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April 24, 2004
Chapel Hill, N.C. –
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Game 12
#14 Virginia vs. #3 Maryland
ACC Tournament Finals
April 25, 2004 * 3:30 pm
Fetzer Field * Chapel Hill, N.C.
Game Info
The Records:
Virginia: 5-6
Maryland: 9-2
The Rankings: (USILA/Inside Lacrosse)
Virginia: 14/14
Maryland: 3/3
The Series vs. Maryland:
Overall: 31-41
Home: 15-17
Away: 13-22
Neutral: 3-2
Current Streak: L1
Biggest UVa Win: 11, 1981 (23-12)
Biggest UM Win: 19, 1929 (22-3)
UVa Goals: 686
UM Goals: 823
Starsia (UVa) vs. UM: 12-8
Radio Coverage: You can listen to Jed Williams and Doug Tarring call all the action of Saturday’s game by following this link WINA AM 1070 radio broadcast of men’s lacrosse.
Television: Sunday’s championship game is also being televised live by Comcast Sports Net, Fox Sports Net South and the Sunshine Network. Check your local listings for the network.
Virginia goes for its four ACC title since 1999 Sunday afternoon against Maryland at 3:30 p.m. The Cavaliers advanced to the finals with an 11-9 win over North Carolina in the semifinals on Friday night.
Maryland gained a 10-7 win over Duke in the other semifinal to set the match-up with Virginia.
Virginia suffered a series of heartaches in the ACC Tournament before winning it for the first time in 1997. The Cavaliers followed that with tournament championships in 1999 and 2000 and last season. Overall this is the eighth time in the last nine seasons the Cavaliers have played for the league championship.
This is the second time the Cavaliers have played for the title in Chapel Hill. Virginia won the 1999 tourney title with an 8-7 win over Duke right here at Fetzer Field.
Virginia looks to win its second consecutive ACC championship to become the first to win two in a row since Duke in 2001-02.
Prior to the beginning of the tournament format in 1989, Virginia captured 11 ACC championships (1962-64-69-70-71-75-80-83-84-85-86).
Virginia is attempting to become the first #3 seed to win the ACC Tournament. Duke won the 1995 tourney as the #4 seed and is the only non-1 or -2 seed to win the tournament title. This is only the third time Virginia has been the third seed in the ACC Tournament and the first time since 1996, when the Cavaliers downed Maryland 13-9 before losing to North Carolina in the finals 13-11.
This is the eighth time Virginia has tangled with Maryland in the ACC Tournament and the third time in the finals. The Cavaliers have won three meetings, including an 11-7 triumph in the 2000 title game at College Park. Maryland gained a 14-11 win in the 1998 championship game played at UVa.
Overall Virginia has won just three of seven match-ups against Maryland in the ACC Tournament, the only school the Cavaliers have won fewer than half the time in the tourney.
Maryland leads the all-time series with Virginia by a 41-31 margin. The rivalry between the two schools goes all the way back to 1926, the second year of the Virginia program. The teams have met at least once every season since 1950, making this the second-longest current series of any Virginia opponent (behind Johns Hopkins, 1948).
Throughout the early 1990s the series with Maryland was characterized by many tight games, including one stretch from 1991-1997 where 10 of 11 games were decided by one or two goals.
The trend of tight games was interrupted between 1998-2001 when eight straight were decided by at least three goals, including six in a row that were all decided by four-or-more goals.
The regular season contests in 2002-2003 were one-goal games, but the last two games have been blowouts. Virginia gained a 14-4 in last season’s national semifinals, while the Terps gained an 11-2 win over the Cavaliers earlier this season.
Sophomore attackman tallied a career-high six goals in Friday’s semifinal win over North Carolina. That is the second-highest total in ACC Tournament history. Ward is the first Cavalier to score at least six goals in a game since Mark LaVerghetta did it against VMI in 1996. Ward took just nine shots in the game.
All-ACC goalie was phenomenal in the win over North Carolina, making a career-high 22 saves, including 13 in the first half to help the Cavaliers build a 5-3 lead at the break. Johnson is the first Cavalier to have as many as 20 saves since Chris Sanderson had 21 vs. Syracuse in 1998.
Johnson is the first goalie in league history to be a three-time All-ACC selection. He has 672 career saves, first in UVa history and fourth in ACC history. Maryland’s Brian Dougherty is next for Johnson; he made 685 saves from 1993-96.
has seen his offensive productivity pick up recently. He scored three times and had an assist in the regular season win over Duke last weekend, his first goals in three games. Yevoli followed that with two goals and an assist in Friday’s semifinal win over North Carolina. Curiously, Yevoli has not scored in three consecutive games at any point this season.
Yevoli is the leading active scorer in the ACC with 127 career points (77g, 47a), while midfielder is third with 110 points (74g, 36a). Ward is sixth with 85 points (54g, 31a).
Since moving into a starting role on the attack and shifting to the midfield two games ago against Duke, the Cavalier attack has seen an uptick in its scoring. Against Duke the revamped attack tallied eight of UVa’s 13 goals for its most productive effort of the season to that point. Yevoli responded with three goals, while Gilbert notched a career-high three goals. Ward scored twice.
In Friday’s semifinals against North Carolina, Ward broke loose with a career-high six goals. Yevoli added two and Gilbert one as the attack accounted for nine of the team’s 11 goals.
Against Maryland earlier in the season (a Maryland 11-2 win), the attack failed to score. and Gilbert (playing midfield) scored Virginia’s two goals.
Close defenseman , who was named All-ACC for the first time this season, helped shut down North Carolina’s Scott Falatach, holding him to just two assists. Hughes also led UVa’s defensive players with five ground balls. He has 34 GBs this season, third among conference defensemen. UVa teammate leads ACC defensemen with 39 GBs.
