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GREENSBORO -- Duke upset the natural order of things Saturday, jolting Florida State from the ACC women's tournament and setting up a final against its unnatural nemesis.

That would be Maryland, not North Carolina.

A couple of hours after the top-seeded Terrapins finally pushed Carolina out of Greensboro, Duke hammered second-seeded FSU 75-57 to set up a final with Kristi Toliver.

Duke hasn't won an ACC title in five years, since before Joanne P. McCallie became the Blue Devils' coach. Maryland hasn't won in 20 years, since before several of its players were even born.

McCallie thought back to last year when her first Blue Devils team was ushered off the court just as balloons and confetti fell from the ceilings.

"I haven't forgotten that," she said. "All that confetti coming down and not being a part of it."

She didn't keep her players on the court only to be showered in someone else's celebration last season. She didn't need to send a message.

"They got it," McCallie said. "We didn't need to rub it in."

There are unspoken things within the inner circle of the ACC, and sometimes players and coaches mean a lot more than they say. For all the parity in what is clearly the best conference in the country, the inner circle of the women's ACC is three schools -- Maryland, Carolina and Duke.

And they don't really get along. There are moments that last a lifetime in college basketball, and one of those moments is Toliver in the 2006 Final Four taking the shot no one else would take, draining the 3-pointer at the end of regulation to steal Duke's title two nights after the Terrapins had beaten Carolina.

That weekend, that shot and that championship still resonate in the inner circle of the ACC. Abby Waner, the mercurial guard from Duke, seemed to want to say so much more after getting past Florida State to set up today's game.

"I'm not going to say I have this vendetta for just Maryland," she said. "I want to win the championship. It just so happens that it's the Maryland Terrapins we're playing against."

Toliver was sensational Saturday, scoring 25 and spoiling every Carolina rally with shots and steals, even a blocked shot. She made sure the offense went though Marissa Coleman, the Terrapins' wing slasher who scored 29 and willed Maryland into its first title game since the NCAA championship season. Coleman said the team's mission this year includes winning today's game.

"We want to win the ACC championship," she said.

Simple as that.

Duke beat Maryland in January, and Waner said it was one of those games that set the tone for the season.

"I specifically remember Kristi saying it was too early to break our hearts after the first game," Waner said. "So you know we definitely don't want to be breaking her heart (today) either."

McCallie looked at Waner and sort of smiled at the comment. Other players looked at her and raised their eyebrows.

"I personally can't think of anything better than playing in a championship against Maryland my senior year," Waner said. "Not referencing anything specific, of course."

Toliver said the plan for this week was to be here for three days, playing three games and finally winning a championship in her senior season.

"We came into the tournament having that mentality," she said.

They also came in knowing that Carolina and Duke would probably be waiting. That's just the way it is in the ACC, just like it happened in 2006 when the three landed in Boston in the Final Four and Maryland took down UNC and Duke and burst onto the national scene.

That is still the defining moment in Maryland women's basketball history, a moment Carolina had felt in 1994, a moment that drives Duke's every waking day.

McCallie came to Duke to be a part of the best conference in the country, to go up against Carolina and Maryland and give Duke the one thing it wants more than anything -- a national title.

First, she'd like an ACC title for her players.

"You want the confetti to come down for your team," she said.

Neither of these coaches has ever won an ACC championship. Neither has Toliver or Coleman or Waner. It's fitting they'll all be on the floor today, two of the league's top three teams playing for an uncomfortable crown.

Everybody knows the big one comes a month later, when we could all be together again in St. Louis. But that will come only after today, when the ACC women settle their uneasy alliance for at least another year.

Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin@news-record.com