University of North Carolina Athletics
Carolina Seeks Win Against Defending NCAA Champion Johns Hopkins
March 29, 2006 | Men's Lacrosse
March 29, 2006
CHAPEL HILL, N.C.--The University of North Carolina men's lacrosse team will play the eighth of nine successive games against teams ranked in the Top 20 in this week's U.S. Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association coaches poll when the Tar Heels play 2005 NCAA Division I champion Johns Hopkins Saturday afternoon in Baltimore, Md. The game will be televised in the state of Maryland on WMAR TV.
The game will begin with the opening face-off at 1 p.m. at Homewood Field on the campus of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md.
Johns Hopkins, coached by JHU alumnus Dave Pietremala, is ranked No. 10 this week by the U.S. Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association board of coaches and No. 9 by Inside Lacrosse magazine's media poll. North Carolina is unranked this week in both polls.
Johns Hopkins has a record of 3-3 heading into Saturday's game while the Tar Heels have lost seven in a row and are now 2-7 on the campaign.
The Tar Heels will be seeking their first win over Johns Hopkins since April 2, 1994 when the Tar Heels upset the Blue Jays. then ranked No. 5, by an 11-9 score at Homewood Field. Since that game Hopkins has won 12 in a row overall over Carolina including five successive meetings at Homewood Field. Of the five most recent losses for Carolina at Homewood Field, three came by a single goal and another by two goals. The only lopsided score in that group of five matches was a 16-9 JHU win in 1998.
Johns Hopkins represents the eighth North Carolina opponent of nine successive foes ranked in the Top 20 this week by the USILA that the Tar Heels have faced or will face between February 26 and April 8 of this season. After opening the season with two wins over unranked teams, Carolina has been met with a big roadblock by the last seven opponents, all ranked in the Top 20. UNC last lost all seven games although five have been decided by three or less goals. Only against Navy and Pennsylvania did the Tar Heels suffer lopsided losses during the current losing streaks.
North Carolina needs a win in a big way to right its own ship after seven successive losses. The Tar Heels are a longshot for claiming an NCAA Tournament berth in 2006. With six games remaining in its regular season including a pair of games in the 2006 ACC Tournament, North Carolina must win out in its remaining six matches in order to finish with the 8-7 record that would make the Tar Heels eligible for selection to the 16-team NCAA Tournament field. If the Tar Heels could go 6-0 the rest of the way UNC would likely get an NCAA bid because they would have wins over Johns Hopkins and Virginia in regular season games as well as wins over two of the other three ACC teams, all in the Top 10, by winning the ACC Tournament.
The Tar Heels have dropped seven games in a row to nationally-ranked teams, but with two more successive games coming up against nationally-ranked teams UNC is still in a position where it can plays itself back into tournament contention. Carolina is playing one of the most difficult schedules in the nation with 11 of a possible 15 regular season games being played against USILA Top 20 teams from the March 27, 2006 USILA poll.
After opening the season with wins over Ohio State 14-5 and Air Force 8-6, the Tar Heels have dropped consecutive games against No. 20 Denver 11-8 on the road, followed by home losses to No. 6 Navy 11-3 and to No. 20 Pennsylvania 13-4. In its most recent three match road trip, UNC fell at No. 12 Notre Dame 9-7, at No. 9 Hofstra 6-5 and at No. 2 Duke 11-8. Last Saturday, UNC fell at home to No. 4 Maryland 9-6.
Johns Hopkins also needs a win in Saturday's contest to stay above the .500 mark for the season. The defending NCAA champion Blue Jays are 3-3 this season with wins over Albany, UMBC and Syracuse and losses to Princeton, Hofstra and Virginia.
So far this season UNC is 2-0 against unranked teams and 0-7 against ranked teams. With the next two games scheduled against ranked teams, the Tar Heels must lift their level of play quickly in order to achieve a successful season.
