University of North Carolina Athletics
Tar Heels Welcome Wolverines Saturday On Senior Night
May 3, 2012 | Men's Lacrosse
May 3, 2012
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CAROLINA WRAPS UP 2012 REGULAR SEASON SATURDAY AGAINST MICHIGAN: North Carolina's 2012 men's lacrosse team, ranked fifth in both national polls this week, returns to Fetzer Field on Saturday to complete its 2012 regular season when the Tar Heels host the Michigan Wolverines at 7 p.m. The game will mark the final regularly scheduled game of the 2012 collegiate lacrosse season and will be UNC's sixth game at home this season. UNC is 3-2 in its previous five home games. Tickets for Saturday's game will be $5 general admission. They can be purchased in advance at the Ticket Center on TarHeelBlue.com. Tickets can also be purchased on game day at the Carmichael Arena ticket office beginning at 6 p.m.
TV & LIVE STATS: North Carolina's game against Michigan Saturday will be webcast exclusively on ESPN3.com. Michael Crowe will serve as the play-by-play announcer while former Tar Heel assistant coach Pat Olmert will serve as the color commentator. This is Carolina's first appearance on ESPN3 this year. UNC also appeared on ESPN once and on ESPNU seven times this season. Live stats will be available on the UNC athletics website, TarHeelBlue.com, under the Gametracker link on the main schedule page.
RECORDS AND RANKINGS: North Carolina enters Saturday's game with a record of 10-5 while the Michigan Wolverines are 1-12. UNC is coached by Joe Breschi, now in his fourth year at his alma mater, while John Paul is in his first season at Michigan as the Wolverines moved from the club level in 2011 to their first season as a varsity program in 2012. Carolina is ranked fifth in both the USILA coaches and Nike Inside Lacrosse media polls this week.
SENIOR NIGHT AT FETZER FIELD: Saturday will mark the final regular-season game for 10 Tar Heel seniors as UNC will celebrate Senior Night at Fetzer Field. Carolina is 3-0 in previous Senior Day games under head coach Joe Breschi, beating Johns Hopkins in 2009, Ohio State in 2010 and Notre Dame in 2011. The Carolina class of 2012 includes senior attackman Thomas Wood of Dallas, Texas; senior long-stick midfielder Mark Staines of Gambrills, Md.; senior short-stick defensive midfielder of Denver, Colo.; graduate student attackman Jack McBride of Madison, N.J.; senior midfielder Jimmy Dunster of Cos Cob, Conn.; senior long-stick defensive midfielder Milton Lyles of Miami Gardens, Fla.; senior long-stick defensive midfielder Gray Smith of Winston-Salem, N.C.; senior close defenseman Logan Corey of Chapel Hill, N.C.; senior close defenseman Charlie McComas of Parkton, Md., and senior goalkeeper Matt Holman of Baltimore, Md. UNC will also honor senior student manager Matt Higbie and second-year graduate assistant athletic trainer Joe Ingriselli. Pre-game senior night recognition begins at 6:35 p.m. Saturday.
TAR HEELS WELCOME BACK ALUMNUS Judd Lattimore: The Tar Heel lacrosse program looks forward to welcoming back former Carolina player and coach Judd Lattimore to Chapel Hill on Saturday. Lattimore is in his first season as an assistant coach to John Paul at Michigan. Lattimore played at Carolina as a midfielder and attackman from 1997 to 2001. He served as an assistant coach at UNC in 2007 and 2008. The Tar Heel made the NCAA Tournament both of those seasons.
NCAA SELECTION SHOW SUNDAY: North Carolina will be seeking its sixth successive bid to the NCAA Division I Lacrosse Championship this year. UNC is also seeking its 27th NCAA Tournament appearance overall. Carolina is currently tied with Navy for the fifth most NCAA Tournament appearances in history with 26. The 2012 Tournament field and complete bracket will be announced at 9 p.m. Sunday, May 6 on ESPNU. Seven conference tournament champions will earn automatic bids while nine teams will be chosen at-large. Only the top eight teams will earn seeds and host first round games on May 12 and 13. The remaining eight teams will be placed in the bracket on a geographical basis.
COMMON OPPONENTS IN 2012: North Carolina and Michigan have played three common opponents so far this season. Both teams defeated Mercer with the Tar Heels posting a 20-7 win over the Bears on February 12 while the Wolverines downed Mercer 14-4 on March 4. The teams also played both Detroit and Penn State. UNC beat the Titans 18-8 on February 18 and the Nittany Lions 14-10 on February 11. Michigan lost to both teams, falling to Detroit 13-9 on February 12 and losing to Penn State 16-9 on February 18.
