No. 13 North Carolina won its third straight game, riding a tenacious defense to beat Cleveland State 15-9 on a sunny day at US Lacrosse headquarters in Sparks, Md.

Cleveland State committed 23 turnovers, including eight in the second quarter as the Tar Heels broke open a close game with a four-goal run entering halftime.

North Carolina scored two goals in the opening two minutes, but Cleveland State battled back, tying the game 4-4 in the opening minute of the second quarter on a goal by Noah Gleeson. That was it for the Vikings in the first half.

Andy Matthews gave the Tar Heels a 5-4 lead with 8:41 left in the half, kicking off a four-goal run over a span of less than four minutes. Carolina led 8-4 at the half with eight different players scoring goals.

Cleveland State (4-5) got a man-up goal by Nick Polydoras to open the second half scoring to get back within three, but UNC scored four of the next five goals and put the game out of reach.

Twelve different players scored goals for North Carolina with Timmy Kelly pacing the offense with four points (2g, 2a). Alex Bassil made his third straight start in goal, making eight saves while allowing eight goals in 57 minutes of action to earn the victory.

Cleveland State, which had a three-game winning streak snapped, were led by Polydoras, a freshman who registered his first hat trick. Caleb Espinoza and Stephen Russo combined to make 16 saves as the Tar Heels outshot the Vikings 49-31.

The 6-2 Tar Heels enter a challenging portion of their schedule beginning next Saturday at Maryland in a nationally-televised game on ESPNU. Following that game, North Carolina closes the regular season schedule with four straight ACC games, giving the Tar Heels five straight games against teams currently ranked in the Top 20.

Lehigh Captures Fourth Straight Win

No. 18 Lehigh, coming off a big Tuesday win over Rutgers, kept rolling with a 15-7 victory over rival Lafayette. The Mountain Hawks beat the Leopards for the 10^th straight time, and won their fourth straight game this season to improve to 5-3 and 3-0 in the Patriot League.

Tristan Rai (4g, 3a) and Lucas Spence (3g, 3a) paced the Lehigh offense, which had 11 assists on 15 goals, and Conor Gaffney won 15 of 18 faceoffs. James Spence earned the win, making seven saves while allowing just five goals in his 50 minutes of play.

Cole Dutton, Bryan Hess and Andrew Robbins all had two goals for Lafayette (4-5, 0-3 Patriot) and Ryan Ness made 12 saves.

Massachusetts Dominates Utah 16-2

Kevin Tobin had five goals and two assists and Chris Connolly had four goals and four assists as Massachusetts dominated Utah 16-2.

Utah, playing its third game in six games and coming off of a 10-9 overtime loss on Friday at Fairfield, went scoreless for nearly 44 minutes after tying the game 1-1 midway through the first quarter. UMass (5-3) ripped off 13 straight goals until the Utes (4-6) finally scored again midway through the fourth quarter.

Tom Meyers won 14 of 17 faceoffs to help the Minutemen dominate possession and the UMass defense had 13 caused turnovers, led by Isaac Paparo with four.

Sean Sconone made nine saves while allowing just the two goals to earn the victory in net. Utah starting goalie Liam Donnelly made 17 saves with 13 goals allowed.

Sunday Scoreboard

No. 13 North Carolina 15, Cleveland State 9
No. 18 Lehigh 15, Lafayette 7
Massachusetts 16, Utah 2