THE TAR HEEL YOUTH MOVEMENT: After losing 10 seniors off the 2005 team, six of whom were four-year starters and all of whom were significant contributors, UNC entered the 2006 season as one of the nation's most inexperienced teams. Of the 26 players who regularly play in the Tar Heel rotation this season, 13 are either freshmen or sophomores. Another four are juniors. Nine are seniors but only six of the nine saw extensive play during their first three years as Tar Heels.
A PROGRAM FIRST: In 2006, the Tar Heels played their home opener at the latest point of a season of any year in school history. In its history, dating back to 1949, North Carolina had never started a season with three successive games played away from Chapel Hill, N.C. UNC's home opener in 2006 did not come until the season's fourth match which came March 4 against Navy. The No. 3 Midshipmen defeated the Tar Heels 11-3 in Carolina's home opener. Carolina has lost its home opener in two of the past three seasons. The eight-goal margin of victory was the largest in the history of the 20-game series for the Midshipmen. No. 20 Pennsylvania also had its largest victory margin ever against Carolina in the Quakers' 13-4 win in Chapel Hill on March 7. The last time Carolina lost its first two home games in a season was 2004 when the Tar Heels fell to Navy and Maryland in their first two games at Fetzer Field. Overall, UNC has lost three successive games at home to Navy, Penn and Maryland. The last time UNC lost three straight home games was 1999 when it lost to Johns Hopkins, Duke and Loyola in a row.
SEEKING AN END TO THE LOSING STREAK: The top two goals the Carolina team hopes to achieve Saturday at Johns Hopkins are a win over the defending NCAA champion Blue Jays and an end to the second-longest losing streak in UNC lacrosse history. The Tar Heels have now lost seven matches in a row. That is the longest losing streak for the UNC lacrosse program since the Tar Heels lost 14 successive games over a three-season span from 1953-64. UNC lost the last three games of 1953, all six games in 1954 and the first five games of 1964. UNC had no varsity lacrosse team from 1955-63. The seven losses are the most games UNC lost in a row in the same season. UNC lost six games in a row in the same season when the Tar Heels went 0-6 in 1954.
TWO THREE-GAME ROAD TRIPS: Carolina started the season with six of its first eight matches on the road. It marked the first time in UNC lacrosse history that Carolina played as many as six road games in the first eight games of a season. UNC opened the season with three road games against Ohio State (in Baltimore), against Air Force (in Denver) and against Denver. After playing two home matches, UNC embarked on another three-game road trips with matches at Notre Dame, at Hofstra and at Duke. Carolina has four of its final six games on the road including April 1 at Johns Hopkins, April 23 at Providence and April 28 and 30 at the ACC Tournament.
THE NORTH CAROLINA-JOHNS HOPKINS SERIES: North Carolina trails Johns Hopkins in the all-time series 22-12 but that is in large measure because the Blue Jays have won 12 in a row over the Tar Heels. Following an 11-9 Tar Heel win over the Blue Jays at Homewood Field in 1994 that at the time gave Carolina a 12-10 series advantage, Hopkins has been dominant. JHU has won 11 regular season meetings in a row as well as an NCAA Tournament quarterfinal game in 2004. The teams first met in 1977 when the Blue Jays defeated the Tar Heels in the NCAA quarterfinals 16-9 in Baltimore. The next meeting came in 1981 when UNC won its first of four national championships by beating the Blue Jays 14-13 at Princeton, N.J. The teams also met in the 1982 NCAA championship game with UNC winning 7-5. Prior to the 12 successive wins by Johns Hopkins which comprise the current winning streak UNC had beaten the Blue Jays six straight times. Most of the recent games have been close with Hopkins winning five of the last seven games by either one or two goals. If the Tar Heels are looking for a good omen the last time UNC beat Hopkins in men's lacrosse was also the same weekend that UNC last made the Final Four in women's basketball. That weekend of April 2-3, 1994 saw UNC beat Hopkins 11-9 at Homewood Field on Saturday while Carolina's women's basketball team beat Purdue in the NCAA semifinals that day at Richmond, Va. The following day UNC's women beat Louisiana Tech for the school's first NCAA championship in women's basketball.
