Diamond Heels Fail to Make ACC Tournament Field

And with that a berth in the NCAA Tournament is also in serious jeopardy.

Following a 10-1 loss to NC State on Saturday and losing two of three games to the Wolfpack, UNC fell to 13-17 in ACC play. Boston College was 12-15 having won the first two games of its series at Georgia Tech. A Yellow Jacket win in the second game of Saturday's double header between the two teams would send UNC to the ACC Tournament. An Eagle win and sweep of the Jackets would snag a spot for Boston College in the ten team field. The Eagles jumped out to a 7-2 lead and held on for a 7-6 win.

That left UNC tied with Wake Forest at 13-17 and on the wrong end of the tiebreaker with the Demon Deacons who swept UNC last month. Now UNC plays the waiting game to see if the early season success, a big win over South Carolina and a solid RPI is enough to sneak into the NCAA Tournament. That doesn't seem likely and if UNC is left out, it will be two straight seasons without an NCAA Tournament appearance for a program that had made going to Omaha a regular occurrence.

The question is how UNC got here in what started out as a very promising season? The Tar Heels opened the season with five wins in six games against UCLA and Oklahoma State before getting off to a 5-1 start in ACC play. After that the wheels fell off in impressive fashion. UNC failed to sweep Pitt and Virginia Tech, got swept in Winston-Salem by Wake Forest and let other chances slip away. The inability to get just one more win has left the Tar Heels on the outside of the ACC Tournament field and likely watching the NCAA Tournament for a second straight season.