University of North Carolina Athletics
Men's Lacrosse Opens ACC Season
March 21, 2000 | Men's Lacrosse
March 21, 2000
THE FUNDAMENTALS: North Carolina will continue its 43rd season of varsity lacrosse action this week as the seventh-ranked Tar Heels (Inside Lacrosse media poll) open their 2000 Atlantic Coast Conference season with games against Duke on Wednesday in Durham, N.C. and at home against Maryland on Saturday.
The 6-0 Tar Heels will travel up U.S. 15-501 on Wednesday night to meet their arch-rivals--the Duke Blue Devils--in a 7:30 p.m. game at Koskinen Stadium. The #9 Blue Devils will be a hungry team on Wednesday night as after three successive home wins, Duke has dropped back-to-back one-goal games to Loyola and Brown on the road to drop to 3-2. The Devils have already played their ACC opener, beating Maryland 9-8 in Durham on March 4.
After playing at Duke, Carolina will play host to the #8 Maryland Terrapins at Fetzer Field on Saturday at 1 p.m. The Terps are 6-1 overall and 0-1 in the ACC and have won five matches in a row since their loss at Duke on March 4. Admission to the game on Saturday at Fetzer Field is free.
HONORING THE 1970 TEAM: The University will honor the 1970 UNC lacrosse team at Saturday's game against Maryland. The 1970 squad was the first lacrosse team in Carolina history to earn a Top 10 national ranking. That squad was 9-2 overall and finished seventh in the final U.S. Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association rankings. Several members of the 1970 team will be in attendance for the ceremonies on Saturday.
THE SEASON-OPENING HOMESTAND: North Carolina started the 2000 season by playing its first six games at the friendly confines of Fetzer Field. The experiment could not have been more successful. The Tar Heels won all six games against a string of opponents which included Fairfield, Butler, Navy, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Ohio State.
THE START TO THE SEASON: The Tar Heels are off to their best start since the 1993 team won its first nine games of the season before losing in the 10th game at Virginia in overtime.
THE 2000 WIN TOTAL: In six games this season, the Tar Heels have already equaled its win total for the entirety of the 1999 campaign. The Tar Heels finished the 1999 season with a record of 6-9.
THE STATISTICAL LEADERS: Six games into the 2000 season, the Tar Heels are being led in scoring by its dangerous attack trio of Chase Martin, Matt Crofton and Jeff Sonke. Martin leads the Tar Heels in both goals scored with 17 and points with 25. Crofton is the assist leader with 12 and he has added nine goals for a total of 21 points. Sonke, who sat out the second half of the Penn game and the entirety of the Ohio State game, is third on the team with 19 points. He has 12 goals and seven assists.
Starting goalkeeper Kris Blindenbacher has played 350:18 and has a save percentage of .617, making 71 saves and allowing 44 goals. He has a goals against average of 7.54 goals per game.
Junior Ryan Damon has taken the overwhelming majority of UNC's faceoff so far this season. He has won 58 faceoffs in 86 attempts, a percentage of .674.
Martin leads the Tar Heels in ground balls with 37 while Damon is close behind with 35. There is a pitched battle going on for the Tar Heel lead in takeaways. Junior defenseman Bobby Gormsen, who missed the Ohio State game, leads with 26, following closely by sophomores Zack Leader and Joel Miller, both with 25.
BLINDENBACHER NAMED PLAYER OF THE WEEK: North Carolina sophomore goaltender Kris Blindebacher was named the Atlantic Coast Conference Men's Lacrosse Player of the Week, after leading the Tar Heels to their second win of the 2000 season February 26, a 13-7 decision over Butler.
lindenbacher, a native of Narberth, Pa., started in UNC's win over the Bulldogs and played 58 minutes between the pipes for the Tar Heels. In the contest, Blindenbacher recorded 14 saves and allowed only six goals, for a save percentage of .700.
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 plays 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 were 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 Team 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.
THE SERIES WITH THE BLUE DEVILS: Carolina will play its 46th game in the series with the Duke Blue Devils Wednesday night at Koskinen Stadium. North Carolina leads the all-time series with Duke, 34-11 despite the fact that the Blue Devils have won six of the last eight games against Carolina. The two teams split a pair of games last year. The Tar Heels won the regular season game at Durham 10-9 and in the process knocked Duke from the ranks of the unbeaten. Nine days later Duke avenged that loss by beating Carolina 9-7 in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament at Fetzer Field.
THE SERIES WITH THE TERRAPINS: Maryland and North Carolina will be playing for the 45th time in school history on Saturday. The Terps lead the all-time series against Carolina 27-17. Maryland has won four games in a row against the Tar Heels. UNC's last win in the series came at Fetzer Field in 1996 by a 17-16 score as Jason Wade scored eight goals on eight shots for the Tar Heels, setting the school record for goals in a game in the process.
CAROLINA STILL A YOUTHFUL TEAM: While North Carolina will rely on its seven seniors to help lead the Tar Heels to a potential 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 this season 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 98-46 during Klarmann's tutelage and they have earned seven bids to the NCAA Tournament in the previous 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 .681.
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 has an all-time record of 324-190-2 in 43 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 was the only new opponent on the Tar Heel schedule during the 2000 season. Carolina's records against its 13 regular-season opponents are as follows:
Fairfield UNC leads 1-0
utler UNC leads 5-1
Navy UNC leads 8-6
Delaware UNC leads 6-5
Pennsylvania UNC leads 7-3
Ohio State UNC leads 7-0
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 now has 89 goals, 51 assists and 140 points and fellow senior attackman Matt Crofton has 72 goals, 54 assists and 126 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 now has 150 career takeaways while Breschi finished his career with 167.