ANOTHER TEN WIN SEASON FOR CAROLINA: North Carolina achieved its 10th win of the season when it defeated Virginia 11-9 on April 20 in the semifinals of the 2012 ACC Tournament. With that win, Coach Joe Breschi became only the second coach in UNC history to win 10 games in each of his first four seasons as head coach. Dave Klarmann also accomplished the feat from 1991-94. Over the past four seasons, UNC, under Breschi's leadership, has gone 12-6 in 2009, 13-3 in 2010, 10-6 in 2011 and 10-5 in 2012. Prior to 2012, the last time Carolina patched together four successive seasons with 10 or more wins was 1989-94 when the Tar Heels had at least double digits in the win column six years in a row. Contrast the current success with the fact over a 12-year span from 1997-2008, Carolina got to the 10-win plateau only twice, going 10-5 in 2004 and 10-6 in 2007.
HOLMAN NAMED TO ALL-ACC TEAM: Six 2012 Tewaaraton Trophy nominees, including North Carolina junior attackman Marcus Holman, highlighted this year's All-ACC Men's Lacrosse Team as announced April 18 by the league office. The team is determined by a vote of the league's four head coaches. Holman, who ranks second in the conference with 3.73 points per game, was named to the All-ACC Team for the first time this year. The 2010 ACC Freshman of the Year has tallied 27 goals and 29 assists in 15 games played this season. He ranks second in the league in assists per game and fifth in goals per game.
FIVE TAR HEELS NAMED ALL-ACC TOURNAMENT: North Carolina advanced to the ACC Tournament championship game for the second time in Coach Joe Breschi's coaching tenure in 2012 and for only the second time since 1996 overall. Carolina defeated Virginia 11-9 in the semifinals before falling to Duke 12-9 in the championship game. Five Tar Heels were named to the All-ACC Tournament for their stellar play in the conference tournament. This group included a trio of freshmen -- attackmen Joey Sankey and Jimmy Bitter and midfielder Chad Tutton. Also named to the Team were sophomore midfielder R.G. Keenan, who won 17 face-offs and claimed 11 ground balls in the championship game, and junior attackman Marcus Holman, who recently was named a 2012 Tewaaraton Trophy nominee.
11 PLAYERS IN DOUBLE FIGURES IN POINTS: The 2012 Tar Heels feature one of their most balanced offensive corps in many years. Eleven players have already reached the 10-point plateau this season -- Marcus Holman with 56, Joey Sankey with 39, Jimmy Bitter with 36, Chad Tutton with 23, Davey Emala with 20, Thomas Wood with 18, Jack McBride with 14, Jimmy Dunster with 12, Pat Foster with 12, Duncan Hutchins with 11 and Ryan Creighton with 10. The last time Carolina had 11 players reach double figures in points was 1994.
MARCUS' 2012 NUMBERS: Junior attackman Marcus Holman enters the Michigan game with 56 points this season. He became just the 29th player in UNC history to record 50 or more points in a season. With 29 assists, he has become one of only 11 Tar Heels to record that many helpers in a single season. Only seven Tar Heels have recorded as many as 30 assists in a season. Holman needs one more assist to reach that standard.
UNC VERSUS RANKED OPPONENTS UNDER COACH BRESCHI: North Carolina has played ranked opponents 40 times in Joe Breschi's four-year coaching tenure. UNC is 23-17 in those games. Conversely, the Tar Heels are 22-3 against unranked opponents in those four seasons. Breschi is 45-20 overall at Carolina in his four seasons as head coach. During Breschi's tenure, UNC's only losses to unranked teams came to Ohio State in 2011 and to Lehigh and Pennsylvania in 2012.
CAROLINA IN ONE-GOAL DECISIONS: Prior to Joe Breschi taking over as head coach in 2009, UNC went 1-7 in games decided by one goal from midway through the 2004 season through the end of the 2008 campaign. Carolina has improved tremendously in one-goal games since Breschi arrived for the 2009 season. UNC is 10-7 in games decided by one goal over the past four years, including a 3-1 record in 2012. The Tar Heels have won their past two games decided by a single goal, beating Princeton 9-8 and Maryland 11-10 on March 10 and March 24, respectively.
BIGGEST HOME CROWD IN 21 YEARS: The North Carolina men's lacrosse team drew its largest home crowd at Fetzer Field in 21 years when the Tar Heels hosted Virginia on April 7. The game drew a near sellout crowd of 5,138 fans to Fetzer Field, which has a listed capacity of 5,700. It was the largest home crowd for the Heels at Fetzer Field since April 6, 1991 when a No. 1-ranked North Carolina team defeated Johns Hopkins 11-6 before a crowd of 5,700 fans.
THE NEWCOMERS STEP UP: Newcomers to the Tar Heel team in 2012 have played a big role in UNC's success so far this season. Of Carolina's top seven scorers, three are freshmen and two are transfers. Freshmen Joey Sankey, Jimmy Bitter and Chad Tutton rank second, third and fourth on the team, respectively, in points with 39, 36 and 23. Junior transfer Davey Emala (Georgetown) is fifth on the team in points with 20. Graduate student Jack McBride, another newcomer to the Tar Heel team, is seventh on the team in points with 14.
