Courtesy: UMBC Athletic Media Relations
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.?The UMBC men’s lacrosse team saw its season and school-record 11-game winning streak come to an agonizing, yet noble end as the Retrievers fell to second-ranked Virginia, 10-9 in the first round of the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championships.
The game featured five ties and UMBC had three shots down the stretch to send the game to overtime. Virginia’s Garrett Billings put the Cavaliers ahead, 10-9 on an extra-man goal with 6:50 remaining. The Retrievers had their best chance as Terry Kimener drove to his right and received a pass from Kyle Wimer, but his hard shot hit UVA netminder Bud Petit in the face mask and bounded away with 38 seconds left. UMBC junior defender Bobby Atwell picked a failed Virginia clearing effort and fed the ball back into the Virginia end, but Wimer’s shot with seven seconds left was blocked before it got to the goal.
Sophomore attackman Matt Latham led UMBC with three goals, while Wimer, sophomore midfielder Maxx Davis and junior midfielder Alex Hopmann each recorded two goals and an assist. Kimener, replacing injured attackaman and leading goal scorer Ryan Smith on attack, had a pair of assists.
Trailing 2-1 late in the first period, UMBC went on a 4-0 run, triggered by a man-up score by Hopmann with 0.8 seconds remaining in the first quarter. The Retrievers took the lead at 3-2 as Davis scored on a nice inside move 1:13 into the second quarter. UMBC would add goals by sophomore attackman Matt Latham and Davis and led, 5-2 with 3:27 to play in the quarter.
But UVA rallied, scoring twice in the final 2:44 of the second quarter to trim the Retriever advantage to 5-4 at intermission. The Cavaliers would tie the game early in the second half, but back-to-back goals by Wimer and Latham put UMBC ahead, 7-5 with 9:45 to play in the third stanza.
But the Cavaliers equaled UMBC’s first half 4-0 run with one of their own, scoring four straight in the final 3:41 of the third quarter to lead 9-7 after 45 minutes.
However, Wimer’s made a beautiful face dodge and left handed score to bring UMBC to within 9-8 just 1:41 into the fourth quarter and Latham scored the tying goal after Davis picked off a Cavalier clearing effort with 11:55 remaining.
“I am very proud of how we fought back and I always thought we had a chance to win,” Head Coach Don Zimmernan said. “There was never any quit in this team. There were two good teams battling out there and they both played with a lot of heart.”
Virginia’s Danny Glading led all scorers with four goals and an assist.
UMBC outshot UVA, 40-34 as Petit made three of his eight saves in the fourth quarter. Retriever junior netminder Jeremy Blevins made 12 saves for the visitors.
The Retrievers had won all four previous one goal decisions this year and suffered their first one-goal defeat since the 15-14 America East championship game at Albany in 2007.