University of North Carolina Athletics
Tar Heel Men's Lacrosse Travels To Hopkins
March 27, 2002 | Men's Lacrosse
March 27, 2002
TAR HEELS SEEK TO BOUNCE BACK FROM FIRST LOSS: North Carolina will look to bounce back from its first loss of the 2002 season when the Tar Heels travel to Baltimore, Md. Friday to meet Johns Hopkins at 7:30 p.m. at Homewood Field. The game will be televised live by WMAR-TV in Baltimore. North Carolina enters the match with a 6-1 record, 1-1 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Tar Heels are ranked seventh in this week's U.S. Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association coaches poll, its highest ranking in the poll since 1996. But playing the third-ranked Blue Jays (4-1) is probably not the best way for Carolina to bounce back from its first loss of the season which came to Maryland 7-5 in Chapel Hill last Saturday. Carolina started this season 6-0 before the loss to the Terrapins. That was the best start to a season for North Carolina since the 2000 team also started its season 6-0. Including a win over Pfeiffer to end the 2001 campaign, Carolina won seven in a row overall before last Saturday's loss. Those seven wins in a row was the longest winning streak for Carolina since the Tar Heels won the first nine games of the 1993 season.
IN THE FUTURE: After playing at Johns Hopkins on Friday, the Tar Heels will return to Chapel Hill for a two-game homestand, their last two home games of the 2002 season. The Tar Heels will host #2 Virginia on April 6 at 1 p.m. at Fetzer Field and then UMBC on April 13 at 4 p.m. at Kenan Stadium. Beyond that the Tar Heels will play in the ACC Tournament at Durham, N.C. April 19 and 21, at Fairfield on April 27 and at 13th-ranked Hofstra on May 1.
NORTH CAROLINA VS. JOHNS HOPKINS: Johns Hopkins has dominated the all-time series against North Carolina by a 17-12 margin. The Blue Jays have won seven games in a row against Carolina including a 12-4 victory at Fetzer Field last year. Carolina has lost during its last three trips to Homewood Field--10-9 in 1996, 16-9 in 1998 and 10-8 in 2000. UNC's last win over the Blue Jays came during the 1994 season, an 11-9 victory at Homewood Field.
HAUS AND THE BLUE JAYS: Second-year North Carolina head coach John Haus makes his first visit to Homewood Field in the coaching colors of Carolina after nine previous seasons roaming the sidelines as a Blue Jay coach. Haus was an assistant coach at Hopkins for seven years under Don Zimmerman and Tony Seaman (1988-94) and he was also the head coach at the Homewood campus for two seasons in 1999 and 2000.
COMMON OPPONENTS: North Carolina and Johns Hopkins have not played any common opponents so far during the 2002 season.
CAROLINA VERSUS THE ACC: Carolina's 9-7 victory at Duke last week was truly a breakthrough win for Coach John Haus' young team. The win was only the third for Carolina in its last 23 meetings with Atlantic Coast Conference opponents, a skein of frustration which started with the opening ACC game in the 1997 season. From 1997 through 2000 the Tar Heels went 1-16 against ACC teams (0-4 in 1997, 0-5 in 1998, 1-3 in 1999 and 0-4 in 2000). The only win in that time was a 10-9 regular season win over Duke in Durham in 1999. Since John Haus took over as head coach of the Tar Heels prior to last season, the Heels have been able to win two of their past six games against ACC teams. Last season Carolina posted a 7-5 win at Virginia and then the Heels won 9-7 at Duke this past Wednesday night. Since the start of the 1997 season UNC is 1-6 versus Virginia, 0-7 versus Maryland and 2-7 versus Duke. The Tar Heels have not beaten Maryland since 1996. Carolina has not posted a win against an ACC opponent at home since beating Virginia 19-18 in 1996.
THE DEFENSE HAS NOT RESTED: North Carolina has been a much better defensive team than in the past few years through the first seven games of the 2002 season. The Tar Heels have a goals against average of 7.42 goals per game in seven games, second best figure in the ACC behind Maryland at 5.86 goals per game.
THE OFFENSE IS OPPORTUNISTIC: While not necessarily explosive this season, Carolina's offense has been opportunistic, pulling the Tar Heels to victory in six of seven games. Opponents are allowing UNC 9.93 goals per game in seven games which have included nine overtime periods.
