Gallery: Photos of Duke Lacrosse v UNC
Those who wear either shade of blue in the Duke/Carolina rivalry find it to be a bipolar existence. The winning times are the best of times; the loosing times always hurt. Such was Sunday when North Carolina squared off against Duke in the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Quarterfinals.
The game began as standard Duke/UNC issue rivalry. First, players on the two teams traded, um, emotions when they entered the stadium at nearly the same time. Second, there was a disagreement on what side UNC was to be on and what side Duke was to be on. Once it was sorted out, Duke players were sent scrambling to find their sticks on the ground amongst all the UNC ones after being sent to the other bench. Stuff like this only happens between these rivals. Also, much like previous UNC/Duke lacrosse games, UNC began with running up the score only to loose to a more ambitious run-up by the Blue Devils. While UNC was up at the end of the first half, Duke scored 7 points in both the third and fourth quarters to UNC’s 3 points the entire 2nd half.
While the loss was hard to take, the words of Coach Haus in the locker room after the game rang true: Only eight teams were fortunate enough to play this weekend while all the others stayed home. We got to play.I feel honored to have had the opportunity to cover the team. Pulling out my dinky little SLR camera for the first time and photographing lacrosse when I was a freshman at UNC some 10 years ago is what made me fall in love with sports photography and lacrosse. Since then, both have been a passion of mine. To be able to travel with team combined both of my loves and I will appreciate the opportunity.
Thanks to coach Haus and Dave Lohse for letting me come out. Thanks to all the guys for letting me photograph a moment in their lives. I look forward to next year.