University of North Carolina Athletics
Carolina Lacrosse Meets Virginia In ACC Showcase
April 24, 2014 | Men's Lacrosse
Carolina Meets Virginia In ACC Showcase
2014 UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA MEN'S LACROSSE GAME NOTES
Game 14
North Carolina Tar Heels (10-3, ACC 2-3, #6 USILA Coaches Poll/#6 Warrior Media Poll, #5 Lacrosse Magazine Poll) vs. Virginia Cavaliers (9-5, ACC 1-4, #8 USILA Coaches Poll/#10 Warrior Media Poll/#8 Lacrosse Magazine Poll)
Saturday, April 26, 2014
7:30 p.m.
PPL Park
Chester, Pa.
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The Coaches
North Carolina: Joe Breschi, North Carolina '90; 6th year at UNC, 69-28; 17th year overall, 161-91
Virginia: Dom Starsia, Brown '74; 22nd year at Virginia, 256-89; 32nd year overall, 357-135
Television Information
Play by Play: Eamon McAneney
Analysis: Quint Kessenich & Paul Carcaterra
CAROLINA PLAYS REGULAR SEASON FINALE AT ACC SHOWCASE: Coach Joe Breschi's University of North Carolina men's lacrosse team closes out its 2014 regular season schedule on Saturday when it plays the Virginia Cavaliers at 7:30 p.m. at PPL Park in Chester, Pa., as part of the inaugural AC Showcase.
UNC enters the match with a 10-3 record overall and a 2-3 mark in the Atlantic Coast Conference while Virginia is 9-5 overall and 1-4 in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Carolina is coming off a 12-8 victory at High Point last Friday. Virginia defeated Bellarmine 12-8 last Saturday in Charlottesville, Va.
The Tar Heels are ranked #5 in the Lacrosse Magazine poll this week, #6 in the Warrior/Inside Lacrosse media poll and #6 in the U.S. Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association coaches' poll. The Cavaliers are ranked #8 in the Lacrosse Magazine poll this week, #10 in the Warrior/Inside Lacrosse media poll and #8 in the U.S. Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association coaches' poll.
CAROLINA VERSUS VIRGINIA: Since North Carolina became a varsity program in 1949, the Tar Heels are 24-47 all-time against Virginia. UNC has won four in a row over the Cavaliers after losing nine in a row to the Wahoos from 2005-11. Since 1997, the Wahoos have held the upper hand in the series, winning 19 of the past 25 meetings against Carolina.
The Virginia series record differs slightly from what is listed in the UNC record book because the Cavaliers' varsity program predates Carolina's. The Wahoos did play games against a Carolina team that represented the University but had not yet gained varsity status in Chapel Hill.
THIS YEAR'S REGULAR-SEASON GAME IN CHAPEL HILL: North Carolina senior midfielder R.G. Keenan has a habit of scoring late-game, momentum-shifting goals in his career for the Tar Heels. He did it again on Saturday, Aprul 5 on Senior Day at Fetzer Field as the #5 Tar Heels defeated the #9 Virginia Cavaliers 11-10 at sun-drenched Fetzer Field in men's lacrosse action. Before a near capacity crowd of 4,952 fans, Keenan scored off his own face-off win with 2:28 remaining in the fourth quarter to rally the Tar Heels past the Cavaliers 11-10. Carolina improved to 9-2 on the season with the win and evened its ACC record at 2-2. The Cavaliers fell to 8-4 on the season and they are now 1-3 in the ACC.
Carolina has now won four games in a row over the Cavaliers, the first time they have done that since 1990-92. The Wahoos had also won the last seven games between the two teams that had been decided by a single goal. Carolina's one-goal win on Saturday was the first time it beat the Cavaliers in that scenario since a 19-18 victory in 1996. It was a classic ACC battle in which neither side was ever able to gain clear footing. UNC twice led by a pair of goals in the first half. But after the teams were deadlocked 5-5 at intermission neither team held more than a one-goal lead for the entirety of the second half.
View Complete Game Story From April 5 Game on GoHeels.com at this Link
View Box Score From April 5 Game on GoHeels.com at this Link
LIVE COVERAGE FOR SATURDAY'S GAME AT PPL PARK: For fans of Carolina lacrosse who cannot be there in person at PPL Park Saturdaywe invite you to follow along with live stats with a link available on the men's lacrosse schedule page at GoHeels.com.
