No. 1 Virginia to Square Off in Road Battle at Towson on Sunday

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – No. 1 Virginia travels north to face the Towson Tigers (1-3) out of the Colonial Athletic Conference, Sunday afternoon, inside Unitas Stadium. Faceoff is scheduled for noon. Live stats will be available at VirginiaSports.com. For the second straight week, Virginia (7-0) graces the No. 1 position in both the Nike/Inside Lacrosse media and USILA coaches polls. The Cavaliers received all possible No. 1 votes in both polls except for one in the media poll that went to ACC foe North Carolina.

The game will also be broadcast in the Charlottesville area on WINA AM 1070 with John Freeman calling the action and Jamie Leachman doing the color broadcast. ESPNU will televise the game live nationally, while WMAR-TV will carry the contest in the Baltimore region. Scott Garceau will call the play-by-play and Mark Dixon will provide the color.

Since the USILA started its coaches’ poll in 1973, UVa has been ranked in the Top 5 in 251 polls, including this week’s No. 1 ranking. This is the second week UVa is ranked No. 1 after last week served as the first time the Cavaliers had been ranked No. 1 in both polls since the week of April 20, 2009. Virginia spent seven weeks last season atop both polls, and 10 weeks as the No. 1 team in the Nike/Inside Lacrosse media poll.

Sunday marks the 10th straight season the Cavaliers and Tigers have clashed in a series which Virginia holds the all-time 12-3 advantage. UVa has won the last nine meetings, its second-longest active winning streak against a Division I opponent (VMI 17, UMass 8). Towson and Virginia met on an annual basis from 1972-77, but did not meet again until the 1991 NCAA Tournament, a game the Tigers won in Charlottesville, 14-3.

Ten years passed before the annual series resumed in 2001 with a 12-8 Cavalier victory in what proved to be the biggest defeat the Tigers suffered in a season when they advanced to the Memorial Day Weekend.

Shamel Bratton and Steele Stanwick each tallied a game-high three goals in last season’s meeting in Charlottesville. Virginia allowed two second-quarter scores and then shut out the Tigers the remainder of the game on the way to an 11-2 triumph inside Klöckner Stadium.

Virginia has started a season with seven straight wins for the third consecutive season after defeating Vermont on Tuesday night, 18-7. Brian Carroll equaled a career high with five goals and Chris Bocklet added four scores in the victory.

Bocklet leads Virginia with 21 goals and 28 points on the season, while Stanwick holds the team lead with 16 assists. Rhamel Bratton and Carroll are tied for second on the team with 11 goals, while Stanwick has 10 goals and his 26 points are second best on the squad. Freshman Matt White has nine goals and has tallied at least one point in every game of his young collegiate career. Adam Ghitelman is saving .562 of the shots against him, while posting a 7.09 GAA.

Towson head coach Tony Seaman is entering his 12th season at Towson and returns 34 letterwinners and seven starters off a 2009 squad that went 7-10. The Tigers may be playing one of the toughest schedules in the nation as their first 10 scheduled opponents have been, or are currently ranked, in either the Nike/Inside Lacrosse Media or USILA coaches polls.

The Tigers are coming off their first victory of the season on Tuesday, defeating Navy 10-9 at Unitas Stadium, when Christian Pastirik scored his third goal of the game with six seconds remaining in regulation to send Towson to victory.

Will Harrington leads the team with 10 goals, while Pastirik has a team-high 13 points to go with his eight goals. The Tigers have split time between two goalies this season. Travis Love picked up the victory between the pipes on Tuesday and is saving 59.1 percent of shots, while holding a 9.06 GAA. Rob Wheeler has taken the other three decisions in goal, all losses, and is saving 36.2 percent of shots with a 15.00 GAA.

Virginia returns home on Saturday, March 27, when the Cavaliers host No. 7/8 Johns Hopkins. Game is slated for noon and will be broadcast in the Charlottesville area on WINA AM 1070 with John Freeman calling the action. The contest will be televised live on ESPN2.

Tickets for Virginia lacrosse games can be purchased online at VirginiaSports.com, by phone at (800) 542-8821 or in person at the Virginia Athletics Ticket Office in Bryant Hall at Scott Stadium Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Virginia lacrosse season tickets for 2010 are $30 (adult general admission) and $20 (youth, senior, faculty/staff general admission).

Single-game tickets to lacrosse games are $7 (adult general admission), and $5 (youth, senior, faculty/staff general admission).

All reserved seats are sold out for the 2010 season.