University of North Carolina Athletics
Men's Lacrosse Faces Top-Ranked Virginia in ACC Semifinals
April 19, 2000 | Men's Lacrosse
April 19, 2000
FRIDAY NIGHT'S GAME NOTES
#1 Virginia (8-1) vs. #10 North Carolina (7-4)
Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament Semifinals
Friday, April 21, 2000, 6:00 p.m.
yrd Stadium, University of Maryland, College Park, Md.
THE FUNDAMENTALS ABOUT FRIDAY NIGHT'S GAME:
The University of North Carolina men's lacrosse team, coming off its best performance of the season last Saturday against UMBC, will face top-ranked Virginia Friday at 6 p.m. in the semifinals of the 2000 Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament at Byrd Stadium in College Park, Md. The 10th-ranked Tar Heels (7-4, ACC 0-3) will meet the #1-ranked Cavaliers (8-1, ACC 3-0) in the first of the two semifinal games. The Wahoos are the tournament's top seed and will be favored to win their second straight ACC championship and their third in the last four years. The second semifinal game on Friday will feature the 6th-ranked Duke Blue Devils (8-3, ACC 2-1) against the 9th-ranked Maryland Terrapins (7-3, ACC 1-2). Duke is the #2 seed and Maryland the #3 seed. The semifinal winners will play in the championship game on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. The title game will be televised live by Home Team Sports. Virginia won its last ACC title in 1999, Maryland in 1998, North Carolina in 1996 and Duke in 1995.CAROLINA IN THE ACC TOURNAMENT: North Carolina has an all-time record of 15-4 in Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament games since the inception of the tournament in 1989. UNC won ACC Tournament titles in 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1996. The Tar Heels lost in the title game in 1995 and were eliminated in the semifinals in 1997, 1998 and 1999.
TAR HEELS SEEK 12TH ACC TITLE: North Carolina has won 11 Atlantic Coast Conference championships in the sport of men's lacrosse. The titles have come in 1981, 1982, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1996.
THE SERIES WITH THE CAVALIERS: Virginia leads the all-time series with North Carolina 33-18. The Cavaliers have defeated the Tar Heels five successive times, including a 13-7 victory in Chapel Hill on April 8 of this season. The last time the Tar Heels knocked off the Cavaliers was in the 1996 ACC Tournament championship game when Carolina defeated UVa 13-11 at Charlottesville, Va. Since that victory over Virginia in 1996, Carolina has experienced little luck against Atlantic Coast Conference opponents, going 1-15 against conference foes since that time. The lone victory was a 10-9 win over second-ranked and undefeated Duke during the 1999 regular season in Durham.
TAR HEELS SEEK 100TH WIN FOR KLARMANN: The University of North Carolina lacrosse team will be seeking to give Carolina head coach Dave Klarmann his 100th career win when the Tar Heels face off against Virginia on Friday night. 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 99-50 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 .664.
TIME CHANGE FOR HOFSTRA: North Carolina's game with Hofstra on April 29 is a 12 noon start. It had previously been publicized as a 1:30 p.m. start but the time has been changed so that the game can be televised live by Sports Channel Long Island.
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. Carolina has an overall record of 7-2 at Fetzer Field this season, while going 0-2 in road games. The Tar Heels will be seeking their first road win this season when they play the Wahoos Friday night in the ACC Tournament.
THE START TO THE SEASON: With their 6-0 start to the 2000 season, the Tar Heels produced their best start to a season since the 1993 team won its first nine games of the campaign before losing in the 10th game at Virginia in overtime.
EXCEEDING THE 1999 WIN TOTAL: In 11 games this season, Carolina has already exceeded its win totals for both the 1997 and 1999 season and equalled the win total for the 1998 campaign. UNC's 7-4 record 11 games into the 2000 campaign gives the Tar Heels more wins than they had while going 6-7 in 1997 and 6-9 in 1999. It also equals the 1998 win total when the Tar Heels were 7-8.
