Virginia just wrapped up an 11-10 victory over North Carolina on a Steele Stanwick goal in overtime.
As a result, the seedings for the April 22-24 ACC tournament in Durham, N.C., will come down to next week’s Virginia-Duke game.
SEE RELATED:
IF VIRGINIA WINS
1. Virginia (2-1); 2. Duke (2-1); 3. North Carolina (1-2); 4. Maryland (1-2)
The Cavaliers would take the top spot thanks to the head-to-head over Duke. North Carolina would trump Maryland for the No. 3 seed based on a head-to-head victory.
IF DUKE WINS
1. Duke (3-0); 2. North Carolina (1-2); 3. Maryland (1-2); 4. Virginia (1-2)
The three tied teams would all be 1-1 in their mini-group and all would have lost to Duke. That leads to three tiebreakers, only the first of which would be needed:
Goals allowed in league games between the tied teams
17: North Carolina (6 at Maryland, 11 at Virginia)
18: Maryland (11 vs. North Carolina, 7 at Virginia)
22: Virginia (12 vs. Maryland, 10 vs. North Carolina)
North Carolina would get the No. 2 seed, while Maryland would be the No. 3 thanks to its head-to-head victory over Virginia (it also trumps the Cavaliers in the head-to-head criteria).
This effectively means …
* Duke and Maryland can’t meet until the title game; same goes for North Carolina and Virginia.
* Virginia will be in the 1-4 game but can’t be in the 2-3 game.
* A Virginia loss next week means the ACC tournament semifinal pairings are the same as last year’s.
—- Patrick Stevens