The game between the Tar Heels and the Cavaliers will also be televised live on ESPN3. Watch the game live on your computer or smart phone at this link. Eamon McAnaney will handle the play-by-play duties for the game for ESPN3 with Quint Kessenich and Paul Carcaterra doing the color analysis.
SHARING THE LOAD: Carolina has nine players with double figures in points this season. They achieved that total in just 10 games this season. UNC also had nine players with 10 or more points last season but it took it 17 games to accomplish that feat.
Freshman Luke Goldstock and junior Walker Chafee are on the verge of joining the 10-point club with nine and eight points, respectively.
TWO TAR HEELS ON TEWAARATON WATCH LIST: A pair of standout Tar Heel offensive players were named on Februrary 27 to the Tewaaraton Award Watch List presented by Panama Jack. Junior attackman Joey Sankey and junior midfielder Chad Tutton were both named to the 50-man Watch List.
The list includes two players who were finalists in 2013 - Tom Schreiber of Princeton and Lyle Thompson of Albany.
UNC's Marcus Holman was also a finalist for the award in 2013, only the second in UNC history. The other Tar Heel was Jed Prossner.
The field will be narrowed to 25 individuals on April 24. The five men's finalists will be announced on May 8.
CREIGHTON A CANDIDATE FOR SENIOR CLASS AWARD: Senior tri-captain Ryan Creighton (West Chester, Pa.) was named one of 20 candidates for the prestigious Senior CLASS Award. The award annually honors one men's lacrosse player who exemplifies four areas of excellence -- community, classroom, character and competition.
Creighton was seeking to become the fourth Tar Heel student-athlete in history to win a Senior CLASS Award. Tyler Hansbrough won the award for men's basketball in 2009, Ali Hawkins for women's soccer in 2010 and Kealia Ohai for women's soccer in 2013. Creighton was not on the list of 10 finalists for the awards that was named on April 3.
Creighton was honored by the UNC Athletic Department at the 2014 RAMMYS held at Memorial Hall on Monday, April 14 as he was named the men's recipient of the Mildred McCaskill Award. The McCaskill Award goes annually to one male athlete and one female athlete who excel in the areas of academic achievement, athletic performance and community service. Meredith Hoover of the UNC women's swimming team won the women's award this year. The last Tar Heel men's lacrosse player to win the award was Ryan Flanagan in 2011.
FOUR TAR HEELS NAMED ALL-ACC: Four members of the University of North Carolina men's lacrosse team were named to the All-Atlantic Coast Conference Team on Wednesday, April 23 as announced by the league office in Greensboro. Junior attackman Jimmy Bitter, junior midfielder Chad Tutton, junior attackman Joey Sankey and senior short-stick defensive midfielder Ryan Creighton were named to the team from Coach Joe Breschi's sixth-ranked Tar Heel team.
Sankey was named to the All-ACC Team for the second straight year while Bitter, Creighton and Tutton are all first-time honorees. The four honorees are the most for the Tar Heels on the All-ACC Team since the 1993 team had seven selections. Sankey and Tutton have both started 13 games this year while Bitter has started 12, missing one game with an injury. Creighton is Carolina's tri-captain and one of the squad's top defensive midfield presences.
Sankey leads the Tar Heels in goals with 30, assists with 22 and points with 52. He has scored on 36.1 percent of his shots this year and ranks second among attackman with 28 ground balls. Bitter is UNC's second leading scorer with 33 points on 26 goals and seven assists. He has scored on 36.6 percent of his shots and leads UNC attackmen with 29 ground balls. He has committed only 14 turnovers this season.
Tutton is Carolina's most proficient goal scorer in the midfield with 22 tallies. He also has three assists and ranks fourth on the team in points with 25. He has three game-winning goals, three man-up goals and 15 ground balls. Creighton is a key leader in a defensive unit allowing only eight goals per game. He has four goals and an assist this year. In addition to his 12 ground balls, he leads the team this season with 13 caused turnovers despite missing two early-season games due to injury.
12 DOUBLE DIGIT SCORING GAMES: North Carolina has scored in double digits in 12 of the first 13 games of the 2014 season, including the first six games of the season. Duke held UNC to eight goals, its season low, on March 15 but the Tar Heels have scored 10 or more goals in each of the last six games.
Dating back to last season, Carolina has scored in double digits in goals in 24 of the past 26 games.
