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News Release

Men's Lacrosse Opens 2008 Campaign on Saturday vs. Delaware in Neptune Beach, Florida

2/15/2008

Neptune Beach, Fla.--The UMBC men's lacrosse team opens the 2008 campaign against the same team they concluded the 2007 season against. The Retrievers take on Delaware (1-0) on Saturday, Feb. 16 in a rematch of last year's NCAA quarterfinal, which went to the Blue Hens, 10-6. The game takes place at Fletcher Stadium in Neptune Beach, Fla., with proceeds benefitting the Wounded Warrior Project. The opening face-off is set for noon and a free live video feed will be available, as will live stats via www.umbcretrievers.com.

Noting the Retrievers…

UMBC (0-0) vs. Delaware (1-0)

Saturday, Feb. 16, 2008

Fletcher Stadium, Neptune Beach, Fla., 12:00 p.m.

• UMBC finished the season ranked No. 13 in the USILA poll. They open the 2008 season ranked No. in the pre-season coaches’ poll and are slated to play six other teams (No. 1 Johns Hopkins, No. 7 Maryland, No. 11 Albany, No. 13 Towson, No. 14 Delaware and No. 20 Denver) this season.

• UMBC is now 299-251 in 40 seasons of varsity lacrosse.   

· Head Coach Don Zimmerman is guiding the Retrievers in his 15th season and has a 101-90 record at UMBC. His overall mark in 21 seasons is 174-106. He entered this year 11^th in total victories amongst active coaches and 13th in winning percentage. Zimmerman led UMBC to its first ever appearances in the NCAA Division I championships in 1998 and 1999. He is a 1976 graduate of Johns Hopkins University, where he was an Honorable Mention All American in 1976. He won three national titles while coaching the Blue Jays in 1984, 1985, and 1987. Coach Zimmerman was inducted into the Greater Baltimore Chapter of the US Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2003.

Coach Zimmerman has made 11 trips to the NCAA Tournament and four with the Retrievers.

· Five returning players earned all-conference honors in 2007. Senior midfielder Terry Kimener earned first team All America East honors, while junior defender Bobby Atwell and junior midfielder Alex Hopmann were named to the second team. Sophomore LSM Mike Camardo and classmate, midfielder Kyle Wimer earned all-rookie team honors.

Junior goalkeeper Jeremy Blevins was named to the league’s all-tournament team.

·  UMBC is now 18-4 in its first three-plus years of America East Conference (regular season) play. They have held 18 of 22 teams to single digits in goals.

· THE SERIES: UMBC VS. DELAWARE

Overall: Delaware Leads, , 10-9

Streak: Delaware, +2(eight of the last 11) 

 Last Meeting: Delaware 10, UMBC 6 (5/20/07); Annapolis, Md.-The Retriever men’s lacrosse team saw its dream season come to an end in the NCAA Quarterfinals as UMBC dropped a 10-6 decision to Delaware at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium in Annapolis, Md. UMBC’s six goals tied a season-low scored vs. Johns Hopkins in early March. The nation’s seventh-best offensive team had averaged 13.5 goals per game in its 7-1 April/May surge.  UMBC managed just 16 shots through the first three quarters. Sophomore netminder Jeremy Blevins made ten saves for UMBC.

· UMBC has won its last two season openers and is 6-8 in openers under Don Zimmerman.

· Senior Terry Kimener became the first UMBC midfielder to earn All America honors in back-to-back seasons since Chris Cain, a long-stick defensive midfielder, accomplished that feat in 1990 and 1991.  He was a First Team All America East midfielder for the second consecutive season and is one of the team’s captains in ’08. He scored 18 goals and added 20 assists in ’07 and will be the second-highest active scoring midfielder in the country (behind Johns Hopkins’ Paul Rabil) entering the season.

· In '07, senior Taylor Marino tied for second-most face off wins in a single season in school history (168), the most since Ray Ignacio also won 168 draws in 1986. He was selected as one of the team captains for the ’08 season. 

· Junior goalkeeper Jeremy Blevins already has 319 career saves, the eighth-highest figure in school history. He has started every game since he donned a Retriever uniform.

