University of North Carolina Athletics
2002 Men's Lacrosse Preview
January 30, 2002 | Men's Lacrosse
Jan. 30, 2002
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - The North Carolina men's lacrosse team enters the second year of the John Haus' coaching era in the year 2002 with renewed optimism.
After posting only one winning season since 1996, the Tar Heel men's lacrosse program is looking to have a breakthrough year in 2002 that will elevate the team back into the Top 10 in the nation and into the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1998. It will not be an easy task, however. The Tar Heels again face one of the top schedules in the nation and 13 lettermen and four starters from the 2001 squad must be replaced.
ut Haus, who returned to his alma mater in the summer of 2000 after head coaching stints at Washington College and Johns Hopkins, does have 32 lettermen and six returning starters to work with as he seeks to craft this Tar Heel team into a unit worthy of post-season consideration. The Tar Heels have also added Haus' first recruiting class as the UNC head coach and Carolin lacrosse fans are justifiably excited about the chances that this 13-man group will include several impact players right off the bat. Haus' first Carolina team went 6-6 in 2001 (1-2 in the Atlantic Coast Conference). Key losses to Patriot League champion Bucknell and UMBC (by one goal on the road) denied the Tar Heels a chance to play in the NCAA Tournament. The Heels also lost to ACC champion Duke twice, to Maryland and to Johns Hopkins. But Carolina showed some resolve in winning at Virginia which was only the second ACC win for the Tar Heels since 1996 and winning in the last second of the game at Navy. Haus hopes that those kind of experiences will give an inexperienced team like the Tar Heels the confidence to be able to compete in close games in the future.
One thing is for sure. The Tar Heel team worked hard in the off-season to improve itself and Haus was pleased with the attitude of the returning players. This year's senior class could become the first since 1975 to have never made an NCAA Tournament appearance and that has driven the upperclassmen to improve their conditioning, stick skills and team chemistry during the summer and fall ball. This Tar Heel team returns several key players in the senior and junior classes, has a sophomore class returning which showed some definite promise last season and a freshman class which is Haus' first recruiting class, a group of players with tremendous potential.
The Tar Heels will however have to replace some key components of the 2001 team. Gone are first-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference players Bobby Gormsen and Jeff Sonke as well as another starter on last year's defense, Hunter Sims, and Carolina's top two faceoff men last year--Ryan Damon and Mac Hammer. Sonke was named All-ACC in both 2000 and 2001 and was also named a second team All-America each of those season by the U.S. Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association. He was Carolina's leading scorer last season with 26 goals and 12 assists for 38 points and he ended his Carolina career 10th in points and fifth in goals.
After three years as one of the top long stick defenders in the country, Gormsen moved into a starting role for the Tar Heels at close defense as a senior, started all 12 games and was named first-team All-ACC and honorable mention All-America. Gormsen was the leader of the Tar Heel defense in 2001 and he finished second on the team in ground balls with 47.
Other key losses included Sims, who started all 12 games on close defense, and the faceoff duo of Hammer and Damon. Hammer led the team in ground balls with 50, won 47 faceoffs and had nine points in his senior year. Damon was limited by injuries as a senior but also won 47 faceoffs.
Other losses included defensive middie Joel Miller, defender Jon Mankein, goalkeepers Rob D'Urso and John Cattonar and attackman Judd Lattimore. Lattimore had seven points as a senior and D'Urso started six games for UNC last year , allowing 9.3 goals per contest and saving 54 percent of the shots against him.
Rounding out the list of lost lettermen are midfielder Peyton Chane, who missed last season because of injury, defenseman John O'Hara and midfielder Peter Dell'Olio. Of the 13 lost lettermen, eight were seniors last season.
So the question now turns to what does Haus have to work with as the Tar Heels prepare for the 2002 campaign. The answer is 32 returning lettermen and a 13 member freshman class that should give the Tar Heels a strong infursion of talent. Carolina's attack unit will be headed up by returning starters Steven Will, a junior from Phoenix, Md., and Andrew Lucas, a sophomore from Glen Arm, Md. Will is a two-year starter for the Tar Heels, having played midfield as a freshman before being converted to attack last season. Will was Carolina's second leading scorer last season with 19 goals and 10 assists, shooting 27 percent. Lucas started all 12 games for the Tar Heels just like Will and was the third-leading scorer with 11 goals and eight assists for 19 points while scoring 26.8 percent.
