University of North Carolina Athletics
Tar Heels Open ACC Tournament With Top-Ranked Virginia
April 19, 2002 | Men's Lacrosse
April 19, 2002
2002 UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA MEN'S LACROSSE GAME NOTES
#1 Virginia Cavaliers (8-1, ACC 3-0) vs. #7 North Carolina (7-3, ACC 1-2)
April 19, 2002, 6 p.m., ACC Tournament Semifinals, Koskinen Stadium, Durham, N.C.
UNC MEN'S LACROSSE TEAM BEGINS ACC TITLE HUNT: The seventh-ranked University of North Carolina men's lacrosse team will be seeking its first win in an Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament game since the 1996 season when the Tar Heels go up against the #1 team in the country, the Virginia Cavaliers, Friday night at Koskinen Stadium on the Duke University campus.
The Cavaliers (8-1, ACC 3-0), by virtue of their undefeated season in Atlantic Coast Conference earned the #1 seed, and will play the Tar Heels (7-3, ACC 1-2) at 6 p.m. on Friday night in the first semifinal game. The Tar Heels tied for second in the conference but was assigned the #4 seed in a blind draw conducted by the ACC office on Monday morning of this week. The second semifinal game will pit 12th-ranked Duke (5-5, ACC 1-2, seed #2) against sixth-ranked Maryland (7-3, ACC 1-2, seed #3) at 8:30 p.m.
CAROLINA IN THE TOURNAMENT: North Carolina has an all-time ACC Tournament record of 15-6, but the Tar Heels have lost five games in a row in ACC Tournament play.
UNC won the championship in seven of the first eight tournaments played, losing only one game, to Duke in the 1995 finals. Since winning in 1996, however, Carolina has gone 0-5. This will be the fifth time in that six-year span that the Heels have gone in as the #4 seed. In 1997 Carolina lost to top-seeded Virginia 17-13, in 1998 to top-seeded Maryland 13-8, in 1999 to top-seeded Duke 9-7, in 2000 to top-seeded Virginia 17-16 in two overtimes and in 2001 to second-seeded Duke 11-9. Four of those losses came to the eventual tournament champion--Virginia in 1997, Maryland in 1998, Virginia in 2000 and Duke in 2001.
CAROLINA'S ACC CHAMPIONSHIPS: North Carolina has won 11 Atlantic Coast Conference titles in its history. UNC won in 1981, 1982 and 1988 outright and in 1985 it was a tri-champion when the conference title was based on regular-season play. The Heels have won titles in 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1996 when the crown was decided by the ACC Tournament.
THE PLAYOFF PICTURE: Twelve teams will make the 2002 NCAA Division I Tournament playoff field and although the Tar Heels are currently ranked seventh in the USILA coaches poll and the Inside Lacrosse media poll, UNC is in more precarious shape than that ranking suggests. That's why every Tar Heel game from here on out will take on playoff-like implications.
The structure of the tournament this year includes only six at-large bids to go with six automatic bids to conference champions. Automatic bids will go the champions of the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference, Ivy League, America East Conference, Patriot League, Great Western Lacrosse League and the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
The ECAC and Ivy League traditionally produce outstanding lacrosse teams. There are two teams from each league in the Top 13 of this week's USILA coaches poll. The ECAC is represented by Georgetown at #3 and Massachusetts at #13. Similarly the Ivy League also has two Top 8 teams with Cornell #5 this week and Princeton #8.
The highest ranked team from the Great Western Lacrosse League is Ohio State at #18 (tied) and from the Patriot League Army at #18 (tied). The MAAC and America East have no representatives in the Top 20 of the poll.
Nevertheless, the champions of those six conferences will receive automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament. The six at-large bids will be fought for by all the members of the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Colonial Athletic Association, the independent schools and any non-champion schools from the six aforementioned leagues. In other words, it is going to be a scramble.
Legislation is pending with the NCAA to expand the tournament field to 16 teams in 2003 to accommodate the conference champions while not disenfranchising other deserving teams.
IN THE FUTURE: Following the ACC Tournament, the Tar Heels will close the regular season with back-to-back non-conference games against Fairfield on April 27 in Fairfield, Conn. at 1 p.m. and against Hofstra on May 1 at 7:30 p.m. in Hempstead, N.Y.
NCAA Tournament bids will be issued on May 5.
NORTH CAROLINA VS. VIRGINIA: Virginia leads the all-time series with the Tar Heels by a margin of 35-19. The Cavaliers have dominated the series in recent years, winning seven of the last eight games between the schools. Virginia has beaten Carolina in their last two meetings in the ACC Tournament. Earlier this season the Cavaliers defeated the Tar Heels 10-9 in Chapel Hill. Carolina's only win in the last six years against the Wahoos came during the 2001 season when UNC upset the then fourth-ranked Cavaliers 7-5 in Charlottesville.
CAROLINA IN THE ACC STATS THIS WEEK: Freshman attackman Jed Prossner is ranked seventh in the ACC this week in points per game at 2.70 per game.
In goals scored per game, three Tar Heels are tied for seventh in the league. Prossner, junior attackman Steven Will and senior midfielder Tim Gosier are all tied for seventh with 1.50 goals per contest.
In assists per game, freshman midfielder Bryant Will and Prossner are tied for sixth in the league with 1.20 per game. Junior midfielder Austin Garrison is tied for 10th in the conference in assists per game at 1.00.
In ground balls per game, UNC sophomore midfielder is tied for third in the league with 4.60 per game. Freshman goalkeeper Paul Spellman is eighth in the conference with 4.10 per contest.
Frew ranks third in the ACC in faceoff percentage at .582. Freshman midfielder Paul Burnett is sixth at .516 and sophomore midfielder Dave Duffy is eighth at .467.
