University of North Carolina Athletics
Tar Heels Play 2005 Home Finale Wednesday
April 12, 2005 | Men's Lacrosse
April 12, 2005
2005 UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA MEN'S LACROSSE GAME NOTES
North Carolina Tar Heels (2-7) vs. Air Force Falcons (3-5)
Wednesday, April 13, 2005, 4:00 p.m., Fetzer Field, Chapel Hill, N.C.
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CAROLINA PLAYS HOST TO AIR FORCE ACADEMY WEDNESDAY: The University of North Carolina men's lacrosse team will seek to snap a three-match losing streak when the Tar Heels play host to the Falcons of the United States Air Force Academy Wednesday afternoon at Fetzer Field. The match begins at 4 p.m. The Tar Heels head into the match with a record of 2-7 overall while Air Force brings a record of 3-5 to Chapel Hill. Neither team is ranked this week in the U.S. Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association coaches poll. Wednesday's match will mark the first time this season that UNC will play against a team not ranked among the Top 16 in this week's USILA national poll. That does not make the Falcons any less dangerous, however. Air Force played at South Bend, Ind., this past Sunday and took the No. 14-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish to overtime before dropping a 14-13 decision. Earlier this season Carolina fell to the Fighting Irish 9-7 in the First 4 in Carson, Calif. UNC is seeking its first victory since defeating a Cornell team currently ranked No. 8 in the nation by a score of 9-5 on March 23. Carolina's other win this spring came over Denver, currently No. 15, by an 18-12 score on February 26. Air Force, coached by veteran head mentor Fred Acee, has wins over VMI 12-8 on February 27, over Lafayette 11-6 on March 6 and over St. John's 13-11 on March 26. The Falcons are looking to halt a two-match losing streak. They have dropped their past two matches to Army and Notre Dame.
FINAL HOME MATCH FOR 10 TAR HEEL SENIORS: The Wednesday match between North Carolina and Air Force will mark the final home appearance at Fetzer Field for 10 Tar Heel seniors. Playing their final home games Wednesday will be senior attackman Jed Prossner (Easton, Md.), senior attackman Mike McCall (Yorktown, N.Y.), senior midfielder Matt McIntosh (Brentwood, Tenn.), senior goalkeeper Paul Spellman (Cockeysville, Md.), senior midfielder Lance Zimmerman (Cockeysville, Md.), senior midfielder Bryant Will (Phoenix, Md.), senior defenseman David DiBianco (Washington, D.C.), senior goalkeeper Andrew Posil (Towson, Md.), senior defenseman J.J. LaSeta (Phoenix, Md.) and senior defenseman Charley Conkling (Lutherville, Md.).
TAR HEELS COMPETE AGAINST KILLER SCHEDULE IN 2005: North Carolina is playing what may be the toughest schedule in the nation during the 2005 season. Altogether, UNC played its first nine games against top 16 teams in this week's U.S. Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association coaches poll. Beginning on February 27, UNC played nine successive games against nationally-ranked teams with a win over current No. 15 Denver by a score of 18-12 score, then losses to current No. 6 Navy 9-6, current No. 14 Notre Dame 9-7, current No. 16 Hofstra 12-8 and current No. 2 Duke 12-10. Carolina broke out of its slump with a 9-5 victory over current No. 8 Cornell on March 23. In the past three games, the Tar Heels fell at current No. 9 Maryland by a 9-4 score, then lost at home to top-ranked Johns Hopkins 7-5 and then fell at No. 3 Virginia by a score of 15-9. Despite the 2-7 record, UNC has been competitive in virtually every game against this schedule. With the exception of the Navy and Virginia games, the Tar Heels have been in a situation where they trailed their opponents by only one goal in the fourth quarter of the losses to Notre Dame, Hofstra, Duke, Maryland and Johns Hopkins and had a possession with a chance to tie the match but UNC was unable to make the plays down the stretch to pull out wins in those contests. But the Tar Heels had put themselves in a position where they were in the game at that point in the final period of play. Only in the Navy game was UNC truly far behind as the closest margin in the final period against the Midshipmen was three goals and the was after the Tar Heels had scored the last three goals of the game to cut the Navy lead to 9-6.
