2004 Carolina Men's Lacrosse Season Preview

February 24, 2004 | Men's Lacrosse

By: UNC Athletic Communications

Feb. 24, 2004

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - The University of North Carolina returns 33 lettermen and eight starters from a 2003 team which shared the prestigious Atlantic Coast Conference regular season championship as the Tar Heels prepare for the 2004 men's lacrosse season, the fourth year under head coach John Haus at his alma mater. Haus believes he has a winning combination to put on the field this year and if younger players can come through to bolster the Tar Heels in the midfield, Carolina will be a force to be reckoned with nationally in the coming season.

A year ago the Tar Heels were arguably one of the nation's best teams but they played in enormously tough luck, losing three overtime games and finishing with a 7-6 overall record and out of the NCAA Tournament field for the fifth straight year. Particularly painful were overtime losses to the two teams which eventually played for the 2003 NCAA Division I championship as Carolina lost a regular season match to Johns Hopkins 11-10 in Chapel Hill while also falling to 2003 NCAA champion Virginia 13-12 in overtime in the semifinals of the 2003 ACC Tournament. All in all, Carolina lost its six matches in 2003 by a combined total of only 10 goals. Still, an arguably deserving Carolina team was left out of the NCAA Tournament field and gone from that squad are six outstanding seniors including four of the top seven midfielders on the 2003 Carolina squad.

Coach Haus must look to replace the likes of All-Atlantic Coast Conference and honorable mention All-America midfielder Austin Garrison as well as other top middies Kyle Bell, Steven Will and Peter Anselmo. Also gone from the 2003 team are valuable long stick defensive midfielder Bowen White and the top backup in the goal for the Tar Heels, Andrew Larkin.

Carolina does return its entire attack unit and defense intact and with several key returnees back in the midfield, Haus will ask a freshman class top heavy on midfielders to step up a carry a major load as the Tar Heels prepare for an extremely challenging 2004 campaign with includes not only Maryland, Virginia and Duke in the ACC wars but also Johns Hopkins, Massachusetts, Cornell, Navy, Ohio State, UMBC, Denver, Air Force, Notre Dame and Limestone outside of the league. The Tar Heels will also play host to the 2004 Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament, the first time UNC has hosted the conference tournament since 1999.

Carolina should be especially sound on the defensive side of the ball where senior captain and preseason first-team All-America Ronnie Staines heads up the close defense. Staines has started every game in his Tar Heel career and he heads up a close defense with also returns two other players who also started all 13 matches a year ago - junior Charley Conkling and sophomore Stephen McElduff.

This trio plays in front of junior Paul Spellman who has started all 26 games in the goal for the Tar Heels the past two seasons. Last year this defensive unit was magnificent as it limited teams to 8.06 goals per game and allowed only five teams to reach double figures in goals. Spellman played all but 11 minutes in goal for the Tar Heels and he was even better than he was as a freshman as he earned honorable mention All-America honors. Spellman made 170 saves while allowing only 107 goals for a brilliant save percentage of .614, allowing only 8.18 goals per game.

esides the three starters on close defense UNC also returns a host of other players with experience defensively - as long stick defensive middies, reserves on close defense and specialists on the man down unit. This group of returning letter winners include senior Matt Pessagno, juniors David DiBianco and J.J. LaSeta and sophomores Hayward Howard, Billy Staines and Tom Hodges. Newcomers on defense include sophomore transfer Pat O'Meara and freshmen Gentry Fitzpatrick and Buddy Kennedy. Meanwhile, freshman Trey Sheain will take over as the chief backup to Spellman in the goal, sharing the role with sophomore Andrew Posil.

The Tar Heels also return a host of returnees who play what a primarily defensive roles in the midfield. Seniors Dave Duffy and Dan Stringer excel at this role as does sophomore Andrew McElduff.

Top returnees in the midfield unit for Carolina are junior Bryant Will, junior Lance Zimmerman and senior Johnny Seivold. All three have extensive playing experience on first and second team midfield units. A year ago Will and Zimmerman were both among the top scorers on the team. Will has 11 goals and 11 assists to go along with 29 ground balls while Zimmerman has 10 goals and three assists with 19 ground balls on the season.

Other returning lettermen in the midfield for Carolina are seniors Phil Pennington and Brad Coker, junior Matt McIntosh, sophomores Ryan Tolson, Dave Werry. Kyle Henderson and Kyle Stringer.

Senior Kevin Frew returns as Carolina's top faceoff specialist. He is one of Face-off Yearbook's pre-season All-America choices. A year ago, he won 83 of 153 faceoffs for a winning percentage of .542. Newcomers in the midfield ranks for the Tar Heels include freshmen Tom Sciolla, Jeff Hoffman, Sam Wagner, David Ryan, Ryan Walterhoefer and Ben Staines.

The Tar Heels return one of the top attack units in the country led by two-year starters Jed Prossner and Mike McCall and three-year regular Andrew Lucas. Prossner, a third-team All-America last year and preseason second team All-America this year, has led the Tar Heels in scoring the past two years. He has 25 goals and 13 assists in 2003. McCall, also a junior like Prossner, has been second on the team in scoring the past two years. He had 24 goals and 11 assists last year. Lucas, a senior, was one of the team's top scorers in both 2001 and 2002 but he has to overcome injury problems last year. He expected to play another strong role on the Tar Heel team in 2004.

A pair of sophomores had great seasons a year ago as both Scott Falatach and Ryan Blair totaled 20 points. Falatach was named to the All-Tournament Team at the ACC Tournament and had 13 goals and seven assists on the season. Blair had seven goals and he shared the team lead in assists with seven. Other returning attackmen are junior Drew Habeck and sophomore Sean Link.

Haus believes the Tar Heels have what it takes to make the breakthrough to national prominence in 2004. UNC plays a challenging schedule and five of Carolina's first six games of the season are on the road. If UNC can get through that early stretch, it plays only one game on the road after March 20 with a chance to build momentum towards an NCAA bid.