After Clemson's season-ending loss to North Carolina in last year's NCAA women's soccer tournament, Tiger coach Ray Leone wouldn't let his team leave the field.

	Ray and Tracey Leone have led Clemson to six straight tourney bids.

He demanded that his players, many of them with tears pouring down their cheeks, stay on the field and watch the Tar Heels celebrate.

It was Clemson's third loss to North Carolina that season and Leone was sick of it. So he demanded that his players watch. That they hear the Tar Heel fight song. That they see the laughter, the smiles and the admiration from the North Carolina fans. He wanted his players to feel the pain.

"I was relentless with them," Leone said. "We were done and North Carolina was going to the Final Four. So I told the team, 'Watch them. Take a look. Stare at what it looks like to be a winner at this level.'

"Most of them didn't want to do it. They were so upset. But I made them. And we talked about that feeling everyday in the spring. The goal was for them to learn and feel that the level of commitment it takes was much more than we were giving."

That afternoon was the last time Clemson lost. Since then, the Tigers have started the 2000 season 10-0, including a 1-0 victory over North Carolina two weeks ago, ending the Tar Heels' 37-game ACC winning streak.

That win validated the arrival of a Clemson program that has kicked and clawed its way to the top since its inception in 1994. The Tigers are currently ranked No. 2 in the latest NSCAA poll, their highest ranking ever. And at the center of it all is the husband-wife coaching combination of Tracey and Ray Leone.

Tracey, a three-time national champion with the Tar Heels, served as head coach for the first five years of the program, with Ray as an assistant. The two were co-head coaches in 1999, but Ray took over the reins this season as Tracey took a leave of absence to lead the U.S. Under-16 team. She's also an assistant on the U.S. Olympic team, meaning she was oversees in Sydney when Clemson shocked her alma mater. She read about the game on the Internet, and then frantically called Ray to get all the details.

"It was an emotional conversation, there were a lot of tears because of all the hard work we put into this," Ray said. "I tried to let her know that she was a part of this as much as anybody. I told the team before the game to do it for her, play with the passion she expects and she would be proud of.

"But it was still very tough. She hated to miss that. She would have flown back and forth for the one day if she could have."

The Leones came to Clemson in 1994 and got off to a fast start, coaching their first team to the NCAA Tournament in its inaugural year. It came at a time when the NCAA invited just 24 teams to the tournament, compared to the 48 that are invited now.

Building on the success of that first season, Clemson has since reached six straight NCAA Tournaments. The last three years, the Tigers have made it to the Elite Eight, Sweet Sixteen, and then Elite Eight again. But never a Final Four.

"When you get to that point, you are playing against teams that are so focused and so committed, they steamroll you with that commitment alone," Ray said. "It didn't even matter who we were at that point, we were just a jersey in their way. It was incredible."

Ray responded by taking a chance this spring and challenging his team's commitment. With Tracey off coaching the Under-16 squad and the team adjusting to that change, Ray chirped about the Tar Heels and their passion for success. While the team became progressively annoyed, he pushed a little harder, raising both his expectations as well as theirs. The desire and passion he was hoping for bled through in the big win two weeks ago.

"Commitment wise, we had it that night, no question," Ray said. "I couldn't have asked for more. Usually when we play them, there is always somebody who gets scared, who chickens out. But nobody did.

"It was as much a mental block as anything and now that awe factor is gone. Now, the reward for a good job done is more work and that's where we are. We've had the break through, and cracked the top five, but that's not good enough."

And so comes the next challenge of dealing with newfound expectations. It's an unfamiliar role for many of the older Tigers, who have long viewed themselves as the underdog fighting for respect. Now, with the proverbial target on its back, Clemson is the team everyone wants to beat.

Just this past weekend, in its own host tournament, Clemson shot a school-record 39 and 37 shots, winning by scores of 5-0 and 1-0.

"It's a lot harder to be the favorite than I thought it would be," senior defender Nancy Augustyniak said. "The way we played Carolina was that we always knew we had nothing to lose and now that's how everybody is coming at us. They want to stop our streak. I'm confident, but soccer is that kind of sport where anything can happen."

Last season, it was defense that carried the Tigers, with Nancy Augustyniak and twin sister Julie, along with goalie Katie Carson leading the way. The team scored just one goal in the 1999 NCAA Tournament, yet still reached the Elite Eight because of that defense.

This year, the Clemson offense is holding its end of the deal. Freshman Lindsay Browne has teamed with sophomore Deliah Arrington to form a powerful 1-2 scoring punch. Arrington, last week's ACC player of the week who is the daughter of former Clemson football player Vandell Arrington, has scored in nine of the Tigers' 10 games. Browne, meanwhile, leads the team with 20 points. Browne, this week's conference player of the week, is part of a talented freshman class that has given Clemson quite a boost.

"The class is truly unbelievable," Nancy Augustyniak said. "They are such hard workers and they make practice so much more intense. It has raised our level of competition."

There are few who would jump at the opportunity to work with their spouse each and every day, yet that's the reaction both Tracey and Ray had when the Clemson job was offered to them seven years ago. The two shared an office in their first couple years at Clemson, but Ray said he drove his wife nuts, constantly bugging her to look at film tendencies and other strategies. Per a co-workers' suggestion, the two now have separate offices.

"People joked about this when Clemson hired us that this would make us or break us as a married couple," Tracey said. "I guess we proved that it didn't break us. In fact, it has made us stronger and better coaches."

The result is a family atmosphere that many of the Clemson players swear by. The day the Augustyniak sisters committed, they swore to Ray and Tracey that Clemson would beat North Carolina before they graduated.

"They were 100 percent the reason my sister and I came here and in retrospect, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else," Julie said. "They are like my second parents. Any time you need to talk to them, it's comfortable, and they complement each other very well."

Ray said he and Tracey have yet to discuss when she will return to the team, be it later this season or sometime down the road. What is certain is that at some point in the not too distant future, probably in the ACC or NCAA Tournament, the paths of Clemson and North Carolina will cross again. And quite possibly, a Final Four berth will be on the line -- just like last year.

"Hardly anybody beats them twice in a row. There's no doubt that we'll get Carolina's best," Ray said. "But I think we've been getting their best for quite some time now. So we'll just have to wait and see what happens."

Wayne Drehs is a staff writer at ESPN.com.