THE SERIES WITH THE FALCONS: North Carolina leads the all-time series with Air Force 7-0. The Tar Heels and the Falcons will be playing Wednesday for the third year in a row. UNC won the 2003 contests in Chapel Hill by a score of 11-5. Carolina won last year's game in Colorado Springs, Colo., by a score of 10-9.
TAR HEELS AMONGST NATIONAL LEADERS IN MAN-UP OFFENSE: North Carolina ranks third in the nation this week in man-up offense. Heading into the Air Force game, the Tar Heels have scored 17 goals on 36 extra-man opportunities, a percentage of .472, which ranks them behind only Notre Dame and UMBC.
BLAIR, PROSSNER AMONGST NATIONAL SCORING LEADERS: In this week's NCAA Division I men's lacrosse statistics, junior attackman Ryan Blair (Auburn, N.Y.) is tied for 19th in the nation in points per game with 3.56 points per game. In goals per game, Tar Heel senior attackman Jed Prossner (Easton, Md.) is tied for 17th in the nation at 2.44 goals per game. Blair is ranked sixth in the nation this week in assists per game at 2.22.
BLAIR VERSUS THE CAVALIERS: North Carolina junior attackman Ryan Blair had three goals and three assists against Virginia on April 9. The six points matched Blair's career high for points in a game. Blair also had six points in a match against Denver on February 26, 2005 and against Duke on March 19, 2005..
PROSSNER NOW FIFTH IN CAREER GOALS: North Carolina senior attackman Jed Prossner (Easton, Md.) heads into the Air Force game in fifth place as the leading goal scorer in North Carolina men's lacrosse history. Prossner currently has 106 career goals at UNC. The all-time leader at UNC is Bert Fett who scored 128 goals from 1972-75. Prossner scored 41 goals during the 2004 season. That was the fifth most goals in a single season in Tar Heel history. The record output was 47 by Dennis Goldstein during UNC's national championship run in 1991. Prossner trails only Bert Fett (128), Mac Ford (111), John Webster (109) and Dennis Goldstein (108) in UNC career goal scoring.
McCALL & WILL PASS MILESTONES: Senior Mike McCall (Yorktown, N.Y.) has passed the 75 mark in career goals this season. In fact, McCall's 21 goals this season has pushed his career total to 90 as he moves closer to the century mark in career goals. McCall is now chasing the Top 10 list at UNC. Jason Wade currently ranks 10th in career goal scoring at UNC with 95 goals. Senior midfielder Bryant Will (Phoenix, Md.) has recorded nine assists this season to pass the 50 mark in his career. Will now has a total of 55 assists. He is aiming for the UNC Top 10 list which currently has Matt Crofton (1997-2000) and Chase Martin (1997-2000) tied for the No. 9 spot with 63 assists apiece. Will has the most career assists among active Tar Heel players with 55. Jed Prossner has 52 career assists, Ryan Blair 49, Mike McCall 36 and Lance Zimmerman 27.
SPELLMAN NOW THIRD IN CAREER SAVES: Tar Heel senior goalkeeper Paul Spellman (Cockeysville, Md.), who has started 49 of the 50 games the Tar Heels have played since he arrived on campus in 2002 while also playing in every game the Tar Heels have played in his time on campus, heads into the Air Force game with 619 career saves. That total ranks third in Carolina history. Ahead of him on the chart are Tom Sears (1980-83) with 629 and Dave Shreiner (1971-73) with 621. Spellman had a season-high 16 saves against Navy on March 5 while allowing only nine goals in a hard-fought game against the second-ranked Midshipmen in which UNC fell short 9-6.
THE ALL-TIME HOME RECORD: North Carolina has a record of 209-103-2 in home games dating back to the start of the varsity program in 1949.
Players Mentioned
