University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Virginia
Carolina Downs Virginia 11-9 To Advance To ACC Title Game
April 20, 2012 | Men's Lacrosse
April 20, 2012
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Coach Breschi Post-Game (mp3) | Junior Attackman Holman On The Win Over Virginia (mp3) | Watch Replay Of Game On ESPN3
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA. - Ninth-ranked North Carolina got three goals from Marcus Holman and two goals and three assists from Joey Sankey to upset fourth-ranked Virginia 11-9 Friday night in the second semifinal game of the 2012 ACC Men's Lacrosse Tournament before 3,615 fans at Klockner Stadium. With the win, the Tar Heels advance to the ACC Tournament championship game for only the second time since 1996 and they will play Duke, the tournament's top seed, Sunday at 3 p.m. in a game that will be nationally televised by ESPNU.
The third-seeded Tar Heels claimed their first ACC Tournament win outside of Chapel Hill since April 21, 1996 when they defeated Virginia 13-11 for the conference crown that year. When the Tar Heels meet seventh-ranked Duke on Sunday they will be playing in the tournament championship game for the 10th time (1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2009, 2012). Carolina's most recent ACC Tournament championship came in 1996. UNC last played in the ACC Tournament final in 2009 when it lost to Duke 15-13 in Chapel Hill.
Duke advanced to the championship game with a 6-5 victory over eighth-ranked Maryland in Friday's first semifinal contest.
The win for Carolina broke a nine-game losing streak for the Tar Heels against Virginia as it beat the Wahoos for the first time since April 10, 2004 when the the Heels beat the Cavs 11-9 in a regular-season game in Chapel Hill.
The Tar Heels have now won six of their past seven games this season and they improved to 10-4 on the season overall while Virginia fell to 10-3 with the loss despite a seven-point effort by senior attackman Steele Stanwick.
Holman finished with three goals and an assist for Carolina while Joey Sankey had two goals and three assists for the Tar Heels. Holman had his third hat trick of the season and the 10th hat trick of his career.
Jack McBride had two second-half goals for the Tar Heels, including the game-winning goal with 6:33 to play in the game. That was the 100th career goal for McBride, a graduate student, who played his undergraduate career at Princeton before earning his degree there in 2011.
Ryan Creighton had a goal and an assist for the Heels while Jimmy Bitter, Chad Tutton and Nicky Galasso each scored once. Pat Foster and Thomas Wood added assists for Carolina.
Stanwick led the scoring for the Cavaliers with his two-goal, five-assist effort. Rob Emery and Colin Briggs also had two goals each for the Wahoos while Matt White had a goal and a helper. Chris Bocklet and Chris LaPierre each scored single goals for Virginia.
Virginia outshot the Tar Heels 41-29 but the Tar Heels had the edge in shots on cage 22-16. Virginia also led in ground balls 38-31 while Carolina led in the face-off circle 11-10. UNC's defense forced 16 Virginia turnovers while Carolina had only 12 miscues, more than three below its season average for turnovers in a game.
Individually, R.G. Keenan won 11 of 21 face-offs for UNC and had four ground balls. Steven Rastivo made seven saves, including three in the fourth quarter, and led UNC with six ground balls. Defensemen Kieran McDonald (4 ground balls, 3 caused turnovers) and Mark Staines (4 ground balls) also had big games for UNC.
In the cage Rob Fortunato made 11 stops for the Wahoos, including eight in the first half on just 14 Tar Heel shots. UNC had more success shooting in the second half as it scored seven goals in the last 30 minutes while Fortunato had three second half saves. Both teams cleared the ball exceedingly well with Virginia going 20 of 20 and UNC going 19 of 20. The Tar Heels scored on one of three extra-man chances while Virginia scored on three of five EMO opportunities.
The two teams played a very even first half and went to the locker room tied up a four goals apiece. After the Wahoos won the opening face-off they scored 32 seconds into the match when senior Colin Briggs dodged goal line extended from the left side for a 1-0 lead. Carolina answered at 10:46 of the first quarter when Joey Sankey fed from behind to a wide open Ryan Creighton the crease for a 1-1 tie. The Tar Heels then took their first lead of the game with 4:26 left in the quarter when Holman drove from behind the goal and passed across the box to Bitter who finished from in close on the right side. Before the quarter ended, Virginia got the tying goal as Briggs scored his second goal of the opening frame, assisted by Stanwick with 25 seconds left.
