No. 2 Virginia Crowned ACC Champions in Conquest over No. 5 Maryland

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COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Adam Ghitelman made 16 saves on his way to tournament Most Valuable Player honors on his 21st birthday, leading the No. 2 Virginia Cavaliers (13-1, 2-1 ACC) to the 2010 Atlantic Coast Conference title with a 10-6 victory over the No. 5 Maryland Terrapins (9-3, 1-2 ACC), Sunday afternoon on Capital One Field, inside Byrd Stadium.

The ACC title is the Virginia Athletics Department’s third of the weekend (women’s rowing and men’s tennis) and the seventh of the 2009-10 academic year, setting a new school record. The league title is also UVa’s sixth all-time in men’s lacrosse since the ACC Tournament’s inception in 1989 to determine the league champion and first since topping Maryland 11-5 in 2006. Virginia now has 17 ACC titles in men’s lacrosse overall.

On the afternoon Virginia won the ground ball battle (32-28), tied on faceoffs (10-10) and Maryland won the shooting battle (36-27). The Cavaliers were near perfect on clears, going 19-of-20 on the day, while limiting Maryland to 14-of-18.

“When you thought they were going to make a run at us, they couldn’t get anything by Adam [Ghitelman],” said Virginia head coach Dom Starsia. “It has been back and forth over the course of the season – again I was a little surprised we were down early again. I thought we stood around a little on defense early in the game – much like Friday night. The timeout I called seemed to help us catch our breath and I thought we were much better than that. Maryland is a good team and they made some plays. I thought we battling and I liked our energy in the locker room at halftime and I knew it would carry over into the second half.”

Much like the opening round against Duke, UVa found itself behind early, 3-0. Owen Blye scored at 10:52 on a Grant Catalino helper, followed by unassisted goals from Drew Snider (9:13) and Michael Shakespeare (7:34).
UVa struck at the 6:49 mark on Brian Carroll’s (Towson, Md.) 86th career goal, pushing him into sole possession of No. 3 all-time among UVa midfielders, breaking a tie with Chris Rotelli.

The Cavaliers scored three-straight goals after Carroll’s tally to take the 4-3 advantage. Matt White (Ridgefield, Conn.) scored unassisted at 1:15 to cap the first quarter scoring.

Rhamel Bratton (Huntington Station, N.Y.) ripped an unassisted goal at 9:07 to start the second quarter scoring and Mikey Thompson (Richmond, Va.) capped the run when he tallied his first goal of the season after clearing the ball on a point-blank save in the cage by Ghitelman (Syosset, N.Y.).

Travis Reed tied the game for Maryland at 1:40, 4-4, when he streaked in front of the goal and scored via a Brian Farrell pass off the ensuing faceoff.

Virginia managed to take the lead going into the intermission, 5-4, after White hit the post on a shot. Maryland failed on the clear when Rhamel Bratton snatched the outlet pass out of the air and then found Steele Stanwick (Baltimore, Md.) adjacent to the cage, scoring with 13 seconds left in the second quarter.
Catalino evened the score for Maryland, 5-5, coming out of the break with an unassisted goal at 13:05.

UVa went on to score the next five goals to take a commanding 10-5 lead. Stanwick scored on a White pass at 7:20 to break the tie. Rhamel Bratton scored unassisted at 5:20, followed by a Chris Bocklet (South Salem, N.Y.) score from Stanwick with 53 seconds left in the third quarter.

Carroll scored again unassisted at 14:23, followed by a Shamel Bratton (Huntington Station, N.Y.) unassisted score at 10:59, capping the scoring run for UVa.

Maryland managed just one more score by Jake Bernhardt unassisted with 11 seconds left, bringing the final score to 10-6.

Including Ghitelman’s MVP nod (28 saves over the Cavaliers’ two games during the tournament), UVa had six others on the ACC All-Tournament team. Rhamel and Shamel Bratton, Ken Clausen (Downington, Pa.), Stanwick, Brian McDermott (Cortland, N.Y.) and White.

Virginia returns to action on Saturday against Robert Morris. UVa will honor its 12 seniors prior to the 1 p.m. faceoff at Klöckner Stadium.

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.

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.

Maryland 3-1-1-1-6
Virginia 1-3-3-2-10
Att-2626

Scoring (G-A) – V: Steele Stanwick 2-1, Rhamel Bratton 2-1, Brian Carroll 2-0, Matt White 1-1, Shamel Bratton 1-1, Chris Bocklet 1-0, Mikey Thompson 1-0 M: Grant Catalino 1-1, Travis Reed 1-0, Michael Shakespeare 1-0, Owen Blye 1-0, Jake Bernhardt 1-0, Drew Snider 1-0, Brian Farrell 0-1

Goalie Summary – V: Adam Ghitelman 59:49 mins., 16 saves, 6 goals allowed, Rob Fortunato 00:11 mins, 0 saves, 0 goals allowed
 M: Brian Phipps 59-49 mins., 6 saves, 10 goals allowed, Mark White 00:11 mins, 0 saves, 0 goals allowed


Shots: V-27, M-36

Ground Balls: V-32, M-28

Clearing: V-19×20, M-14×18


Faceoffs: V-10, M-10

Penalties: V-2-1:00, M-0-0:00


EMO: V-0x0, M-0x2