BLAIR'S ASSISTS: After recording three assists at Duke, senior attackman Ryan Blair moved into eighth place in Carolina history in career assists. Blair added one assist against Maryland and he currently has 67 career assists. This season Blair has passed Bert Fett (1972-75) who is now ninth in UNC history with 64 assists as well as Chase Martin (1997-2000) and Matt Crofton (1997-2000) who are both now tied for 10th place in UNC history with 63 assists. Blair leads the Tar Heels in assists in 2006 with nine. Blair's next milestone to pass on the UNC assist list comes in the form of Spencer Deering (1994-97) who had 77 assists, good for No. 7 on the career list.
CAROLINA'S WIN OVER OSU: North Carolina opened its 2006 season by beating Ohio State 14-5 February 18 at Calvert Hall College High School in Baltimore, Md. The story of the game was the dominance of UNC's defense which limited the Buckeyes to only two goals in the first three quarters of the match. Carolina allowed three goals in the final quarter, two on extra-man situations, but still prevailed by nine goals. UNC won the ground ball battle 45-28, forced 21 turnovers and coaxed the Buckeyes into five failed clears. Trey Sheain started his second career game in goal and played all 60 minutes, making 11 saves and allowing only five goals. Sheain also started against Duke in the 2004 season. Offensively, freshmen Michael Burns (3g, 3a), Bart Wagner (3g, 2a) and Bobby McAuley (2g, 1a) led the way for UNC. Sophomore middie Nick Tintle also had a two-goal, one-assist day and Ryan Blair had two goals. Sean Link added one goal, only the second of his career, and midfielders Dave Werry and Shane Walterhoefer each had assists for their first career points in Tar Heel uniforms. Four different Tar Heels had six ground balls against the Buckeyes -- Bart Wagner, Dave Werry, Billy Staines and Hayward Howard. Wagner and Werry both had career highs for ground balls in a game against Ohio State and Howard was just one short of his career high set against both Cornell and UMBC last season. Staines had a career high nine ground balls last year versus Air Force.
UNC SPLITS IN DENVER: North Carolina split its two games in the 2006 Pioneer Face-Off Classic in Denver, Colo., February 25 and 26. The Tar Heels defeated Air Force 8-6 in the opening game of the tournament behind three goals by Michael Burns and a stifling defense that limited Air Force to only 19 shots. The Tar Heels fell in the Sunday afternoon match on the second day of the tournament against host Denver as the Pioneers outscored the Tar Heels 6-1 in the fourth quarter of an 11-8 victory. All six Pioneer goals in the fourth quarter were recoded in the final 7:19 of play.. Michael Burns, Ryan Blair and Rob Driscoll each scored two goals for UNC. Denver was ranked No. 20 at the time but has moved up to No. 16 in the USILA ranking with a 4-2 overall record. Carolina had five players on the All-Tournament Team at the Pioneer Face-Off Classic--attackmen Michael Burns and Ryan Blair, defensemen Stephen McElduff and Billy Staines and midfielder Nick Tintle.
TAR HEELS STRUGGLE AGAINST NAVY: No. 6-ranked Navy spoiled UNC's home opener while beating North Carolina for the fourth straight year, 11-3, at Fetzer Field March 4. Navy dominated the game offensively with 34 shots to 27 for UNC while also winning the ground ball battle by a staggering 39-23 margin. Navy led in face-offs 10-8 and the Midshipmen forced UNC into seven failed clears. Freshman Grant Zimmerman made his first career start in the goal for the Tar Heels and he was credited with eight saves while allowing 11 goals. The three goals scored by UNC were the fewest in a game by the Tar Heels since they lost 10-3 in the 2002 ACC Tournament semifinals to Virginia. The eight-goal victory margin by Navy was the largest in the history of the series which is now tied at 10 wins each.
