University of North Carolina Athletics
Men's Lacrosse Opens 2000 Season Sunday
February 18, 2000 | Men's Lacrosse
Feb. 18, 2000
THE FUNDAMENTALS: North Carolina will begin its 43rd season of varsity lacrosse action on Sunday when the Tar Heels play host to the Fairfield Stags at Fetzer Field at 12 p.m. The February 20th date will mark the earliest regular season game ever played in Tar Heel history. UNC is looking to shake off the memories of three successive losing seasons when it starts in 2000 campaign on Sunday. The Heels were 6-9 last year and they will be looking to reverse a trend which saw UNC start the season 5-2 but then go on to lose seven of the last eight games. That was in marked contrast to the 1997 and 1998 seasons when Carolina started slowly both times but rallied in the second half of the season, earning an NCAA bid in 1998 and almost earning one in 1997. Fairfield will also be opening its 2000 season on Sunday. The Stags were 10-7 last year and they enter this season ranked 27th in the Face Off College Lacrosse Yearbook Preseason poll in which 46 NCAA Division I coaches voted. UNC was ranked 10th in the preseason in that same poll. Sunday's game is open to the public with no admission charge assessed.
THE SEASON-OPENING HOMESTAND: North Carolina will start the 2000 season by playing its first six games at the friendly confines of Fetzer Field. After playing host to Fairfield this Sunday, UNC will greet Butler on February 26 at 2 p.m., Navy on March 4 at 1 p.m., Delaware on March 11 at 1 p.m., Pennsylvania on March 14 at 7 p.m. and Ohio State on March 18 at 2 p.m. The first four games of the season--Fairfield, Butler, Navy and Delaware--have been designated by the UNC Athletic Department as free events for the public. The first game at which admission will be charged will be March 14 against Pennsylvania. All in all, Carolina will play 10 home games at Fetzer Field this season, venturing on the road for only five games. The first road contest for the Heels will be March 22 when Carolina plays at arch-rival Duke at 7 p.m.
A RETURN TO THE NCAA TOURNAMENT: The top priority for the 2000 UNC men's lacrosse team will be a return to the 12-team NCAA Tournament bracket. Twice in the last three years UNC has failed to qualify for the tournament after receiving 17 successive bids from 1980-96. UNC failed to make the tournament field in 1997 with a 6-7 mark. In 1998, the Heels qualified with a 7-7 ledger but lost 16-14 to arch-rival Duke in the first round. The Heels were 6-9 last year.
CAROLINA TO PLAY NATION'S THIRD TOUGHEST SCHEDULE: Carolina will play the third toughest schedule in the nation in the year 2000 according to the folks who publish the Face Off College Lacrosse Yearbook. All 13 of UNC's regular season opponents are ranked in the preseason Top 30 in the nation by the magazine. This group of opponents includes preseason #1 Virginia, #3 Johns Hopkins, #5 Duke, #8 Maryland, #9 Hofstra, #11 UMBC, #12 Navy, #17 Delaware, #21 Butler, #22 Pennsylvania, #23 Ohio State, #27 Fairfield and #29 Lehigh. The Tar Heels will be going head-to-head in 2000 with the teams they will be competing with for an NCAA Tournament invitation.
FOUR TAR HEELS EARN MENTION ON FACEOFF PRESEASON ALL-AMERICA TEAM: Four members of the University of North Carolina men's lacrosse team have been named to the preseason All-America named by Faceoff Magazine. This group of players includes junior attackman Jeff Sonke on the second team, senior defenseman Todd Maher on the third team, senior attackman Chase Martin on the honorable mention squad and junior defenseman Bobby Gormsen on the honorable mention squad.
SCOUTING THE STAGS: Carolina will play its first ever game against the Fairfield Stags Sunday afternoon at Fetzer Field. The Stags are coached by Ted Spencer, who has a 40-25 record in four years at the Fairfield, Conn. school. The job at FU is Spencer's first as a head coach. Fairfield went 10-7 a year ago but is expected to be much better this year, earning a #27 preseason ranking from Faceoff Lacrosse Yearbook. The Stags return 31 of 36 lettermen from last year's team.
CAROLINA STILL A YOUTHFUL TEAM: While North Carolina will rely on its seven seniors to lead the Tar Heels to an NCAA Tournament bid in 2000, Carolina still stacks up as a team with a lot of younger players this season. The Tar Heel roster includes 15 freshmen and 11 sophomores out of 41 players. The senior class is led by UNC's four captains for the 2000 season, all of whom were elected by their teammates last fall to fill the captain's role. The captains are attackman Matt Crofton of Garden City, N.Y., attackman Chase Martin of Owings Mills, Md., midfielder Jordan Herrick of Birmingham, Mich., and defenseman Todd Maher of Towson, Md.