THE STATISTICAL LEADERS: Eleven games into the 2000 season, the Tar Heels are being led in scoring by its starting attack trio of Matt Crofton, Chase Martin and Jeff Sonke. Crofton, a senior from Garden City, N.Y., leads the Tar Heels in points with 38 and in assists with 18. He is third in goals scored with 20. Martin, a senior from Owings Mills, Md., ranks second on the team in points with 36 and in assists with 14 and he is tied for the team lead in goals with 22. Sonke, a junior from Birmingham, Mich., is tied for the team lead in goals scored with 22 and he is third in both assists with 10 and in points with 32. Crofton is fifth in the Atlantic Coast Conference in scoring with a per game average of 3.45 points. Sonke is third in the ACC in goals scored per game with an average of 2.20, while Martin is tied for fourth in the conference, scoring 2.00 goals per game. Crofton ranks fifth in the league in assists with an average of 1.64 per contest. Junior midfielder Ryan Damon from Darien, Conn. leads the Tar Heels in ground balls with 57, followed closely by attackman Chase Martin with 52. Sophomore goalkeeper Kris Blindenbacher from Narberth, Pa. is third with 47 ground balls and junior midfielder Mac Hammer (Fairfax, Va.) is fourth with 44. Damon ranks third in the ACC in ground balls per game with an average of 5.18. Martin is fourth in the ACC at 4.73 ground balls per game. Starting goalkeeper Kris Blindenbacher has played 641 minutes and 16 seconds and has a save percentage of .595, making 141 saves and allowing 96 goals. He has a goals against average of 8.98 goals per game. Blindenbacher is second in the ACC in save percentage at .595 and he is third in goals against average at 8.98 goals per game. Junior Ryan Damon has taken the overwhelming majority of UNC's faceoff so far this season. He has won 86 faceoffs in 143 attempts, a percentage of .601. Junior midfielder Mac Hammer has won 39 of 78 faceoffs so far, a percentage of .500. There is a pitched battle going on for the Tar Heel lead in takeaways. Junior defenseman Bobby Gormsen leads the team with 42 takeaways, followed by midfielder Joel Miller with 38 takeaways and sophomore defenseman Zack Leader with 37 takeaways.
BLINDENBACHER NAMED PLAYER OF THE WEEK: North Carolina sophomore goaltender Kris Blindenbacher was named the Atlantic Coast Conference Men's Lacrosse Player of the Week on February 28, after leading the Tar Heels to their second win of the 2000 season February 26, a 13-7 decision over Butler. Blindenbacher, 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.
CROFTON TAPPED FOR ACC PLAYER OF WEEK HONORS: North Carolina senior attackman Matt Crofton was named the ACC Men's Lacrosse Player of the Week on April 17 after leading the Tar Heels to a win over 18th-ranked UMBC on Saturday. Crofton, a native of Garden City, N.Y., had seven points in UNC's 15-9 victory over the Retrievers as he scored four goals and added three assists. The seven-point total was only one point short of his career high, which he recorded against the Ohio State Buckeyes on April 29, 1998. The 15 goals scored by the Tar Heels against the Retrievers were the most tallied in a game by UNC this season and the Tar Heel victory ended a four-game losing streak for North Carolina.
IN THE NATIONAL STATS: North Carolina junior midfielder Ryan Damon ranks 14th in the nation this week in faceoff percentage at .601. Also this week, sophomore goalkeeper Kris Blindenbacher ranks 15th nationally in save percentage at .595 and he is 19th in goals against average at 8.98 goals per game. As a team, North Carolina ranks 20th in faceoff percentage at .537, 10th in man-advantage offense at .393 and tied for 16th in winning percentage at .636.
A RETURN TO THE NCAA TOURNAMENT: The top priority for the 2000 UNC men's lacrosse team is 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. This year's senior class is determined to go out with a winning record for the first time since 1996 and a bid to the Big Dance in May.
CAROLINA PLAYS 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.
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. So far this season, Carolina has been scoring 10.64 goals per game, the third best figure in the ACC. The defense has really improved over last year, allowing 9.45 goals per contest, fourth best in the ACC and almost two goals less per game than the Tar Heels gave up in 1999 when opponents scoring 11.33 per contest.
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 325-194-2 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, Butler: 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 34-12, Maryland: Maryland leads 28-17, Johns Hopkins: Johns Hopkins leads 16-12, Virginia: Virginia leads 33-18, UMBC: UNC leads 14-4, Hofstra: Hofstra leads 2-1, Lehigh: UNC leads 2-1-1.