A third attack returnee for the Tar Heels is senior Andy Jonas, one of the tri-captains and a Charlotte, N.C. native. Jonas has seen extensive playing time as a reserve each of the past two seasons. He also started some games for the Tar Heels in 2000. Last season he had three goals and one assist in 10 games.
The rest of the attack unit is less experienced. Steve Perdue, a Flemington, N.J. native is the only other returning letterman, but Coach Haus hopes that a cadre of freshmen can step up an play at a high level immediately.
The freshman attackmen include Jed Prossner from Easton, Md. who as a senior at McDonogh School last year was named the Metro Player of the Year by the Baltimore Sun. Good things are also expected from first year players Mike McCall from Yorktown, N.Y. (Yorktown High School) and Drew Habeck of Crownsville, Md. (Severn School). The Tar Heel midfield unit will be led by junior tri-captain Austin Garrison of New Canaan, Conn. who is a two-year starter. The athletic Garrison was Carolina's fourth leading scorer for the 2001 team with seven goals and 12 assists for 19 points. Garrison also had 34 ground balls last season. Other top returning lettermen in the midfield include seniors Pat Jackson (Timonium, Md.) and Tim Gosier (Roxbury, Mass.). Jackson has seen extensive playing time each of his three years at Carolina and had eight goals and one assist last season. Gosier had a career high 10 goals for the Tar Heels last season. Both are expected to produce at the highest levels of their careers as seniors.
The Tar Heel midfield corps took a hit in the preseason when sophomore Lance Zimmerman (Cockeysville, Md.) tore an anterior cruciate ligament and had knee surgery and is out for the season. Zimmerman was the Tar Heels' fifth leading scorer as a freshman last season with eight goals and four assists.
Other returning lettermen include juniors Kyle Bell (Baltimore, Md.), Peter Anselmo (Massapequa, N.Y.), Justin Reed (Darien, Conn.), Brandon Pierce (Durham, N.C.) and Jack Alsup (Winston-Salem, N.C.) as well as sophomores Jesse Kohler (Timonium, Md.), Phil Pennington (Birmingham, Mich.), Kevin Frew (Baldwin, Md.), Johnny Seivold (Efland, N.C.), Dave Duffy (Garden City, N.Y.), Dan Stringer (Baltimore, Md.), Brad Coker (Knoxville, Tenn.).
ell is one of the Tar Heels' veteran middies having played extensively the past two seasons. Last year he had seven goals and two assists for the Tar Heels. Anselmo also saw his first season of extensive playing time a year ago, appearing in 11 games. Of the current sophomores Seivold and Frew saw the most playing time last season. Seivold played in all 12 games for the Tar Heels and had two goals and one assist. Frew also played in all 12 games and had two goals and one assist along with 11 ground balls. He was UNC's third option on faceoffs behind seniors Damon and Hammer and he won 31 of his 58 tries.
Freshman additions to the corps of midfielders include Paul Burnett of Stevensville, Md. (Severna Park High School), the nephew of former Tar Heel All-America Michael Burnett (1980-83), Bryant Will of Phoenix, Md. (Dulaney High School), the younger brother of UNC starting junior attackman Steven Will, Teddy Hayes (Chevy Chase, Md., The Landon School), Matt McIntosh (Brentwood, Tenn., Montgomery Bell School), whose brother is a junior at UNC and a special team starters on the football squad, and Brian Dibbert (Chapel Hill, N.C., Durham Academy), whose father is president of the UNC General Alumni Association).
Defensively the Tar Heels will count on returning starters Ronnie Staines and Zack Leader to lead the way. Staines, a sophomore from Severna Park, Md., started all 12 games for the Tar Heels on close defense last season, scooping up 29 ground balls. Leader, a junior from Birmingham, Mich., missed all of last season but he started all 14 games for UNC on close defense in the 2000 season.