·  Junior Alex Hopmann tied a school record by scoring three man-up goals in a game as the Retrievers defeated Towson on April 4, 2007. He was one of three players to record 100 or more shots last season. The Retrievers’ leading returning goal-scorer with 20 last season was selected as a team captain for the ’08 squad.

· Junior defender Bobby Atwell is UMBC’s fourth team captain.

• The 2007 men’s lacrosse team was the first UMBC team to advance in NCAA Tournament play in the 21-year history of Division I athletics at UMBC. The Retrievers made their second consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament and fourth appearance since 1998.

• The Retrievers tied a school Division I record with 11 wins in a season. The 1999 NCAA Tournament team finished the year at 11-4. UMBC has recorded back-to-back ten-win seasons for just the second time since entering the NCAA Division I ranks (1981) and the third time in the history of the program. 

• The first round NCAA win over the Terps snapped Maryland’s eight-game winning streak over UMBC. Four of UMBC’s five wins in the series (5-24) have occurred in College Park.

• UMBC defeated a team ranked in the top ten (Maryland, No. 6) for the first time since a 2003 win (10-8) over No. 8 North Carolina. UMBC has performed admirably against the USILA 10-20 over the past several years and has won six of their last nine games vs. teams ranked in the second ten.    

• For the first time in school history, UMBC had three players with 30 or more goals. Cayle Ratcliff led the team with 42 goals, while Andy Gallagher (35 goals) and Drew Westervelt (35 goals) have also reached that plateau.  

• UMBC has had 24 brother combinations compete in the 40-year history of the program, but the Kimeners (P.J. and Terry) were just the second to suit up together for NCAA Tournament competition. There are no brother duos on the 2008 UMBC squad.  

• The men's lacrosse team won the UMBC Retriever Cup last year for the first time in the award's three-year history. The Retriever Cup is a competition between athletic teams in the categories of Athletes Supporting Athletes, Community Outreach, Team GPA and attendance at Sunday Night Lectures. All seven of UMBC's seniors were honored for their community service, especially with the team's ongoing relationship with the "Ride With Pride Program" at the Maryland Equestrian Center. 

• A Retriever team had never won three overtime games in a season until wins over Brown, Penn and Binghamton this year. UMBC had a 6-1 home record last season and three of those wins have occurred in overtime. UMBC is now 9-4 in Don Zimmerman’s 14 seasons in extra time. The Retrievers were tied or ahead by just one goal in the fourth quarter in five of six home wins, and they triumphed in all five games. The Retrievers were 5-1 last season in games decided by three or less goals, with the lone loss occurring in the America East title game at Albany.  UMBC had the most wins and best record in the nation one-goal decisions this season at 3-0.   

• The Retrievers were 26 of 56 (46.4%) on the extra-man last season and ended the year ranked fifth nationally. The Retrievers finished the season seventh in man-up offense in 2006 at 41.7%, second in 2005 at 44.4% and tenth in 2004 at 37.9%.

 • For the first time since 1999, UMBC had three student-athletes named to the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association’s All American teams. Senior attackman Drew Westervelt highlighted the honorees, as he earned Third Team All America status, while senior attackman Andy Gallagher and junior midfielder Terry Kimener were named as honorable mention.

The three All Americans in one season is one shy of a UMBC NCAA Division-I record of four set in 1999. Attackman Chris Turner earned Third Team honors that year, while goalkeeper Andrew Hampson, defenseman Jason Quenzer and attackman Dan Marohl earned honorable mention status. UMBC had three All American in just one other Division-I season, its first year with that status in 1981 as attackman Dave Quattrini (first team), attackman Marty Cloud (honorable mention) and midfielder Craig Linthicum (honorable mention) were cited.

• Westervelt was the 37th player selected overall in the 2007 National Lacrosse League draft as the Philadelphia Wings acquired the pick from Buffalo.  Two other former Retrievers are currently on Philadelphia’s roster, attackmen Dan Marohl and Jeff Ratcliffe. Westervelt enjoyed an outstanding initial season with the Denver Outlaws of the Major Lacrosse League. He finished third on the team with 20 goals and 34 points and was a two-time league Rookie of the Week. The Bel Air, Md. native was Denver’s first pick in the 2007 draft and the fourth overall selection.