Spellman ranks third in the ACC in save percentage at .590 and third in goals against average at 8.18.
CAROLINA VERSUS THE ACC: Carolina's 9-7 victory at Duke March 20 was truly a breakthrough win for Coach John Haus' young team.
The win was only the third for Carolina in its last 24 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 under coach Dave Klarmann, 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 seven games against ACC teams. Last season Carolina posted a 7-5 win at Virginia and then the Heels won 9-7 at Duke this season.
Since the start of the 1997 season UNC is 1-7 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 nine games of the 2002 season. The Tar Heels have a goals against average of 8.90 goals per game in 10 games.
THE OFFENSE IS OPPORTUNISTIC: While not necessarily explosive this season, Carolina's offense has been opportunistic, pulling the Tar Heels to victory in seven of 10 games. The Tar Heels are scoring 11.00 goals per game this season, slightly ahead of last year's pace which saw the Heels score 10.33 goals per contest.
A BEVY OF CLOSE GAMES: In the first 10 games of the 2002 season the Tar Heels have been in a rash of close games. Of Carolina's nine games, the Tar Heels have won three games by one goal and one game by two goals while losing two games by one goal and 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 DEPTH CHART: Carolina will likely use the same starting lineup that it has used for the past nine games and the depth chart continues to look similar. The depth chart is as follows:
Attack #1 Jed Prossner Freshman #7 Steven Will Junior #13 Andrew Lucas Sophomore Attack Reserves #36 Mike McCall Freshman #18 Andy Jonas Senior #41 Drew Habeck Freshman 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 Long Stick Defensive Midfielders #47 Charley Conkling Freshman #44 Bowen White Sophomore #32 David DiBianco Freshman #43 J.J. LaSeta Freshman Short Stick Defensive Midfielders #31 Dan Stringer Sophomore #22 Justin Reed Junior #26 Dan Duffy Sophomore #19 Peter Anselmo Junior Goal #40 Paul Spellman Goalkeeper #3 Kris Blindenbacher GoalkeeperTHE EXPERIENCE FACTOR: The Tar Heels will likely start only one senior against the Virginia Cavaliers on Friday 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 the March 25, April 1, April 8 and April 15 polls.
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 13-9 in two seasons. In eight years as a collegiate head coach his teams are now 80-37.
Including his time as a player, assistant coach and head coach he has been involved with teams that have a combined record of 185-72 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 just completed a stretch of four games that were all against teams ranked in the Top Five of the STX/USILA poll. The Tar Heels also hosted Maryland March 23, tied with Duke at #5 in that week's poll, on March 23, losing 7-5. On March 29, UNC lost a heartbreaker 12-11 at third-ranked Johns Hopkins while on April 6 the Heels lost another close one, falling to #2 Virginia 10-9 in Chapel Hill.
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 college lacrosse history too. The game was six overtimes in length and lasted 83 minutes and 39 seconds. That made it the longest game in college history. 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.
SEASON HIGHS FOR THE HEELS: Several Tar Heels have already exceeded season highs for them in points, goals or assists in their Tar Heel careers.
Junior midfielder Kyle Bell has exceeded his career high for assists in a season with seven. He also had six in 2000.
Junior midfielder Austin Garrison has set a career high for points in a season with 21. His previous high was 20 in 2000.
Senior midfielder Tim Gosier has exceeded his season highs for goals with 15 and points with 15. He had both 10 goals and 10 points during the 2001 campaign.
Senior midfielder Pat Jackson has topped his season high for goals with 13 so far and for points with 17. He had eight goals in both 1999 and 2001. His previous high for points was 13 in 1999.
Sophomore attackman Andrew Lucas has bested his season high for goals with 14. He had 11 as a freshman in 2001. He has equaled his career high for points in a season with 19. He also had 19 last season.
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 12 goals this season in eight games. That is the most goals in a season in his Carolina career. He 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 nine games of the season Frew has won 92 of his 158 faceoff attempts, a winning percentage of .582. He has helped Carolina improve as a team to .557 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 46, five ahead of goalkeeper Paul Spellman who both has 41.
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 10 games for UNC and played all 630 minutes and 44 seconds in goal. He has 124 saves and 86 goals allowed for a save percentage of .590. Spellman has a goals against average of just 8.18 per game. Spellman's season-high for saves was 18 against Johns Hopkins on March 29.
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. He also had four points in the game at Johns Hopkins on March 29 with two goals and two assists,
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.
THE INJURY SITUATION: Carolina lost four players for the season due to injuries prior to the start of spring practice. Midfielder Lance Zimmerman, who started in the first midfield unit as a freshman last year, and Ben Dobson, who started several games as a close defenseman his freshman year and as a long-stick midfielder his sophomore year, were both lost to torn anterior cruciate ligaments. Zimmerman will return with sophomore status in 2003 and Dobson with junior status.
Senior defenseman Sean Hizey is red-shirting after undergoing off-season wrist surgery. Senior defenseman Dane Almassy's playing career came to an end after injuries suffered in an off-season automobile accident.
JACKSON, PROSSNER, MCCALL EXPLODE AGAINST UMBC: Three Tar Heels all had their career offensive games as the Tar Heels beat the UMBC Retrievers in Chapel Hill on April 13.
Freshman attackman Jed Prossner had a career high six points in the game fired mainly by his career high five goals.
Freshman attackman Mike McCall also had his career high for points with five points and assists with four.
Senior midfielder Pat Jackson had five points in the UMBC win, topping his three points recorded on three occasions in previous seasons. His three goals equaled his career highs in that category as well. Jackson had three goals against Virginia in 1999 and Navy in 2001.
