June 28, 2001

The Southern Charm will play for its third consecutive United Airlines Field Hockey League championship this weekend in College Park, Md. The team includes numerous UNC players and is coached by Carolina associate head coach Nick Conway. UNC head coach Karen Shelton serves as an assistant coach and is a player on the team.

The Southern Charm leads the seven-team elite summer league with an 8-2-2 record heading into the final weekend of play. Joining the Charm in the playoffs are the Metro Rush, the Midwest Cyclones and the New England Eclipse.

Jen Averill, the head coach at Wake Forest, leads the Charm in scoring and is tied for fourth in the league with five goals. Abbey Woolley, a rising senior at UNC, has scored four goals for the Charm, ties for eighth in the league.

Current and former Tar Heels who play for the Southern Charm are Amber Chambers, Stephanie Fuller, Susan Hayes, Mary Havell, Meredith Keller, Leslie Lyness, Katie McDonald, Alison Stewart, Alexis Suarez, Amy Tran, Cindy Werley and Abbey Woolley. In addition to UNC's Shelton and Wake's Averill, Duke head coach Liz Tchou also is a player on the team.

Current Tar Heel players on other teams are Abby Martin (Metro Rush), Katy Potter (Pennsylvania Pride) and Carrie Lingo (Pennsylvania Pride). Also participating in the league are incoming UNC freshmen Carey Fetting-Smith (Tidewater Tempest), Kelsey Keeran (Midwest Cyclones), and Katy Tran (Philadelphia Fury).

The Charm ranked second in the standings following the first weekend of play, in Chapel Hill June 2-3, but took over first with a strong showing in Cambridge, Mass., June 15-17. The Charm gave up just three goals in six games there, despite playing 10 minutes of each game with a kicking back. (League rules prevent using the same goalkeeper for the entirety of a game and Tran was the only keeper the Charm had available.)

In semifinal action Saturday at the University of Maryland, The Charm will meet the Eclipse at noon and the Rush will play the Cyclones at 3 p.m. The losers meet at 8 a.m. Sunday in the consolation game and the winners play for the championship at 11 a.m.

Fans can help select the league's Most Valuable Player by voting online at www.usfieldhockey.com. Among the candidates are three Tar Heel alums: Leslie Lyness of the Charm, Kate Barber of the Pride and Peggy Storrar of the Rush.