Carolina Falls To #11 Virginia 15-12 In Return To Kenan

Saturday, April 7

Chapel Hill, N.C. (Kenan Stadium)

6:00 p.m.

North Carolina

6-6,ACC 0-2

Virginia

9-3,ACC 1-2

Virginia

North Carolina

Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati

April 7, 2018 | Men's Lacrosse

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Gavin, Kelly, Perry each record four points in loss.

By: Dave Lohse

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The 20^th-ranked University of North Carolina men's lacrosse team returned to Kenan Stadium for the first time in 33 days Saturday but fell to Atlantic Coast Conference rival Virginia 15-12. The win for the 11^th-ranked Cavaliers was their first over Carolina since April of 2014.

Virginia, one of the nation's most improved teams, improved to 9-3 overall and 1-2 in the ACC. Carolina dropped its sixth game in a row and now stands at 6-6 overall and 0-2 in the ACC.

The Tar Heels led only twice in the game – at 1-0 and at 2-1. Virginia scored eight of the last 10 goals of the first half to take a 9-4 lead into intermission. That scoring run included the last four goals of the first half with Michael Kraus scoring twice and assisting on another. The Cavaliers took their biggest lead of the game as Mike D'Amario scored with 9:38 left in the third quarter to make the advantage 10-4.

Matt Gavin scored back-to-back goals for UNC and then William Perry added a man-up goal to pull the Tar Heels within 10-7 with 2:58 left in the third quarter. Virginia scored just 10 seconds later, sparking a three-goal run in just 1:31 that put Virginia up 13-7. Timmy Kelly and Matt Gavin scored goals in the last minute of the third quarter but the Heels never got closer than three goals after that when Tanner Cook tallied an extra-man goal with 1:02 left in the final period.

Timmy Kelly, Matt Gavin and William Perry all had four-point games for UNC. Gavin's four points were a career high while Kelly and Perry both matched their career highs for points in a game. The three goals by Gavin were a career high while the three assists by Kelly and the two assists by Perry equaled their career highs. The only other Tar Heel with a multi-point game was Chris Cloutier with two assists.

Michael Kraus led the Wahoos' offense with seven points on three goals and four assists. Mike D'Amario had four goals for Virginia and Ian Laviano tallied three times for the Wahoos who had nine assists on their 15 goals. Mikey Herring had one goal and three assists and Matt Moore and Dox Aitken each scored two times.

Virginia outshot the Tar Heels 38-34 and had a 34-31 edge in ground balls. Virginia had just 10 turnovers while UNC had 11, three above their season average. Each team failed on four clearing attempt with Virginia going 15 of 19 and UNC going 20 of 24.

Charles Kelly won a career high 16 face-offs going 16 of 28 at the X. His previous career high was 15 face-off wins against Lehigh on February 17. Kelly shared the team lead in ground balls for Carolina with Jack Rowlett as each had five. Justin Schwenk led the Cavaliers with six ground balls.

Virginia goalkeeper Alex Rode made 10 saves while playing all 60 minutes. Alex Bassil started for the Tar Heels and played 42:09, making 10 saves and allowing 10 goals. Jack Pezzulla made two saves and allowed five goals in 17:51 of action.

The Tar Heels will be back in action next Saturday when UNC plays at Syracuse at 4 p.m. The game at the Carrier Dome will be nationally televised on ESPNU.