TUTTON'S CONSISTENT SCORING PRESENCE: Junior midfielder Chad Tutton has scored goals in 24 of 26 games dating back to March 9, 2013. He had a 19-game goal scoring streak snapped when he failed to score in UNC's game at Duke on March 15, 2014. He was also held scoreless by the Virginia defense in Carolina's 11-10 win over the Cavaliers on April 5.
Tutton has scored goals in 36 of the past 39 games he has played in. The only three games in that streak when he did not score came at Notre Dame on March 2, 2013, at Duke on March 15, 2014 and against Virginia on April 5, 2014.
The stellar Canadian midfielder scored in 13 successive games from March 21, 2012 through February 23, 2013 prior to having his scoring streak broken against the Fighting Irish last year. He began a 19-game scoring streak against Princeton a week later.
Just a junior, Tutton has two of the 15 longest goal-scoring streaks in Tar Heel lacrosse lore.
His 19-game goal-scoring streak is the seventh longest in UNC history and his previous 13-game streak equaled the 14th longest by a Tar Heel.
POINTS STREAKS FOR JOEY AND JIMMY: Carolina junior attackmen Jimmy Bitter and Joey Sankey have two of the nine longest point scoring streaks currently active in NCAA Division I.
Bitter has recorded points in 39 successive games dating back to March 16, 2012. That is the seventh longest streak in the nation.
Sankey has recorded at least one point in a game in 34 consecutive contests. His scoring streak began on April 20, 2012. Sankey's streak is the ninth longest in NCAA Division I at the present time.
Sankey has scored goals in 14 straight games dating back to the final game of the 2013 season versus Denver. That equals the seventh longest goal-scoring streak in the nation.
Sankey and Bitter were the two fastest Tar Heels in history to reach the 50-goal total in their careers. Both are moving up the career points charts as well. Sankey has 152 career points and Bitter now has 126 career points. Sankey has 88 career goals and Bitter has 85.
HEAD COACH JOE BRESCHI: Joe Breschi is now in his sixth season as the head coach at his alma mater. Breschi has led the Tar Heels to double-digit win totals in each of his first six seasons at the helm and NCAA Tournament bids in each of his first five seasons in Chapel Hill.
To put Breschi's first six years of coaching in perspective consider this fact. UNC has had only one other six-year period in its history when it won 10 or more games six years in a row. That stretch came from 1989-1994. Willie Scroggs coached the 1989 and 1990 teams while Dave Klarmann was the head coach in the period from 1991 through 1994.
Breschi earned his 150th career coaching victory when Carolina beat Virginia in the ACC Tournament championship match on April 28, 2013. He was named ACC Coach of the Year in both 2010 and 2013.
Breschi Coaching Facts:
- 69-28 in five seasons at UNC (71.1)
- 161-91 in 17 seasons overall (63.9)
- 8-12 in ACC regular-season games
- 4-4 in ACC Tournament games
- 3-5 in NCAA Tournament games at UNC; 4-8 in NCAA Tournament games overall
- 15-13 in one-goal games at UNC
- 36-25 versus ranked teams at UNC; 33-3 versus unranked teams at UNC
- 56-9 versus non-conference teams at UNC
- 42-8 in home games at UNC
JUNIOR TRIO CLIMBING CAREER GOAL & POINT CHARTS: Junior attackmen Joey Sankey and Jimmy Bitter and junior midfielder Chad Tutton continue to climb UNC's career charts in goals, assists and points.
Following are the career ranks for the talented junior trio in those three areas.
Goals
Joey Sankey, 19th, 88 career goals
Jimmy Bitter, Tied 21st, 85 career goals
Chad Tutton, Tied 31st, 70 career goals
Assists
Joey Sankey, Tied 12th, 64 career assists
Points
Joey Sankey, 16th, 152 career points
Jimmy Bitter, Tied 24th, 126 career points
Chad Tutton, Tied 47th, 86 career points
CAROLINA SCORING TIDBITS: Following are some details on top UNC players and their personal scoring streaks heading into the Virginia game.
- Has scored a goal in 34 of the past 36 games
- Has recorded a point in 39 successive games (streak began March 16, 2012)
- Has recorded a point in 34 successive games (streak began April 20, 2012)
- Has scored goals in 31 of the past 34 games
- Has recorded a point in 38 of the past 40 games
- Has scored a goal in 23 of past 26 games and 36 of the past 39 games
UNC's CAREER HAT TRICKS: Joey Sankey leads all current Tar Heel players with 14 career hat tricks. Jimmy Bitter with 13 and Chad Tutton with 12 rank right behind Sankey in the category.