Another player with starting experience is sophomore Matt Pessagno (Harwood, Md.) who started the last six games of the 2001 season as a long stick defender and a wing player on faceoffs. He played in a total of 11 games last season and had 23 ground balls. The defensive unit has already take some off season injury hits. Senior Dane Almassy (Flanders, N.J.) and junior Ben Dobson (Charlotte, N.C.) are both lost for the season due to injuries. Dobson blew out an anterior cruciate ligament. had knee surgery in the fall and is lost for the season. Almassy has had several concussions and will have to sit out the season as well. Dobson played in 11 games last season and started six times, picking up 10 ground balls. Also lost for the season is senior Sean Hizey (Durham, N.C.) who has been lost to off season wrist surgery.
Other returning letter winners on defense include senior Matt Rabil (Winston-Salem, N.C.), junior Bowen White (Summit, N.J.) and sophomores Joe Hubbard (Chapel Hill, N.C.) and Joe Paglino (Troy, Mich.).
Coach Haus will be looking to a promising group of freshmen to provide the Tar Heels with the depth they will need on the defensive end of the field. This corps of first year players includes David DiBianco of Washington, D.C. (The Landon School), J.J. LaSeta of Phoenix, Md. (Boys Latin School) and Charley Conkling of Lutherville, Md. (St. Pauls School).
UNC returns a veteran player in the goal in Kris Blindenbacher, a senior tri-captain from Nerberth, Pa. Blindenbacher has been a starter between the pipes since his freshman year. He was bothered by injuries last year after suffering a concussion in practice prior to the game at Navy. Blindenbacher played 345 minutes in goal last season and had a goals against average of 8.70. He played in seven games and had six starts, saving 59.0 percent of the shots on goal against him.
esides Blindenbacher the Tar Heels have one other goalkeeper with college experience but it accounts for only 16:30 in one game. That is junior Andrew Larkin of Severna Park, Md. Coach Haus is also high on two freshman goalkeepers who have joined the Tar Heels. Richard Thomas is a native of Baltimore, Md. and played at The Gilman School while Paul Spellman is a native of Cockeysville, Md. and played at St. Pauls School.
The Tar Heels are ranked #12 in the preseason coaches poll by Lacrosse Magazine. The Tar Heels face a challenging schedule that includes at least six games against teams ranked above them in the preseason poll. The Tar Heels will play at eighth-ranked Duke, the defending Atlantic Coast Conference champion, on March 20 and at fourth-ranked Johns Hopkins on March 29 and at #10 Hofstra on May 1. UNC will host fifth-ranked on March 23 and sixth-ranked Virginia, a team it upset on the road last season, on April 6. The Tar Heels will also meet one of those ranked ACC teams and hopefully two of them when they play in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament at Durham, N.C. on April 19 and 21.
Other nationally ranked teams the Tar Heels will face this season include 14th-ranked Navy on March 2 in Chapel Hill, 18th-ranked UMBC on April 13 in Chapel Hill and 19th-ranked Bucknell, the defending champion of the Patriot League, on February 23 in Lewisburg, Pa.
The Tar Heel schedule is rounded out with games against Ohio State in the season opener in Chapel Hill on February 16, against Delaware in Chapel Hill on March 9, against Denver in Chapel Hill on March 17 and at Fairfield on April 27.
The main focus of the Tar Heel season will be to show marked improvement on the field over the travails of the last five campaigns. UNC hopes to secure only its second winning season since 1996, win the Atlantic Coast Conference championship for the first time since 1996 and earn the team's first NCAA Tournament bid since 1998. North Carolina is also determined to win its first NCAA Tournament game since the 1993 NCAA semifinals when the Tar Heels defeated Johns Hopkins en route to a championship game appearance. The Tar Heels have lost their last five tournament games.
Some teams would view the above trends in a depressing manner but North Carolina in the 2002 season is taking on the reversal of those fortunes as a challenge. Some lacrosse pundits have said the Tar Heels are at least a year away from returning to the lacrosse big time but this Tar Heel team does not want to hear such talk. Coach Haus has been impressed with this group's willingness to work in the off season to get better. He hopes that extra work will pay off on the field. One thing is sure. The Tar Heels will take no opponent lightly and Haus has imbued a new tradition at Carolina which will see Tar Heel teams play a more physical and hard working style on the field.
2002 may not be the year the Tar Heels return to the big time but that day is not far off.