ON THE CAREER CHARTS: Senior Chase Martin has moved into eighth place in career goals at Carolina this season with 94 heading into the Virginia game. Martin is now chasing Jason Wade (1993-96) who had 95 career goals and is in seventh place. Martin now has 151 career points going into the Virginia game. He passed Spencer Deering (1994-97) in last Saturday's UMBC game and is now in ninth place in career points. Brendan Carey (1993-96) ranks eighth with 161 career points. Senior Matt Crofton is currently in 12th place in career assists with 60. Both Mac Ford (1982-85) and Michael Thomas (1988-92) are tied for 10th place with 61 career assists, while Gary Seivold (1984-87) is ninth with 62 and Bert Fett (1972-75) eighth with 64. Crofton is also tied for 11th in career points at UNC with 143. He is tied with Michael Thomas (1988-92). Spencer Deering (1994-97) is 10th in career points at Carolina with 150. Meanwhile, junior Ryan Damon has moved into third place in the category of most faceoffs won in a career. Damon has now won 275 faceoffs in his UNC career. The second spot is occupied by Jason Sanders (1993-96), who won 298 career faceoffs.
THE CAROLINA CONNECTION: When Carolina met Johns Hopkins on April 1 it marked the fourth time this season that North Carolina met up with a team coached by a former Tar Heel lacrosse player. Carolina met Navy, coached by Richie Meade '75, on March 4, Delaware, coached by Bob Shillinglaw, '74, on March 11, Ohio State, coached by Joe Breschi, '90, on March 18, and now Johns Hopkins, coached by John Haus, '83, on April 1. On April 15, the Tar Heels played a team for the firth time with a UNC connection. UMBC head coach Don Zimmerman served as an assistant coach for four years at UNC under Head Coach Willie Scroggs from 1979-82.
HONORING THE 1970 TEAM: The University honored the 1970 UNC lacrosse team at March 25th'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. That was also the first team in Carolina history to win a conference championship. That UNC team won the South Atlantic Conference championship. At that time, UNC competed in both the South Atlantic Conference and the Atlantic Coast Conference.
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. But 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. Blindenbacher 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. But 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.
SECOND HALF RUN BY DUKE PUSHES BLUE DEVILS PAST TAR HEELS: Carolina put its six-game winning streak on the line March 22 against Duke but the Blue Devils proved to be the hungrier of the two teams, outscoring the Tar Heels 7-1 in the second half en route to a 13-8 victory. The Tar Heels bounced back from a 6-3 deficit at the end of the first quarter to outscore the Blue Devils 4-0 in the second quarter and take a 7-6 halftime lead. Carolina still led 8-7 early in the third quarter before the Blue Devils went on a 6-0 scoring run to end the game and beat Carolina for the second straight time. Matt Crofton, Mac Hammer and Chase Martin led the Tar Heels with two goals each.
MARYLAND CONTINUES TO HAVE UNC'S NUMBER: Despite a great effort by the Tar Heels, Carolina continued to be frustrated by Maryland's recent mastery of UNC on March 25 as the Terrapins outlasted the Tar Heels 10-9 at Fetzer Field. The deciding span in the game came from 3:43 left in the third quarter until 7:38 left in the game when the Terps went on a 3-0 scoring run to take a 10-8 lead in the game. Carolina cut the deficit to one goal with 3:25 to play on a Steven Will extra-man goal but the Tar Heels could never get the equalizer. Carolina opened the game strong and led 5-3 after one quarter but Maryland outscored the Tar Heels 3-0 in the second quarter to lead 6-5 at the half. Maryland increased the lead to 7-5 early in the third quarter and Carolina responded with a three-goal run by Matt Crofton, Jeff Sonke and Crofton again to lead 8-7 with 4:39 to play in the third quarter. But the lead was short-lived and the Terps went on to beat the Tar Heels for the fifth successive time. Crofton led the Tar Heels offensively with a three-goal, one-assist effort. Sonke had two goals and one assist.
HOPKINS HOLDS OFF CAROLINA'S RALLY: Senior attackman Dan Denihan scored two goals and added three assists as 10th-ranked Johns Hopkins held off a late North Carolina rally as the Blue Jays posted a 10-8 victory over the eighth-ranked Tar Heels. The victory snapped two-game losing streak for the Blue Jays, who improved to 2-3 with win. North Carolina dropped its third straight after six straight wins to open the season and now stands at 6-3. Denihan fueled a 5-0 Johns Hopkins run to open the second half as he scored two of his goals and added an assist during the spree. The Blue Jays led 3-2 at the half, but extended the lead to 8-3 with the run. Freshman Bobby Benson opened the second-half scoring with his first goal at the 14:03 mark off an assist from Denihan. Freshman Adam Doneger pushed the lead to 5-2 with an unassisted goal 21 second later, and Denihan scored back-to-back goals in a span of just 2:02 to make it 7-2. A.J. Haugen added an unassisted goal at the 7:29 mark to make it 8-2 and it appeared the Blue Jays had the game in hand. North Carolina began its comeback on the second of Jeff Sonke's four goals with 1:47 remaining in the third quarter and the Tar Heels cut further into the lead with back-to-back goals early in the fourth quarter by Mac Hammer and Sonke to make it 8-5. Doneger and Benson then sandwiched goals around another tally by Sonke before Austin Garrison scored a pair of late goals to close out the scoring. Sonke led the way for North Carolina with his four goals, while Garrison addefd the two goals and one assist. Kris Blindenbacher was strong in goal for the Tar Heels as he registered 23 saves on the day, including 14 in the second half.