KEENAN'S UPDATED FACEOFF NUMBERS: R.G. Keenan has now won 388 face-offs in his career heading into the game against Michigan. That is the fourth most face-off wins in UNC history. Jude Collins (1993-96) ranks third in all-time face-off wins with 429. Since the start of this season, Keenan has passed eight Tar Heels (Craig Hasslinger, Michael J. Burns, Mac Hammer, Steve Stenersen, Ted Brown, Steve Gilhuley, Jason Sanders and Ryan Damon) on UNC's career list. His 19 face-off wins against Penn State on February 12 were a career high and equaled the sixth most in a game in UNC history.
IRON MEN McCOMAS & DUNSTER: North Carolina senior close defenseman Charlie McComas has made 58 career starts in his time at UNC. That's the most starts of any current Tar Heel. McComas has played in 62 games in his career. Midfielder Jimmy Dunster has played in 61 games, just one behind McComas' total for games played, and he has 51 career starts.
McBRIDE SCORES 100TH CAREER GOAL: Graduate student Jack McBride scored two second-half goal to help the Tar Heels beat Virginia 11-9 on April 20 in the ACC Tournament semifinals. Those two goals gave McBride 10 goals in 2012. His goal with 6:33 to play against the Cavaliers gave the Tar Heels a 10-7 lead en route to the win. The goal was also the 100th of McBride's stellar career.
CAROLINA'S STELLAR MARK IN NON-CONFERENCE GAMES: UNC's record in non-conference games continues to be one of the best in the nation over the past seven seasons. The Tar Heels have won 59 of their past 67 games against non-conference teams dating back to April 15, 2006. In Joe Breschi's four seasons as head coach, the Tar Heels are 39-5 against non-conference teams. The only losses were to Notre Dame in 2009, to Ohio State and Johns Hopkins in 2011 and to Lehigh and Pennsylvania in 2012.
CAROLINA'S DOUBLE DIGIT SCORING GAMES: In Coach Joe Breschi's four years as head lacrosse coach at UNC, Carolina's success has often been tied to hitting the 10-goal plateau in a game. In fact UNC's 15-10 loss to Virginia on April 7, marked only the sixth time in Breschi's coaching tenure that the Tar Heels have lost when they have reached the 10-goal plateau. UNC has scored at least 10 goals in a game in 44 of 65 games under Coach Breschi's direction dating back to the opening game of the 2009 season. Carolina is 38-6 in those 44 games, losing only 11-10 to Virginia on April 4, 2009, 15-13 to Duke on April 26, 2009, 12-11 to Duke on May 17, 2009, to 11-10 to Virginia on April 9, 2011, to Duke 13-11 on March 16, 2012 and to Virginia 15-10 on April 7, 2012. Ironically, Carolina has never lost to a non-conference team during Breschi's coaching tenure when the Heels have scored 10 or more goals. The 15 goals surrendered by the Tar Heels against Virginia on April 7 were the most they have given up in a 29-game span dating back to a 17-9 loss to Duke on May 22, 2010 in the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals in Princeton, N.J. In the 20 games under Coach Breschi's tutelage in which the Tar Heels have not reached the 10-goal mark, UNC has not fared nearly as well as when scoring in double figures. In fact their record in those 20 games is just 7-13 but the Tar Heels did win their most recent game when it failed to reach double digits, beating Princeton 9-8 on March 10.
NEAR DOMINANCE AT FETZER FIELD UNDER BRESCHI: Despite a 15-10 loss to Virginia on April 7, UNC is still 25-6 in home games in Coach Joe Breschi's four years at the helm of the Tar Heels. That's a winning percentage of 80.6 percent. The Tar Heels had a 17-game Fetzer Field winning streak from 2009-11 under Breschi's tenure. UNC's only home losses during Breschi's four-year tenure include regular-season and ACC Tournament games to Duke in 2009, a regular-season loss to Duke and an NCAA Tournament loss to Maryland in 2011 and regular-season losses to Lehigh and Virginia in 2012. Carolina has only one non-conference home loss during Breschi's tenure. The Tar Heels' next home game is against Michigan on May 5.
HEAD COACH Joe Breschi: Joe Breschi is now in his fourth season as the head coach at his alma mater. His Tar Heel teams have a cumulative record of 45-20 for a winning percentage of 69.2 percent. He is in his 15th year overall as a collegiate head coach, including 11 seasons at Ohio State prior to coming to Chapel Hill. His career coaching record is 137-83 and his career winning percentage is 62.3 percent.
CAROLINA SNARES 250TH ALL-TIME WIN AT FETZER FIELD: Carolina's 11-10 win over Maryland on March 24 marked the 250th all-time win for the Tar Heels at Fetzer Field. North Carolina will head into its next home game against Michigan on May 5 with an all-time record of 250-117-2 at Fetzer Field. UNC has a 68.0 winning percentage all-time in history at Fetzer Field.
THE ALL-TIME RECORD: North Carolina has an all-time record of 430-268-2 in the sport of men's lacrosse. That is a winning percentage of .616.
