This Weekend’s Headlines
• After a successful Spring Break trip, the Virginia Tech softball team will open ACC play with a three-game series at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
• The Hokies and Tar Heels will play a doubleheader on Saturday at Anderson Stadium starting at 1 o’clock and will play the single game on Sunday at 1 p.m.

About North Carolina
• After completing a 10-game road trip Sunday, North Carolina returns home this weekend to open ACC play Saturday against the Hokies. The Tar Heels (16-10) will play six of their next eight games at Anderson Stadium beginning with the three-game series with Tech.
• Carolina finished its 10-game slate with a 5-5 record against the likes of No. 13 Oregon, No. 2 Alabama, Notre Dame and Mississippi State. The Tar Heels battled, dropping two extra-inning decisions in the 2011 Citrus Classic, but rebounded with a pair of convincing wins over Mississippi State in the ACC/SEC Challenge.
• Kelli Wheeler (.425 BA, 5 HR, 20 RBI) leads an offense that hits .288 as a squad with 18 home runs and 44 stolen bases. Haleigh Dickey (.370 BA, 6 HR, 25 RBI), Tisha Moon (.341 BA) and Ally Blake (.333 BA, 4 HR, 17 RBI) are also having solid seasons for the Tar Heels.
• In the circle, freshman Lori Spingola leads UNC with a 13-7 record and 1.89 ERA in 2011. She has 132 strikeouts in 114.2 innings pitched.

The Series With UNC
• North Carolina leads the all-time series with the Hokies 14-9 after taking two of three games last season in Blacksburg. Since joining the ACC, UNC has been a tough opponent for the Hokies, leading 11-6 and winning five of the six regular-season series played.
• The Tar Heels took a sizeable lead in the series by winning seven games in a row from 2008 to last year before Tech won the last game of the series. The Hokies are 3-5 against North Carolina at Anderson Stadium, getting swept in 2009.

A Rose is a Rose
• Sophomore catcher Betty Rose has been an offensive spark plug for the Hokies and after just one home run last season, the South Boston, Va., native has five round-trippers already in 2011.
• Rose was named the ACC Player of the Week after a blistering effort in the desert of Arizona. She hit .643 (9-for-14) with four home runs, nine RBI, six runs scored, a stolen base and a walk. She went 4-for-4 against Florida Gulf Coast with two home runs, drove in a run against No. 8 Arizona State and hit a three-run home run against Campbell.
• She is currently second on the team with a .368 batting average, leads the squad with five home runs and is tied for third with 19 RBI.

Running Like the Wind
• The Hokies knew they had a lot of team speed heading into the season, but no one expected them to run like this. Through 24 games, Tech already has 48 stolen bases, putting it on pace for 103 for the season. The school record is 105, set in the 2009 campaign.
• Freshman Kat Banks leads the way with 11 swipes while Sarah Ashby and Dani Anderson are tied for second with seven apiece.
• Twice this year, Tech has tied the school record for stolen bases in a game with seven (Rhode Island, Howard).

Tough Losses
• Four of Tech’s six losses have been by one run and three of them came on walk-off at bats. Ohio got a single in the bottom of the seventh to win 2-1; Charleston Southern got a single in the bottom of the ninth inning to win 10-9 and Coastal Carolina got a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 10th inning to win 6-5.
• Tech lost by a run to South Alabama and then fell by two runs to the Jaguars. The Hokies led No. 8 Arizona State 2-0 early on, but fell by seven to the Sun Devils.

On The Internet
• Jerry Massey is back on the air this weekend for the UNC series with an audio-only broadcast. The veteran broadcaster will bring you the action from Chapel Hill by logging onto Hokies All-Access.
• As always, live stats are available for free on hokiesports.com and updates are available on Tech’s Twitter account, @VT_Softball.

For updates on Virginia Tech softball, follow the Hokies on Twitter (@VT_Softball).