A BEVY OF CLOSE GAMES: In the first seven games of the 2002 season the Tar Heels have been in a rash of close games. Of Carolina's seven games, the Tar Heels have won three games by one goal and one game by two goals while losing one game by two goals. The Tar Heels have played in two overtime games, winning both. One game went three overtimes and the other game six overtimes.
THE STARTING LINEUP: Carolina will likely use the same starting lineup that it has used for the past seven games. The probable starters are:
Attack
#1 Jed Prossner Freshman
#7 Steven Will Junior
#13 Andrew Lucas Sophomore
First Midfield
#5 Tim Gosier Senior
#27 Austin Garrison Junior
#28 Bryant Will Freshman
Second Midfield
#15 Pat Jackson Senior
#21 Johnny Seivold Sophomore
#29 Kyle Bell Junior
Third Midfield
#19 Peter Anselmo Junior
#26 Dave Duffy Sophomore
#37 Teddy Hayes Freshman
Defense
#6 Zack Leader Junior
#8 Ronnie Staines Sophomore
#20 Matt Pessagno Sophomore
Faceoff Specialist
#12 Kevin Frew Sophomore
#25 Paul Burnett Freshman
#26 Dave Duffy Sophomore
Defensive Midfielders
#44 Bowen White Sophomore
#47 Charley Conkling Freshman
Goal
#40 Paul Spellman Goalkeeper
#3 Kris Blindenbacher Goalkeeper
THE EXPERIENCE FACTOR: The Tar Heels will likely start one senior against the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays on Saturday but that may actually overstate the experience factor of this Tar Heel team. This is the first Carolina team to take the field without a returning All-America player since 1979. The top 28 players in the Carolina rotation include four seniors, seven juniors, seven sophomores and 10 freshmen.
CAROLINA IN THE POLL: UNC is ranked #7 this week by the U.S. Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association. The Tar Heels were ranked #13 in the Faceoff Preseason coaches poll and they were rated #10 in the first two USILA polls of the regular season on March 4 and March 11. The Tar Heels moved up to the #9 spot in the rankings March 18 and the #7 spot in this week's poll.
COACH JOHN HAUS: North Carolina head coach John Haus, a 1983 Carolina graduate, is in his second year as the head coach of the Tar Heel program. Prior to returning to UNC he was the head coach at Washington College for four years where his teams were 47-21 and the head coach at Johns Hopkins where his teams went 20-7. As the Tar Heel head coach he is 12-7 in two seasons. In eight years as a collegiate head coach his teams are now 79-35. Including his time as a player at UNC and seven years as an assistant at Johns Hopkins he has been involved with teams that have a combined record of 184-69 in the collegiate ranks.
THE SCHEDULE TOUGHENS: The docket for the Tar Heel lacrosse team began heating up with the March 20 game against #5 Duke, an upset of the Blue Devils by a 9-7 score in Durham. Carolina is currently in a stretch of four games that are all against teams ranked in the Top Five of the STX/USILA poll. The Tar Heels also hosted Maryland last week, tied with Duke at #5 in last week's poll, on Saturday, losing 7-5. The following two games are also especially tough for the Tar Heels as they play at #3 Johns Hopkins on March 29 and host #2 Virginia on April 6.
THE LONGEST GAME IN NCAA HISTORY: When the North Carolina Tar Heels defeated the Navy Midshipmen on March 2 by an 11-10 score, they found themselves making some history too. The game was six overtimes in length and lasted 83 minutes and 39 seconds. The longest previous games in history were five overtime affairs involving Cornell on two occasions. Even more remarkably it was the third successive season in which Carolina had beaten Navy 11-10. The Heels beat Navy 11-10 in Chapel Hill in 2000 on a goal in the first overtime of that game and the Heels beat the Mids in Annapolis, Md. in 2001 by 11-10 on a goal by Jeff Sonke with one second to play. This year's marathon event was finally decided when senior midfielder Pat Jackson intercepted a Navy clearing pass just inside midfield and scored into an empty net from 40 yards out.