PENN'S NINE-GOAL SPURT DOOMS TAR HEELS: North Carolina fell to Pennsylvania March 7 by a 13-4 score at Fetzer Field. UNC trailed only 4-2 at the end of the first quarter but Penn scored nine straight goals over the course of the second, third and fourth quarters to put the Quakers up 13-2 less than two minutes into the fourth quarter. UNC scored two goals in the last five minutes of the game to make the final score more respectable. UNC attackmen Sam Wagner and Ben Mark had the initial points of their careers in the match. Mark scored his first goal in his three years at UNC and Wagner recorded his first career assist.
UNC'S RALLY AT NOTRE DAME FALLS JUST SHORT: North Carolina came close to pulling off a remarkable comeback in the Tar Heels' 9-7 loss at No. 12 Notre Dame on March 11. The game was tied at 3-3 with a little over eight minutes remaining in the second quarter but Notre Dame scored five successive goals in only 12:08 over the second and third quarters to go up 8-3 with 11 minutes remaining in the third quarter. Carolina then started a run of its own with 2:49 remaining in the third quarter as UNC scorched the nets for four successive goals, the last with 4:09 left in the game to pull within 8-7. Notre Dame won the face-off following the last of the UNC goals and then added an insurance goal with 2:51 to play, icing the win. Freshman Bart Wagner led the Tar Heels offensively with two goals and two assists. Senior attackman Sean Link doubled his previous career total for goals in the game by scoring twice, raising his career total to four goals.
TAR HEELS PULL OFF NEAR UPSET AT NO. 9 HOFSTRA: North Carolina almost pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the 2006 lacrosse season when it fell at No. 9 Hofstra 6-5 in Hempstead, N.Y. on March 15. Since that game Hofstra has moved up to No. 4 in the nation. UNC led the game by 5-1 late in the third quarter but the Pride scored the last five goals of the game, the winning goal coming with 1:50 to play to cap the rally. Freshman goalkeeper Grant Zimmerman had a career high 11 saves in the game while allowing only six goals. Zimmerman also had a game-high four caused turnovers. Nick Tintle led the UNC offense with two goals.
CAROLINA FALLS AT NO. 2 DUKE: Ryan Blair, Nick Tintle and Ryan Walterhoefer each scored two goals but Duke rallied to score 10 of the last 11 goals of the game in an 11-8 win by the No. 2 Blue Devils March 18 in Durham, N.C. UNC had leads of 6-0 and 7-1 in the match but was unable to hold the lead as the Blue Devils outscored Carolina 8-1 in the second half. Ryan Blair had his best offensive game of the 2006 season with two goals and three assists in the match.
TAR HEELS LEAD NO. 4 MARYLAND IN SECOND HALF BUT EVENTUALLY FALL 9-6: For the third straight game against a Top 10 opponent North Carolina held a second-half lead but Maryland scored five straight goals in the third and fourth quarters to beat Carolina 9-6. It was Maryland's fifth successive in in games against Carolina at Chapel Hill. Joe Walters keyed the Maryland offense with five goals. UNC was led by freshman midfielder Ben Hunt who had the first two goals of his career. Ryan Blair and Brian Connors each had a goal and an assist. The Tar Heel took 41 shots to only 31 for Maryland and also led in ground balls 4538.
Michael Burns TAPPED FOR ACC AWARD: North Carolina's Michael Burns was named the Atlantic Coast Conference Men's Lacrosse Player of the Week February 20 after leading the Tar Heels to a season-opening 14-5 win over Ohio State at Calvert Hall College High School in Baltimore, Md. Burns led all scorers in the game with six points as he tallied three goals and passed for three assists against the Buckeyes. The freshman attackman earned his first career start against Ohio State. Burns made his presence felt from the opening minutes of the game as he assisted on North Carolina's first three goals of the contest to help give the Tar Heels a 6-0 lead in the game shortly before halftime. The Garden City, N.Y., native would register three goals of his own in the second half, leading North Carolina to a season-opening win for the eighth straight year.
