Lax teams in action

The UNC men's and women's lacrosse teams will begin play in the NCAA Tournament this week. The men's team, which enters with a 8-5 record, is a No. 4 seed and will host Navy (9-5) in the first round at Fetzer Field Saturday at 7:30 p.m. The contest will be televised on ESPNU.

The Carolina women's team (12-6) gets going a day later, starting its post-season campaign Sunday at ACC champion Virginia in Charlottesville. UNC is unseeded in the 16-team field while Uva is seeded fourth overall.

O'Connell honored

North Carolina golfer Kevin O'Connell has been named the Atlantic Coast Conference Freshman of the Year as selected by a vote of the league's 11 head coaches. O'Connell was also selected to the 2008 All-ACC team.

The Cary product has had an immediate impact on the Tar Heel golf program, carding seven top-10 finishes and nine top-25 finishes in Carolina's 10 tournaments. O'Connell's top finish of the year was a tie for third place at the Seminole Intercollegiate where he posted a six-under-par 210 total. In his most recent outing, the Green Hope graduate tied for sixth place at the ACC Championship.

Tar Heels sail to Columbus

The Atlantic Coast Conference and the Big Ten Conference have announced the 2008 pairings for the ACC/Big Ten Challenge for women's basketball. North Carolina will face Ohio State in Columbus, Ohio, on Dec. 3, the opening night of the event.

The challenge will open with Georgia Tech hosting Michigan State, Ohio State welcoming UNC and Florida State taking on Penn State. Dec. 4 will feature six games as Clemson hosts Northwestern, Purdue takes on Maryland, Illinois welcomes Virginia, Minnesota plays host to Boston College, Duke hosts Iowa and Wisconsin faces Virginia Tech. The challenge wraps up on Dec. 5 as Michigan hosts N.C. State and Miami welcomes Indiana.

Since the 1999-2000 season, the two conferences have squared off in head-to-head competition on 68 occasions with the ACC holding a 37-31 advantage.

Quick Kinderwater

Carolina freshman swimmer Josef Kinderwater of Lancaster, Pa., finished 15th in the Open Water World Championships 5K race. Kinderwater had only competed in one open water race prior to coming to this year's Championships.