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News Release
MEN'S LACROSSE IN REVIEW
5/14/2001
It was a season of change for UMBC men's lacrosse. Gone were many of the familiar names that had been penned into the starting lineup for four consecutive years. In fact, 25 of the 35 players on the 2001 team were either freshmen or sophomores. The Retrievers opened the year at 3-0, and climbed to as high as #10 in the national rankings, until a difficult April took its toll on the young team. UMBC opened the year with a thrilling overtime win over Navy, defeated 2000 NCAA Tournament qualifier Cornell, and won at Penn State for the first time in 15 years. The Retrievers also defeated North Carolina, 11-10, rallying from a 9-7 fourth quarter deficit. But after grabbing a quick 4-0 lead on resurgent Towson, the Tigers deflated UMBC with a 13-8 victory. The Retrievers lost their final four games to end the season at 5-7. Senior captains Josh Hahn, Brian Lawton and Steve Cusa provided solid play and outstanding leadership for UMBC. Hahn earned the year's first ECAC Player of the Week award and was led the team in scoring with 29 points (20g, 9a). Lawton led the team in ground balls (69) and was nationally ranked in that statistic for much of the season, while Cusa played all but eight minutes in the goal this season and finished his career seventh on UMBC's all-time saves list. Other good efforts were turned in by a pair of Second Team All ECAC players SR M Charlie Gibson (20g, 7a) and sophomore LSM Greg Wojtech (53 ground balls). Young offensive players such as sophomore Joey Kestermanm (11g, 7a), and freshmen Pat Muston (9g, 2a) and Justin Smith (8g, 3a) will help reform the nucleus of next year's attack. Defensively, UMBC was sixth in the nation (pre-tournament) in man-down defense, allowing the opponents 11 goals in 58 chances. With another promising class set to enter UMBC in the fall, Head Coach Don Zimmerman and his staff are already looking forward to 2002.