Meanwhile, junior Ryan Damon has moved into fourth place in the category of most faceoffs won in a career. Damon has now won 247 faceoffs in his UNC career. The third spot is occupied by Steve Gilhuley (1989-92), who won 248 career faceoffs.
CAROLINA WINS THE SEASON OPENER: North Carolina started out the 2000 season on a positive note February 20, holding off a late rally by Fairfield to triumph 12-11.
After starting slowly, Carolina trailed 5-3 in the last minute of the first half but goals by freshman midfielder Kyle Bell and sophomore middie Joel Miller pulled the Tar Heels even at the half, 5-5.
UNC went on to score the first four goals of the second half as Pat Jackson, Austin Garrison, Chase Martin and Matt Crofton scored to put the Tar Heels up 9-5 with 5:08 left in the third quarter. Crofton's goal was the sixth in a row for the Tar Heels and staked them to what seemed like a safe lead.
ut the Stags would not go away. Twice in the game's final six minutes Fairfield pulled within one goal but UNC goalkeeper Kris Blindenbacher stopped a shot by Fairfield's Spencer Steele in the game's final seconds to preserve the victory.
Carolina's balanced offense included nine different goal scorers. Jeff Sonke led the Tar Heels with thre goals and two assists, while Chase Martin had two goals and one assist.
lindenbacher made 12 saves for the Tar Heels.
TAR HEELS SHOW GREAT IMPROVEMENT IN SECOND GAME WIN OVER BUTLER: A more aggressive North Carolina men's lacrosse team showed up for the team's second game of the season and the Tar Heels responded February 26 with a decisive 13-7 victory over 21st-ranked Butler at Fetzer Field.
After playing the Bulldogs to a 2-2 tie after one quarter, UNC outscored the Bulldogs 9-2 over the middle two quarters of the game to pull away for the relatively easy victory. The Tar Heel defense showed great resolve and sophomore goalkeeper Kris Blindenbacher came up with 14 saves in 57:45 of play.
Offensively the Tar Heels got great balance with eight players contributing to the total of 13 goals. Both Chase Martin and Mac Hammer scored three times and Jeff Sonke had two goals. Sonke and Matt Crofton each added two assists.
Just as they had against Fairfield six days earlier, the Tar Heels used the final minute of the first half to change the nature of the game. UNC led 6-4 but goals by Hammer with 37 seconds remaining and freshman Kyle Bell with seven seconds left staked the Tar Heels to a more comfortable 8-4 halftime advantage. UNC then came out and outscored the Bulldogs 3-0 in the third period to put the game away.
TAR HEELS EDGE NAVY IN OVERTIME: North Carolina's men's lacrosse team rallied from a 7-2 second quarter deficit to defeat 12th-ranked Navy 11-10 in overtime at Fetzer Field on March 4. Junior attackman Jeff Sonke scored the game-winning goal for the Tar Heels 1:18 into the first overtime period, assisted by Chase Martin.
UNC trailed by 7-2 less than five minutes into the second quarter but seven straight goals by Carolina put the Heels up 9-7 with 9:19 to play. Navy then staged a rally of its own and forced overtime by scoring three of the last four goals of regulation.
Sonke and Martin powered the Tar Heels to the victory. Sonke scored a career high five goals and added two assists. Martin equalled his career high for goals in a game with four and he also added two assists. The win avenged an 8-6 loss to the Midshipmen in Annapolis in 1999.
BIRTHDAY BOY CROFTON LIFTS HEELS PAST HENS: The Tar Heels avenged another defeat from the 1999 season as they defeated the Delaware Blue Hens 8-7 at Fetzer Field on March 11. Again, Carolina needed a comeback to stay unbeaten.
The Blue Hens led 5-3 at halftime before a trio of unassisted goals by Chase Martin, Jeff Sonke and Kyle Bell in the first five minutes of the second half gave Carolina its first lead at 6-5.
Defense dominated the final 25:22 of the game as only three goals were scored. Matt Crofton, celebrating his 22nd birthday, scored the game winner for the Tar Heels with 5:03 to play in the game. Crofton had three goals and one assist in the UNC victory while Martin had two goals and one assist.
LATE RUN RALLIES HEELS PAST QUAKERS: For the third straight game, the North Carolina Tar Heels avenged one of their nine defeats from 1999 as Carolina ran away from Penn in the late stages of the game for a 13-6 victory on March 14.
This was a game of peaks and valleys for both teams and fortunately for the Tar Heels there were more peaks. The Tar Heels sprinted to a 5-1 lead at the end of the first quarter. But Penn would then hold Carolina scoreless for nearly 28 minutes while compiling a 5-0 run of its own to lead 6-5 late in the third quarter.
ut back to back unassisted goals by defenseman Todd Maher and attackman Chase Martin in the last three minutes of the third quarter gave the Tar Heels the lead for good. UNC would end up with an 8-0 scoring blitz in a span of 12:14 to ice the win.
Four different Tar Heels had two goals with the scoring leader being Crofton with two goals and three assists. Kris Blindenbacher was brilliant in the goal for the Tar Heels as he made 17 saves and allowed only six goals in 60 minutes of play.
BUCKEYES FALL TO HEELS 13-8: For the first time this season Carolina led from start to finish in vanquishing the Joe Breschi,'90, coached Ohio State Buckeyes 13-8 at Fetzer Field March 18. Carolina led 6-3 at the half and then put the game out of reach by outscoring OSU 5-1 in the third period.
UNC senior attackman Chase Martin equalled his career high for goals in a game by scoring four times. Matt Crofton had three assists for Carolina. UNC outshot the Buckeyes 42-28 and also won the ground ball battle 43-26.