The only other Tar Heels will career hat tricks are Pat Foster with three and Ryan Creighton, Shane Simpson, Luke Goldstock, Patrick Kelly, Michael Tagliaferri and Steve Pontrello with one each.
KEENAN'S UPDATED FACEOFF & GROUND BALL NUMBERS: R.G. Keenan has won 632 face-offs in his career. That is the second most face-off wins in UNC history. Shane Walterhoefer (2006-09) is the UNC career leader with 723 face-off victories.
Keenan has 340 career ground balls, the third most in UNC history. He trails only Jude Collins (412) and Shane Walterhoefer (386).
ANOTHER DOUBLE DIGIT WIN SEASON UNDER COACH BRESCHI: Despite playing against one of the nation's toughest schedules in 2014, the Tar Heels reached a double digit win total for the sixth successive year under the tutelage of head coach Joe Breschi, who was hired in June 2008. The Tar Heels are currently 10-3 in 2014 heading into this weekend's game versus Virginia.
Breschi is the first head coach in UNC history to post double digit win totals in each of his first six years mentoring the Tar Heels. Other than Breschi, Dave Klarmann (1991-94) is the only other coach to win 10 or more games in each of his first four seasons.
Under Breschi's leadership, UNC went 12-6 in 2009, 13-3 in 2010, 10-6 in 2011, 11-6 in 2012, 13-4 in 2013 and 10-3 so far in 2014. Prior to 2009-14, the last time Carolina patched together six successive seasons with 10 or more wins was 1989-94 when the Tar Heels had at least double digits in wins 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.
UNC VERSUS RANKED OPPONENTS UNDER COACH BRESCHI: North Carolina has played nationally-ranked opponents 61 times in Joe Breschi's six-year coaching tenure. UNC is 36-25 in those games. Conversely, the Tar Heels are 33-3 against unranked opponents in his six seasons.
Breschi is 69-28 overall at Carolina in his six 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.
THREE TAR HEELS WERE CHOSEN IN 2014 MLL DRAFT: Three seniors on the 2014 University of North Carolina men's lacrosse team were selected January 14 in the Major League Lacrosse collegiate draft. The draft was held at the Philadelphia Convention Center in conjunction with the annual convention of U.S. Lacrosse.
Senior short defensive midfielder Ryan Creighton (West Chester, Pa.) was taken in the second round of the MLL Draft. He was the 12th pick overall in the draft and was taken by MLL's newest team, the Florida Launch. Creighton has been named an honorable mention All-America each of the past two years and is a tri-captain of the 2014 team.
Two more Tar Heel seniors were taken in the seventh round with the first and second picks of that round. Senior face-off man/midfielder R.G. Keenan (Perry Hall, Md.) was chosen with the 49th pick overall by the Ohio Machine, where 2013 UNC alumnus Marcus Holman currently plays.
Senior short stick defensive midfielder Mark McNeill (West River, Md.) was also chosen in the draft's seventh round. He was the 50th overall player taken in the draft and his rights were garnered by his home state team, defending MLL champions, Chesapeake Bayhawks. McNeill had a breakthrough year for the Tar Heels last year, playing especially well late in the season in leading UNC to the ACC title and a berth in the NCAA quarterfinals.
FOUR TAR HEELS EARN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP RINGS: Four current and future Tar Heel players won gold medal rings at the U19 World Championships in Finland in July 2012. Sophomore midfielders Brent Armstrong and Steve Pontrello, redshirt freshman midfielder Michael Tagliaferri and freshman midfielder Stephen Kelly all played for the U.S. side. Carolina junior midfielder Chad Tutton was a member of Team Canada, which captured the silver medal.
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 nine seasons. The Tar Heels have won 77 of their past 89 games against non-conference teams dating back to April 15, 2006.
In Joe Breschi's six seasons as head coach, the Tar Heels are 56-9 against non-conference teams. The only losses were to Notre Dame in 2009, to Ohio State and Johns Hopkins in 2011, to Lehigh, Pennsylvania and Denver in 2012 and to Massachusetts, Notre Dame and Denver in 2013.
Players Mentioned