Virginia retook the lead with 11:54 to play in the half as Stanwick scored the first of his two goals. The Heels equalized 5:04 later as Rastivo saved a shot by Chris Bocklet and the Tar Heels scored a fast break goal on the other end with Thomas Wood feeding Sankey for the score. Virginia regained the lead with 3:02 left in the half as Bocklet scored his 30th goal of the season, assisted by Stanwick. The Tar Heels got the tying marker 56 seconds later as Holman scored the first of his three goals, taking a feed from Ryan Creighton and finishing past Fortunato with 2:06 left in the half.
The close first half set the stage for a wild second half that saw multiple swings in momentum. The Cavaliers went up less than three minutes into the second half on a man-up goal by Rob Emery after Charlie McComas had been sent off on a pushing violation. UNC answered with goals by McBride and Sankey and the Tar Heels never trailed again. Pat Foster assisted on McBride's goal at 11:03 of the third quarter as the Tar Heels got a break when a loose ball hit the foot of an official accidentally and Foster was able to pounce on the ground ball and feed a wide open McBride in front of the goal. UNC won the ensuing face-off and went ahead 6-5 on an unassisted goal by Sankey, his 20th of the season, just 17 seconds after McBride's goal. The Tar Heels had a golden opportunity to increase their lead to two goals but Sankey's shot with 8:04 hit the post.
Stanwick's unassisted goal with 6:06 left in the third quarter tied the game for the last time at 6-6. It was the All-America senior attackman's 20th goal of the season. Following the goal Virginia had three shots to take the lead but two efforts by Ryan Tucker and one by Rob Emery went wide. UNC took the lead for good on Holman's second goal of the game as he rolled the crease to score past Rob Fortunato with 2:46 left in the third quarter. It was Holman's 25th goal of the season. It's the 64th time in school history a player has scored 25 or more goals in a season.
Before the end of the third quarter, Holman had two shots turned away by Fortunato. The Tar Heels got an extra-man chance 10 seconds before the end of the quarter but they turned it over with one second remaining giving the Wahoos the ball to start the fourth quarter.
On Virginia's opening possession of the fourth quarter, Rastivo saved a shot by Colin Briggs with 14:08 left. Twenty-three seconds later, Greg McBride forced a turnover by Ryan Tucker to give the ball back to the Tar Heels. The Tar Heels cashed in on the other end. After Marcus Holman hit the post with 12:44 to play, he got the ground ball and the Tar Heels restarted their offense. UNC then upped its lead to 8-6 with 12:22 to play on a Nicky Galasso goal assisted by Sankey. Less than two minutes later, Virginia answered with a fast break goal by Chris LaPierre off Stanwick's third of five assists.
Chad Tutton hit the post on an outside shot with 9:56 left in the fourth quarter. A little over a minute later, Rastivo made a save on a shot by Briggs and Tutton redeemed himself on the other end as he swept around the goal to score from a tough angle on the right side with 7:39 to go in the game. Carolina won the following face-off and McBride got an unassisted goal with 6:33 left to put the Tar Heels up 10-7. The goal marked the 100th of McBride's stellar careers at Princeton and UNC.
With 3:26 to play, Rastivo's errant clearing pass was picked out of the air by Stanwick who shot from midfield towards an empty net. UNC defenseman Kieran McDonald got in the way of the shot, corralled the ball and the Tar Heels successfully cleared the ball and went two-men up when the Wahoos' Chris LaPierre and Chris Clements were sent off for simultaneous fouls with 2:59 to play.
Holman cashed in, scoring on the EMO off an assist by Sankey, to make the score 11-7 with 1:55 left. However, after he scored, Holman was assessed a one-minute non-releasable penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct and Virginia still had life in it. Just 12 seconds into the EMO, Emery scored off an assist by Stanwick.
UNC won the ensuing face-off but they quickly caused a turnover and Matt White scored another extra-man goal with 1:03 to play, again off an assist by Stanwick. The Wahoos also had the advantage of having nine seconds left on the Tar Heel penalty.
Carolina's R.G. Keenan won the ensuing face-off and called timeout before turning the ball over with 39 seconds left. Briggs had a shot to cut the lead to one goal with 24 seconds left but it went wide. After a holding penalty on Tyler Morton with four seconds left, Virginia had one last shot but Rastivo turned away Rob Emery's shot with three seconds to play.
