Remember the Director's Cup? That trophy no one cares about that Stanford wins ever year? Except, of course, for the glorious first year, when UNC won it?

Yeah, Stanford won again. UNC came in fourteenth. There was a resounding yawn from anyone not intensely devoted to a school named "Leland."

Now, as is my wont, I take a moment to list all the postseason accomplishments that got UNC to 14th on a list no one really pays attention to:

• Women's Cross Country, 27th
• Women's Field Hockey, National Champions
• Women's Soccer, Third Round
• Women's Basketball, Regional Finals
• Men's Basketball, Semifinals
• Fencing, 17th
• Women's Gymnastics, 31st
• Women's Swimming, 32nd
• Men's Swimming, 29th
• Women's Indoor Track and Field, 21st
• Men's Track and Field, 38th
• Men's Wrestling, 53rd
• Men's Baseball, Semifinals
• Men's Golf, 43rd
• Women's Lacrosse, Quarterfinals
• Men's Lacrosse, First Round
• Women's Softball, First Round
• Women's Tennis, Second Round
• Men's Tennis, Quarterfinals
• Women's Track and Field, 46th
• Men's Track and Field, 42nd

The rest of the ACC was, naturally, worst than 14th.

Oh, and the women's field hockey national team also announced their roster today, and UNC placed six players on that sixteen team squad. Kate Barber, Rachel Dawson, Katelyn Falgowski, Jesse Gey, Carrie Lingo, and Amy Tran will get the chance to breathe the toxic air of Beijing while representing the United States. Dawson, Falgowski and Gey were all on last fall's national champion UNC team - Dawson was Player of the Year - but only Falgowski will be a student in Chapel Hill after the Olympics.

The U.S. has qualified for the Olympics in field hockey only for times - 1980, 1984, 1988 and 1996, winning a bronze in the Los Angeles games. 12 teams will compete in Beijing, up from 10 in 2004. 

Fifteen of the sixteen players hail from four different schools. In addition to UNC, Old Dominion, Maryland, and Wake Forest are sending 4, 3, and 2 players. The sixteenth hails from Indiana.

The 2008 Olympic Women's Soccer team has been selected, and as is right and proper there are more Tar Heels on the list than any other school. Joining Heather O'Reilly and Lindsay Tarpley from the 2004 gold medal team are Lori Chalupny and Tobin Heath, with Kacey White as an alternate. Interestingly enough, all but Chalupny are listed as midfielders, although both Tarpley and O'Reilly have played up front on the national team before and Chalupny played midfield in the 2007 World Cup. Only Heath and White are relative newcomers to the team (and current UNC players), with the other three having a minimum of 70 appearances apiece on the national team.

Folks in Louisiana may be debating for a while the wisdom of walking hitters in the top of the order in a tie game in the top of the ninth. I'll admit I was wondering it myself. After Ryan Graepel got a double to start things off from the bottom of the order, LSU decided to walk Dustin Ackley. They got Mark Fleury swinging, but not until a wild pitch had advanced both the runners; that was followed by a second intentional walk of Tim Federoff, leaving the bases loaded.

This would turn out to bite them in the ass when Tim Federowicz hit the first College World Series grand slam in seven years.

It was a good ending to a frustrating evening. Up to that point UNC had only managed one run off of seven hits since the rain delayed game had picked up from the previous day. LSU meanwhile had tied the game at three on only four hits, and the momentum was tilting their way, with pitcher Coleman having struck out five batters in two innings prior to the, well, slight momentum changer.

UNC now gets a rematch against Fresno State, a team they'll have to beat twice to make it to the finals. The first game is tomorrow at 7 pm.

Small ball.

UNC pretty much perfected that sort of play over their first game of the College World Series, hitting nothing but singles until a scoring double in the seventh that put the Heels up 8-2. The Heels brought in a run apiece on walks and passed balls, but in between that managed seventeen hits and seven RBI's. Aex White only gave up four hits in seven innings - two solo home runs, to start each of the first two innings - and generally restrained the normally hot-hitting Tigers.

Carolina meets Fresno State in the next round, Tuesday at 7 pm.