THE BALANCED TAR HEEL OFFENSE: In looking at the Carolina stat sheet this year no one player stands out offensively. Balance has been the key as the Tar Heels have outscored their opponents 75-56 during their 6-1 start. The top five scorers are all underclassmen, led by freshman midfielder Bryant Will who has 18 points with eight goals and a team-leading 10 assists. Junior midfielder Austin Garrison is tied for first on the team with 18 points on 11 goals and seven assists. Garrison had three of his 10 goals March 20 as the Tar Heels upset fifth-ranked Duke in Durham by a 9-7 score. Third on the points list is freshman attackman Jed Prossner with 16 points (seven goals, nine assists). Sophomore attackman Andrew Lucas has 14 points with his team-leading 12 goals and two assists. Junior attackman Steven Will has 11 goals and he has two assists for 13 points. Senior midfielder Tim Gosier has 10 points (all on goals), senior midfielder Pat Jackson eight points (six goals, two assists), freshman attackman Mike McCall six points (four goals, two assists) and junior midfielder Kyle Bell six points (one goal, five assists). McCall came off the bench March 20 at Duke to score a goal and add two assists in the second half as the Tar Heels rallied past the Blue Devils.
SPELLMAN NAMED ACC PLAYER OF THE WEEK FEBRUARY 26: Tar Heel freshman goalkeeper Paul Spellman was named the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Week on February 26 after leading the Tar Heels to a 12-3 win over defending Patriot League champion Bucknell on March 23. Making only his second career start, the Cockeysville, Md. native had 12 saves and three goals allowed in 60 minutes of play.
GOSIER HELPS DOWN BUCKEYES, SEIVOLD SCORES WINNER: The Tar Heels opened the season with a 13-12 triple overtime win over Ohio State on February 16. Senior midfielder Tim Gosier and sophomore midfielder Johnny Seivold were both keys in that come-from-behind victory. Gosier scored three goals in the game, a career high for him in a single contest, and Seivold scored the game-winning in the third overtime. Of Seivold's four career goals as a Tar Heel none was obviously bigger. He is the son of a pair of Carolina All-America athletes. His mother Joan was an All-America soccer player at UNC and his father Joey and All-America lacrosse player. Gosier equaled his career high with three goals in a game again in the win over Delaware on March 9. Gosier has 10 goals this season in seven games. That equals his most goals in a season in his Carolina career. He also had 10 goals in 2001.
FREW IN THE FACEOFF CIRCLE: North Carolina sophomore midfielder Kevin Frew has done an outstanding job for the Tar Heels in the faceoff circle this season. Through the first seven games of the season Frew has won 75 of his 124 faceoff attempts, a winning percentage of .605. He has helped Carolina improve as a team to 56.0 percent in the faceoff circle. A year ago the Tar Heels won only 49.5 percent of their draws. Frew also leads the 2002 Tar Heels in ground balls with 38, 13 ahead of attackman Steven Will and goalkeeper Paul Spellman who both have 25.
FRESHMAN STARTING IN THE CAGE: North Carolina is starting a freshman at goal on a regular basis for the first time since Tom Sears did so in 1980. St. Pauls School graduate Paul Spellman, from Cockeysville, Md., has started all six games for UNC and played all 453 minutes and six seconds in goal. He has 80 saves and 56 goals allowed for a save percentage of .588. Spellman has a goals against average of just 7.42 per game. Spellman's season-high for saves was 15 in the opener against Ohio State.
WILL BROTHERS IGNITE OFFENSE AGAINST BLUE HENS: The Will brothers, junior attackman Steven and freshman midfielder Bryant, led the Tar Heels to an impressive 16-9 win over Delaware at Fetzer Field on March 9. Steven Will scored four goals in the game for the Tar Heels, while Bryant Will had one goal and four assists against the Fightin' Blue Hens. Steven Will's four goals were the most he's ever scored in a game. He had three goals each in wins over Butler and Pfeiffer last season.
LUCAS MATCHES HIS CAREER HIGHS: Andrew Lucas, sophomore attackman, equaled his career high for goals in a game with three and in points in a game with four in the Tar Heels' season-opening 13-12 triple overtime win over Ohio State and again in the 12-3 win at Bucknell on February 23. As a freshman in 2001 Lucas had three goals in a win over Butler and four points in a win over Fairfield and an ACC Tournament loss to Duke.
GARRISON EQUALS CAREER HIGH FOR ASSISTS: Junior midfielder Austin Garrison matched his career high for assists in a game with three in the 11-10 win over Navy March 2. He also had three in his sophomore year against Fairfield.