SHORING UP THE DEFENSE IN 2000: A major emphasis in the preseason for the Tar Heels has been playing better defense--and that includes all 10 players on the field at one time. UNC head coach Dave Klarmann has stressed riding tactics with the attackmen, toughness and the ability to snag the ground balls with the middies, playing physical defense with the close defensemen and stopping the ball at the last line of defense with the goalkeepers. Carolina was a decent offensive team in 2000 as the Heels scored 10.87 goals per game, 20th in the country. But all too often Carolina was vulnerable to the powerful attack and particularly to offenses centered around one player. Despite some heroic defensive efforts against the likes of Princeton, Duke and Loyola last season, Carolina still gave up 11.33 goals per game which ranked the Tar Heels 34th in the nation in scoring defense. Despite playing another difficult schedule in 2000, Carolina is looking to improve the latter average and reestablish the presence of an intimidating defense when visitors come to what hopefully for them will be the unfriendly confines of beautiful Fetzer Field.
KLARMANN IS AMONG THE NATION'S VERY BEST COACHES: A 1976 graduate of Carolina, Dave Klarmann is now in his 10th year as the head coach of the Tar Heel men's lacrosse team. The Tar Heels are 92-46 during Klarmann's tutelage and they have earned seven bids to the NCAA Tournament in those nine years. Klarmann has the ninth best winning percentage amongst active NCAA Division I men's lacrosse head coaches with an all-time ledger of .667.
THE TAR HEELS IN THE CLASSROOM: Ten members of the University of North Carolina's men's lacrosse team began this semester with cumulative grade point averages of 3.0 or above. Senior Todd Maher has the highest GPA amongst upperclassmen with a 3.586 mark and Jack Alsup leads the freshmen with a 3.7 mean. Eight members of the 1999 UNC men's lacrosse team were named last summer to the Atlantic Coast Conference Academic Honor Roll.
THE ALL-TIME RECORD: UNC begins the 2000 season with an all-time record of 318-190-2 in 42 years of varsity competition. The Tar Heels have won eight regular-season Atlantic Coast Conference championships and seven ACC Tournament championships. The Heels have finished ranked in the Top 25 of the USILA poll 32 times and they have been invited to play in 20 NCAA Tournaments.
SERIES AGAINST THE 2000 OPPONENTS: Fairfield will be the only new opponent on the Tar Heel schedule during the 2000 season. Carolina's records against its other 12 regular-season opponents are as follows:
utler UNC leads 4-1
Navy UNC leads 7-6
Delaware Tied 5-5
Pennsylvania UNC leads 6-3
Ohio State UNC leads 6-0
Duke UNC leads 34-11
Maryland Maryland leads 27-17
Johns Hopkins Johns Hopkins leads 15-12
Virginia Virginia leads 32-18
UMBC UNC leads 13-4
Hofstra Hofstra leads 2-1
Lehigh UNC leads 2-1-1
ON THE CAREER CHARTS: Several Tar Heels are within shouting distance of moving in the career Top 10 in some offensive categories with good seasons in 2000. Senior attackman Chase Martin enters the season with 72 goals, 43 assists and 115 points and fellow senior attackman Chase Martin has 63 goals, 42 assists and 105 points. Both players could reach the Carolina Top 10 in all three categories. Michael Thomas (1988-92) currently ranks 10th in points with 143. David Wingate (1980-83) and Justin Bowman (1996-99) are tied for ninth in goals scored with 90. Mac Ford (1982-85) and Michael Thomas (1988-92) are tied for 10th in assists with 61. Senior Todd Maher will likely move into the career Top 5 in takeaways. The fifth spot is currently held by Ohio State head coach Joe Breschi (1997-90). Maher goes into the season with 134 while Breschi finished his career with 167. One other Tar Heel player who should be in the Top 5 of a statistical category in all likelihood will be junior midfielder Ryan Damon. Damon has won 189 faceoffs in the first two years of his UNC career. The fifth spot on the UNC all-time list is held jointly by Ted Brown (1985-88) and Steve Stenersen (1979-82) with 228 faceoff wins each. Stenersen is now the executive director of U.S. Lacrosse in Baltimore, Md.