BLAIR, McELDUFF NAMED TO TEWAARATON LIST: Senior attackman Ryan Blair and senior defenseman Stephen McElduff of the University of North Carolina lacrosse team were named February 22 to the watch list for the 2006 Tewaaraton Trophy, one of the two premier National Player of the Year Awards in collegiate lacrosse. The selection committee of the Tewaaraton Award Foundation was responsible for issuing the preseason watch list. The players on the list were nominated by coaches across all three divisions of NCAA lacrosse play. A total of 53 players overall made the watch list for 2006. Former UNC attackman Jed Prossner, a two-time first-team All-America, was one of the five finalists for the Tewaaraton Trophy in 2004. Ryan Blair is a senior attackman who led the Tar Heels in scoring in 2005 with 22 goals and 29 assists for 51 points. Stephen McElduff was a third-team All-America selection in 2005 on defense and was named this year as a preseason first-team All-America on defense by Inside Lacrosse Magazine and Face-Off Yearbook.
WERRY'S BIG DAY: Senior midfielder Dave Werry had a pair of career highs in UNC's 14-5 win over Ohio State February 18. The senior midfielder from Oshawa, Ontario won 11 face-offs, his career high, and his six ground balls were also his top career mark in a game. Werry also won six of seven face-offs against Penn on March 7 for his top single-game face-off winning percentage of his career (.857).
TREY IN THE GOAL: Junior Trey Sheain made only his second career start February 18 versus Ohio State and responded by making 11 saves and allowing only five goals versus the Buckeyes. The 11 saves were his career high at that point. Sheain's initial career start was in a 10-9 overtime win at Duke in 2004.
McELDUFF, BLAIR NAMED 2006 PRESEASON ALL-AMERICAS: A pair of North Carolina players were named to the preseason All-America Teams named by Inside Lacrosse and Face-Off Yearbook. Stephen McElduff, a senior defenseman from Yorktown, N.Y., was named a first-team preseason All-America and senior attackman Ryan Blair of Auburn, N.Y. was named an honorable mention All-America choice.
TAR HEELS LOOK TO TURN AROUND CLOSE DECISIONS DURING REMAINDER OF 2006 SEASON: With the Tar Heels currently posting a 2-7 record and postseason play for UNC looking harder to envision at this junctire, one point of emphasis for this young Tar Heel team is to improve its record in close games during the second half of the season. In its last 12 games decided by three goals or less the Tar Heels have a record of 1-11. North Carolina finished 0-5 in games decided by three goals or less in 2005. So far during the 2006 season UNC is 1-5 in games decided by three goals or less. In UNC's five wins in 2005, the Tar Heels outscored their opponents by 31 goals while in the eight losses the Tar Heels were outscored by only 26 goals, an average of only 3.25 goals per game in those eight losses. Despite having a 5-8 record in 2005, UNC actually outscored its opponents 124-119 during the 23005 season.
CAROLINA'S WIN OVER AIR FORCE: When UNC defeated Air Force 8-6 on February 25 it marked Carolina's first victory in a match decided by three goals or less since April 11, 2004 when UNC defeated Virginia 11-9 at Fetzer Field. UNC had lost six games in a row in contests decided by three or fewer goals between April 11, 2004 and February 25, 2006. UNC is now 1-5 this season in games decided by three goals or less. In March of 2004, UNC played in four games in a five-game stretch where the winning margin was a single goal. UNC beat Air Force and Duke in those games and lost to Maryland and Johns Hopkins.
BLAIR'S SEASON BEST TOTALS: UNC's 2005 leading scorer, Ryan Blair, had 22 goals, 29 assists and 51 points last season. Those were all season best totals for the senior attackman from Auburn, N.Y. Previously, Blair's best totals were 18 goals during the 2004 season, 16 assists during the 2004 season and 34 points in the 2004 campaign.
McELDUFF'S CAREER STARTS: Senior defenseman Stephen McElduff is amongst ACC leaders with 49 career starts during his four years at UNC. That is the seventh highest total number of career starts for any player currently competing in the Atlantic Coast Conference. McElduff has started 49 of 50 games during his UNC career.
