North Carolina
Virginia
Tar Heels Fall To No. 3 Virginia By 15-9 Count
April 9, 2005 | Men's Lacrosse
April 9, 2005
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA. - Third-ranked Virginia got a balanced offensive performance with a trio of players scoring three goals to offset a career day by Tar Heel junior attackman Ryan Blair as the Cavaliers remained undefeated in the Atlantic Coast Conference by downing the Tar Heels 15-9 in men's lacrosse action Saturday afternoon at Klockner Stadium. A crowd of 2,655 saw the 8-1 Cavaliers speed to a 10-4 halftime lead over the 2-7 Tar Heels and then withstand a second-half rally by UNC which saw Carolina pull within two goals late in the third quarter.
Carolina was led offensively by Ryan Blair who equalled his career high for points in a game with six on three goals and three assists. Blair matched his career high total of six points he also had against Denver and Duke earlier this season. It was the fourth time in his career that Blair has scored a career high three goals.
Blair was supported offensively by senior attackman Jed Prossner who had a goal and three assists and senior attackman Mike McCall had two goals and an assist. Carolina's other goals came from freshmen midfielders Ryan Walterhoefer and Nick Tintle and junior defenseman Billy Staines.
Virginia was led by three-goal scorers Matt Ward, Ben Rubeor and Matt Poskay. John Christmas and Kyle Dixon added two goals each for the Cavaliers. Christmas also had three assists and Rob Bateman turned in a three-assist effort.
UNC scored the opening goal 59 seconds in as Prossner found Blair alone on the crease but Christmas assisted on the next two goals, one by Dixon and one by Poskay to give Virginia a 2-1 lead. Blair retied the game for Carolina at 2-2 off an assist by McCall with 8:39 left in the opening period but the tie was a brief one as Jack deVilliers won the face-off and fed Christmas for a goal just five seconds later that put the Wahoos ahead for good at 3-2.
That goal started a 5-0 run by Virginia capped off by a goal by Ward with 10:55 left in the first half that made it 7-2 in favor of the Cavs. Carolina scored two of the next three goals with tallies by Prossner and by Staines, but Rubeor scored back-to-back goals to end the first half and Virginia led 10-4 at the break. That marked UNC biggest halftime deficit of the 2005 season.
Carolina made a spirited comeback in the third quarter, however, as the Tar Heels scored five of the first six goals in the period to cut the Virginia lead to 11-9. McCall and Blair had the first two goals of the period for UNC and then Jared Little regained a five-goal margin for Virginia. But the Tar Heels then ran off three goals in a 1:56 span from the 5:15 mark to the 3:19 mark to cut the lead down to two goals. Nick Tintle, Ryan Walterhoefer and Mike McCall had the goals in that crucial stretch. Walterhoefer then hit the pipe on the next UNC possession on a shot that would have cut the lead to a single goal and the exhange was decisive.
Virginia recovered the ball and came down to score on Rubeor's third goal of the game. Then with 51 seconds left in the quarter Kyle Dixon scored on an outside shot on a man-up situation to make it 13-9 Virginia.
Virginia scored the last two goals of the game as Poskay and Ward scored at the 5:25 and 3:23 marks of the final period to extend the final margin to 15-9.
Virginia outshot the Tar Heels 40-34 and won the ground ball battle 53-41. Virginia also won 15 face-offs to 13 for Carolina. Kip Turner started and made 11 saves in 57 minutes in goal for Virginia. UNC finished with eight saves with Paul Spellman making five in 44 minutes and Trey Sheain three in 16 minutes.
Carolina will be in action again Wednesday when the Tar Heels play host to Air Force at 4 p.m. in UNC's final home game of the 2005 season.