VIRGINIA DOWNS CAROLINA 13-7: Virginia broke open a close game with a 5-0 scoring run in a span of 5:26 late in the third and ealry in the fourth quarter as the second-ranked Cavaliers defeated 10th-ranked North Carolina 13-7 in men's lacrosse April 8 before 1,353 fans at Fetzer Field. The defending NCAA champion Cavaliers won their seventh successive game and improved to 7-1 overall and 2-0 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Tar Heels lost their fourth game in a row and fell to 6-4 overall and 0-3 in the ACC. Senior attackman Drew McKnight led the Wahoos offensively as he fell just one point shy of career high for points in a game, totaling four goals and two assists. Midfielders Jason Hard and A.J. Shannon each scored twice for Virginia and senior midfielder Jay Jalbert added his 100th career goal for the Wahoos. Senior attackman Matt Crofton scored two goals and added one assist for the Tar Heels. Freshman midfielder Austin Garrison added one goal and one assist.
UNC ROCKS UMBC TO BREAK LOSING STREAK: The University of North Carolina's 10th-ranked men's lacrosse team put a stop to a four-game losing streak Saturday afternoon as it blasted 18th-ranked Maryland-Baltimore County 15-9 before 898 fans at rain-soaked Fetzer Field. The win, which lifted the Tar Heels to 7-4 on the season, kept alive UNC's hopes of gaining an at-large bid to the 2000 NCAA Tournament and also gave Carolina head coach Dave Klarmann his 99th career win in his 10 seasons as the head mentor in Chapel Hill. Carolina was led to the victory by outstanding efforts from its two senior attackmen as both Matt Crofton and Chase Martin rang up some big numbers. Crofton finished with four goals and three assists and was just one point short of his career high he set against Ohio State in 1998. Martin added two goals and had three assists and the third starting attackman, junior Jeff Sonke, added a troika of goals. Two freshmen midfielders--Austin Garrison and Steven Will--each added two goals to the UNC cause. The 15 goals was the season-high total in a game for Carolina and they were also the most goals UMBC has surrended in a game this season. UMBC, which fell to 4-6 with the loss, was led by junior midfielder Charlie Gibson, who had two goals and two assists for the Retrievers. Sophomore midfielder Collin Merrholz added a pair of goals for Coach Don Zimmerman's team and senior attackman Dan Marohl had one goal and two assists. After a first quarter that ended tied at 1-1, the two teams traded goals early in the second period before an extra-man goal by Will put the Tar Heels up for good in the game 3-2 with 10:56 left in the second quarter. It was 4-3 Carolina late in the second period but Garrison and Martin each scored their second goals of the game just 39 seconds apart in the quarter's 13th minute to boost the lead at intermission to 6-3. After being outscored by a combined margin of 17-6 in the third quarter in its last four games, Carolina reversed the trend against the Retrievers Saturday and went on a 6-1 scoring run in the game's third stanza. Sonke scored for Carolina just over two minutes into the third quarter but that goal was answered by UMBC defenseman Zack Burke 46 seconds later. After the goal, however, Burke was flagged for a one-minute, unreleasable penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct and the Tar Heels took full advantage as Will and Crofton scored goals on the ensuing extra-man opportunity to make it 9-4 Carolina. Before the third quarter was over, sophomore midfielder Tim Gosier, Sonke and Crofton would added goals to the UNC total to make the score 12-4 in favor of UNC after three periods. The Retrievers would rally in the fourth quarter to outscore Carolina 5-3 but the closest they got the rest of the way was five goals at 14-9 with 1:52 to play in the game. Carolina outshot the Retrievers 50-30 and won the ground ball battle by a decisive 49-35 margin. UNC goalkeeper Kris Blindenbacher made 11 saves and allowed six goals in 54:23, while UMBC's Steve Cusa went all the way in goal and made 13 saves.