LAIR'S CAREER ASSISTS: Senior Ryan Blair headed into the 2006 season tied for fifth amongst active NCAA Division I players in career assists. Blair had 58 assists to his credit and was tied with Xander Ritz of Maryland and John Walker of Army with that total. Stony Brook's Jason Cappadoro led all active players with 70 assists heading into the season followed by Jon Birsner of Navy (69), Cam Howard of Delaware (68) and Matt Danowski of Duke (61).
TAR HEELS OPEN STRONG AGAIN DEFENSIVELY: As they did three times in 2005, Carolina opened the 2006 season by allowing only five goals in their 14-5 win over Ohio State. UNC also limited Cornell, Air Force and UMBC to five goals in 2005. The last time UNC limited an opponent to fewer than five goals was February 22, 2003 when UNC beat Bucknell 13-3 in Chapel Hill, N.C. Carolina also limited Air Force to only six goals in the second game of the season, an 8-6 victory by the Tar Heels over the Falcons. In 2005, UNC limited NCAA champion Johns Hopkins to its lowest goal total of the season in a 7-5 victory by the Blue Jays over the Tar Heels.
UNC'S HAT TRICKS: Going into the 2006 season, sophomore midfielder Ryan Walterhoefer and senior attackman Ryan Blair were the only two Tar Heels on the 2006 team who had scored three or more goals in a game during their careers. Blair has scored three goals in a game an amazing seven times in his career. Walterhoefer had three goals against Duke in the 2005 regular-season game. Those two tar Heels were quickly joined in that category by a pair of freshman attackmen in UNC's 2006 season opener as both Michael Burns and Bart Wagner recorded hat tricks against Ohio State. Michael Burns also added three goals in the second game of the season against Air Force.
THREE OR MORE ASSISTS: Carolina's Ryan Blair began the 2006 campaign as the only Tar Heel to record as many as three assists in a game. Blair's career high of five came against Colgate in 2005. Michael Burns recorded three assists for Carolina in the season opener against Ohio State to become the second Tar Heel to record as many as three assists in a match. Blair also had three assists in the game at Duke March 18.
CAROLINA SEEKS 22ND NCAA BID: The North Carolina lacrosse team began the 2006 campaign hoping to earn the school's 22nd NCAA Tournament bid at the conclusion of the season. Carolina earned its 21st bid to the NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Tournament in 2004, advancing to the NCAA quarterfinals. Only five schools have earned more bids to the NCAA Tournament than Carolina. Johns Hopkins leads all schools with 34 bids to the tournament while Virginia and Maryland have each been invited 28 times. Syracuse has earned 25 bids, Navy has 22 bids and North Carolina is sixth with 21 bids.
COACH John Haus: North Carolina head coach John Haus, a 1983 Carolina graduate, is in his sixth 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. As the head coach at Johns Hopkins his teams went 20-7 in 1999 and 2000. As the Tar Heel head coach his teams are 38-37 in six seasons. In 12 years as a collegiate head coach his teams are now 105-65. Including his time as a player, assistant coach and head coach he has been involved with teams that have a combined record of 210-100 in the collegiate ranks. That record has been compiled over 22 seasons of association with college lacrosse.
THE ALL-TIME HOME RECORD: North Carolina has a record of 210-106-2 in home games dating back to the start of the varsity program in 1949. UNC's all-time winning percentage at historic Fetzer Field is .663.
BURNS STARTS WITH THREE MULTI-GOAL GAMES: North Carolina attackman Michael Burn started his 2006 freshman year in style by compiling three successive multiple goal games. Burns scored three against both Ohio State and Air Force and two against Denver.
WAGNER'S FAST START: North Carolina freshman attackman Bart Wagner made the opening game of his career a memorable one as he totaled five points on three goals and two assists against Ohio State. Twice in the first three games of the year Wagner has led UNC in ground balls with six against Ohio State and four against Denver. Wagner recorded four points in the game at Notre Dame with two goals while matching his season-high for assists with two.
