April 14, 2001

Baltimore, MD-- #16 UMBC (5-3) erased a 9-7 deficit with four straight goals in the fourth quarter and held off #14 North Carolina (5-5), 11-10, before 2,052 fans at UMBC Stadium.

The Retrievers snapped a two-game losing streak with the win, while Carolina, coming off a 7-5 win over #4 Virginia last week, has dropped four of five.

Trailing 6-3 with a minute remaining in the second quarter, the Tar Heels outscored UMBC, 6-1 over the next 15 minutes to take a 9-7 lead into the fourth quarter. With the game tied at 7-7, UNC's Andy Jonas and Jeff Sonke scored with 29 and 6 seconds remaining in the third quarter to give Carolina the lead.

But UMBC tied it with an extra-man goal by Charlie Gibson 46 seconds into the fourth quarter and a score by Josh Hahn at the 2:03 mark. Sophomore midfielder Adam Shiley gave UMBC the lead for good with a nice inside dodge at the five-minute mark, and classmate Scott Steele added UMBC's final goal of the night at the 6:13 mark.

Carolina's Steven Will trimmed the lead to 11-10, converting Sonke's feed from in close with 1:51 remaining. Despite losing the ensuing face off, The Tar Heels got possesion of the ball twice in the final minute, but only managed one shot, and Pat Jackson's left-handed shot with eight seconds to play was snared by UMBC netminder Steve Cusa.

Sophomore midfielder Joey Kestermann scored all of his career-best three goals in the first half, staking UMBC to its 6-3 advantage. Shiley and Gibson added a pair of goals each for UMBC, while senior attackman Josh Hahn contributed a goal and two assists. Sonke led all scorers with 3 goals and 1 assist for North Carolina, Will added 2 goals and one assist, while Lance Zimmerman scored twice.

Cusa made 14 saves for UMBC, which was outshot by the visitors, 36-31. Netminder Kris Blindenbacher had seven stops in UNC nets. The eleven goals scored by UMBC is the most since tallying 18 in week #2 vs. Mt. St. Mary's. The two teams have split their last four meetings, with UMBC triumphing at home by one goal in both 1999 (14-13) and 2001.

UMBC 11, North Carolina 10

Goals: NC-Jeff Sonke 3, Lance Zimmerman 2, Steven Will 2, Mac Hammer 1, Andy Jonas 1, Judd Lattimore 1. UMBC-Joey Kestermann 3, Adam Shiley 2, Charlie Gibson 2, Luke Gilbert 1, Josh Hahn 1, Malik Lopez 1, Scott Steele 1.

Assists: NC-Will 1, Sonke 1. UMBC-Hahn 2, Brian Johnson 1.

Saves: NC-Kris Blindenbacher 7 (11 ga, 60 min.) UMBC-Steve Cusa 14 (10 ga, 60 min.)

Shots: NC-36, UMBC-31. Ground Balls: NC-29, UMBC-33. Face-Offs: NC-14, UMBC-11.

Clears/Fails: NC-17/4, UMBC-16/3.

Penalties: NC-6/4:00, UM-5/4:00.

Extra-Man: NC-0/4, UMBC-1/6.

Attendance: 2,052