March 22, 2006

CHAPEL HILL -- The University of North Carolina women's lacrosse team will travel to College Park, Md., this weekend for a pair of games in the Atlantic Coast Conference/American Lacrosse Conference Challenge on the campus of the University of Maryland.

Carolina, ranked No. 5 in this week's Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Assocation (IWLCA) poll, will face Ohio State on Friday evening at 5 p.m. and will play No. 15 Penn State on Sunday at noon.

The Tar Heels are coming off a hard-fought, 10-9 win last Saturday at No. 5 Virginia. UNC has won back-to-back games after losing two in a row to Duke and Boston University two weeks ago.

Carolina has been led in scoring this season by a trio of juniors -- Stephanie Scurachio (the team leader with 16 goals and 21 points), Melissa McCarthy (second on the team with 10 goals and 14 points) and Christina Juras (tied for third with seven goals and the team leader with six assists for 13 points).

McCarthy was named the ACC Player of the Week last week after totaling eight points in back-to-back wins over Virginia Tech and Virginia. She had two goals and two assists against the Hokies and one goal and three assists against the Cavaliers.

Ohio State is 0-5 this season and unranked after a 17-4 loss at Virginia Tech last Saturday.

Penn State is 4-3 after beating Temple 9-6 on March 21.