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News Release
MEN'S LACROSSE LOOKS FOR TWO IN A ROW AS THEY TRAVEL TO HARTFORD ON SATURDAY
4/1/2005
SCENE SETTER: The Retrievers (2-4, 1-0 America East) try to make it two straight as they travel to Hartford (Trinity College) to take on the Hawks (1-5, 0-1). In the Retrievers’ league debut last year, UMBC won the 2004 meeting, 14-4 at UMBC Stadium.
OPEN IN STYLE: For the second consecutive year, UMBC opened America East play with a home win, triumphing, 11-5, over Vermont on Saturday.
STREAK ENDS: UMBC opened the season with three straight setbacks before a 13-6 win over Canisius. Since 1997 (8 seasons), UMBC has posted only three losing streaks of more than 2 games.
CLOSE DOESN’T COUNT: Before the win over Canisius, UMBC was 0-3, after a 12-10 loss at Duke, a 10-9, double overtime setback to Ohio State and a 9-6 defeat at #1-ranked Johns Hopkins. The Retrievers have lost their last four one-goal decisions. Of the team’s last 19 games, 7 have been decided by a single goal and UMBC is 2-5 in those contests.
SLOW START, FAST FINISH?: UMBC’s last 0-2 start occured in 1998, when they opened with narrow defeats vs. Navy and Towson. However, the Retrievers won 9 of 11, and earned their first NCAA Division I tournament berth in that campaign. UMBC had not started a season at 0-3 since the 1985 campaign when they dropped their first nine decisions.
UMBC STADIUM:...is currently UNDER CONSTRUCTION as the old artificial surface is being replaced by Sportexe’s Momentum 51 turf, the same product which is used at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. The project started on January 24, 2005 and is expected to be completed in the spring.
SWEATY PALMS: 16 of UMBC’s last 29 games (dating back to 2003) have been decided by three goals or less. UMBC played six one-goal games in its 14 contests last season.
NO FUN AND GUN: UMBC has lost 22 straight games when allowing 11 goals or more in a game. The Retrievers’ last win in that situation was a 15-12 victory over Radford late in the 2000 season.
EXTRA, EXTRA, READ ALL ABOUT IT: UMBC’s extra-man unit is ranked seventh in the nation with 13 goals in 29 attempts (44.8%). The Retrievers have 7 extra-man goals in the last 2 games.
ATTACK!: UMBC’s current attack unit of Brendan Mundorf, Drew Westervelt and Nick Fatseas has scored 21 of the team’s 34 goals in the last three games. Mundorf currently is the nation’s third leading scorer with 32 points (5.33 pg) in 6 games. He is tied for third in goals and tied for tenth in assists. Mundorf was named America East Conference Men’s Lacrosse Player of the Week for games played March 7-March 13, 2005. Mundorf is off to a blazing start, with 19 goals and 13 assists in UMBC’s first five games. His 19 goals have come on 37 shots, a shooting percentage of 51.9%. The 2004 First Team All America East attackman has a goal-scoring streak alive at 21 consecutive games. He has multiple points in 18 in a row and has averaged 5.1 ppg in his last 11 contests.
Mundorf has become the 21st player in school history to reach the 100-point plateau (74 goals, 39 assists, 113 points, tied for 15th place all time). He is the tenth UMBC Division I player to accomplish the feat and the first since Jeff Ratcliffe reached the plateau in 2000. Mundorf recorded his 100th point in his 31st game, the third fastest in UMBC’s Division I history, behind only Chris Turner (24 games) and Dan Marohl (28 games). His three assists vs. Ohio State and vs. Canisius established a career high and he has a season high of eight points (5-3-8) vs. Canisius this season.
SUPER SOPH: Sophomore attackman Drew Westervelt set a career best with his 7 points and tied his high-goal effort with 4 vs. the Blue Devils. For his career, Westervelt now averages 3.00 ppg (60 points in 20 contests).
The combination of Mundorf and Westervelt is the second-highest scoring duo in the country. Their 9.00 ppg is only behind Duke’s Matt Rewkowski and Zach Greer at 9.7 ppg.
FATSEAS NAMED AMERICA EAST ROOKIE OF THE WEEK : Freshman attackman Nick Fatseas was named America East Conference Men’s Lacrosse Rookie of the Week for the week ending March 20, 2005. Fatseas is earning more playing time on UMBC’s potent attack unit and led the Retrievers with his first collegiate three-goal effort vs. #4 Maryland. He has posted three straight 3-point games.
WELCOME BACK: JR A/M Andy Gallagher (6g, 5a, ‘05) is back on the field after his second ACL surgery last spring. Gallagher, who led the Retrievers with 10 points (4g, 6a) through three games in ‘04, suffered a torn ACL in his right knee in practice on Monday, March 15, 2004 and missed the rest of the campaign. He underwent successful surgery on Friday, April 9,2004. Gallagher, who had 18 points through four games in 2003, tore the ACL in his left knee in competition vs. Dartmouth on March 19, 2003.
LAST YEAR VS. HARTFORD: UMBC methodically built a 10-1 lead and defeated the Hawks, 14-4, in the first meeting between the two schools last season. Mundorf and Westervelt each scored 3 goals, as UMBC outshot their guests, 43-13.
A GLANCE AT THE HAWKS: Hartford posted an impressive 8-7 win at Providence on March 22, but has since suffered double-digit defeats to Albany (25-9) and Yale (21-7) on the road in the past week. Ryan Curran entered the week eighth in the league in scoring with 11 points through 4 games played.
RETRIEVERS PICKED SECOND IN AMERICA EAST: Two-time defending America East champion University at Albany is again the choice to win the conference championship in a poll of the league's coaches. Albany received four first-place votes and 44 points overall. UMBC was second with a first-place vote and 37 points to narrowly edge defending regular-season champion Binghamton University, which received two first-place votes and 36 points.
The America East Championship will be held May 4 and 7. The semifinals will be held at the home fields of the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds. The championship game will be played at the home field of the higher remaining seed.