SHEAIN'S CAREER HIGH: Goalkeeper Trey Sheain had his career high for saves with 12 against Denver on February 26. Sheain allowed only 10 goals in the match against the Pioneers.
DRISCOLL SCORES TWICE: Sophomore midfielder Rob Driscoll matched his career high for goals in a game when he scored twice against Denver Februa y 26.
SHANE RECORDS CAREER BESTS: Freshman midfielder Shane Walterhoefer recorded career highs for face-offs won with eight and ground balls with six in UNC's 8-6 win over Air Force on February 25. He then matched his face-off high with eight wins against Denver February 25. Walterhoefer won 9 of 14 face-offs against Hofstra and he was 14 of 20 in the game at Duke to improve his career face-off win total in each of those matches. Walterhoefer had a season-high eight ground balls in the game at Duke. Walterhoefer won eight face-offs against Maryland and again led the Tar Heels in ground balls with seven.
BLAIR'S FOUR POINTS: Senior attackman Ryan Blair had what was then a season-high four points against Denver February 26. Blair had two goals and two assists versus the Pioneers.
BLAIR CONTINUES FINE PLAY AGAINST DUKE: Ryan Blair had a season-high five points in Carolina's game at Duke March 18. Blair had two goals and three assists versus the Blue Devils. Blair has scored 17 points in his last three games against Duke. That includes six points in both games last year (3 goals, 3 assists each time) and five points on March 18 (2 goals, 3 assists).
GOAL NO. 1 FOR CONNORS: North Carolina's Brian Connors scored his first career goal in UNC's 8-6 win over Air Force February 25. His first goal was a big one as it tied the game 3-3 in the third quarter and sparked a 6-0 UNC scoring run that was the difference in the match. Connors had his career high in points when he scored a goal and had one assist in UNC's 9-6 loss to Maryland March 25.
FIRSTS FOR SAM AND BEN: When Ben Mark scored in the fourth quarter of the Penn game off an assist by Sam Wagner it gave each of the Tar Heel junior attackmen the opening point of their careers.
LINKY'S FIRST MULTI-GOAL GAME: After scoring just one goal in his first three years as a Tar Heel, senior attackman Sean Link has scored four goals so far this year. Two of those goals came against Notre Dame on March 11. That game also marked the first time Link has started a game in his Tar Heel career. Link has now started three games for UNC this year. He added a goal against Hofstra giving him five for his career.
McAULEY'S CAREER FIRST: Freshman midfielder Bobby McAuley had an outstanding first game in a Tar Heel uniform as he record three points (2g, 1a) in the 14-5 win over Ohio State February 18.
TINTLE'S HIGH GAME: Sophomore midfielder Nick Tintle matched his career high for goals in a game with two against Ohio State. Tintle also had three points in the match, a career best in the points category. Tintle again matched his career high for goals by scoring twice in the UNC games at Hofstra and at Duke.
ZIM'S CAREER HIGH: Freshman goalkeeper Grant Zimmerman had a career high 11 saves in UNC's game at Hofstra March 15. Zimmerman also led the UNC team in that game with four caused turnovers.
WALT VERSUS DUKE: Sophomore Ryan Walterhoefer has scored five goals in the last two regular season games against Duke. Walterhoefer had three in 2005 and two in the 2006 game.
UNC ON THE EXTRA-MAN: After scoring only four extra-man goals in the first seven games of the season, UNC's extra-man offense broke through with his best game of the season by going four for nine on the extra-man against Duke March 18.
KAISER AND WALT'S GROUND BALLS: Both defenseman Tim Kaiser and midfielder Shane Walterhoefer recorded career highs for ground balls in a game with eight against Duke March 18.
HUNT'S OPENING SALVO: Freshman midfielder Ben Hunt celebrated his entrance into the starting first midfield unit against Maryland March 25 by scoring the opening two goals of his career. Earlier this year Hunt recorded his first career point on an assista against Notre Dame.
