifinal berth in 23 years with a squad hardly anyone expected to do it.

The unseeded Tar Heels beat No. 3 seed Notre Dame at its own game, using a stifling defense to secure a 13-9 victory in a quarterfinal at Ohio Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

North Carolina (10-6) joined top-seeded Maryland (16-2), No. 5 seed Brown (16-2) and No. 7 seed Loyola Maryland (14-3) in Saturday's semifinals at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. The Tar Heels will play the Greyhounds, who beat Towson, 10-8.

North Carolina — which had last secured a spot in the semifinals in 1993, also the last time the program advanced to the title game — ended an eight-game losing streak in the quarterfinals. This year's team had been described by observers as rebuilding, but that's not the way the players viewed their chances.

Coach Joe Breschi, a Baltimore native and Loyola Blakefield graduate, expressed joy for his players, especially the seniors.

“There weren't a lot of believers out there,” he said. “The people who did believe, they know who they are, and those who didn't give us a shot know who they are. I'm just so proud of these guys sticking together the entire season.”

The Tar Heels had won the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season championship, but lost to Syracuse in the league tournament's semifinals. Still, they have now defeated two seeded opponents in the postseason: No. 6 seed Marquette (10-9 on May 14) and the Fighting Irish.

The win made a sweep of its ACC rival for North Carolina, which rallied from a 15-10 deficit in the fourth quarter to pull off a 17-15 victory on April 23.

The Tar Heels won thanks to a strong defensive effort. Senior long-stick midfielder Evan Connell (Calvert Hall) held junior midfielder Sergio Perkovic, who took a game-high 14 shots, without a goal, and junior defenseman Austin Pifani limited senior attackman Matt Kavanagh to zero assists and one goal on five attempts through the first three quarters before Kavanagh added a second score late in the fourth.

Redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Brian Balkam made a game-high 14 saves while anchoring a North Carolina unit that kept the Fighting Irish off the scoreboard for 28:27 spanning the first three quarters.

“I'd say it was a full team effort,” said senior midfielder Jake Matthai (Gilman), who had two caused turnovers and two ground balls. “We're all on the same page, and when we do that, good things happen.”

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