April 19, 2002

Recap

North Carolina Head Coach John Haus:
"We obviously did not play as well as we need to in order to beat a team like Virginia. I take full responsibility for our team not performing well. It was a lack of execution on the offensive end and some breakdowns on the defensive end."

On Virginia:
"They are a great team. We did not execute in order to beat them, but they are a really good team. They did a heck of a job tonight."

North Carolina Goalkeeper Paul Spellman
"We had a decent defensive effort tonight. I think early on started chasing people instead of really playing solid defense, which worked against us."

Virginia Head Coach Dom Starsia:
"This was a terrific win for us. I think that the chore for the top seed coming back here, especially the way our schedule is set up, since we just played these two teams, is particularly difficult. To come back and beat a quality North Carolina team in a game, I was very, very pleased. I think our kids played hard. I thought we let it get away from us a little bit offensively, I don't think we were as careful with the ball as we could have been at times, I don't think our shooting was great, but overall we always played hard and defensively, I thought we could just defend them all day."

"I'm at a loss to explain why it happened. It's certainly not a characteristic of this team, a thing like that begins to take on a life of its own. If these guys believe that we're in the game in the second half and we have a chance, I think we're going to play hard in the fourth quarter. That's certainly been the time when we played our best lacrosse since the first day."

"On the defensive end, I think we all elevated ourselves individually and then when Mark (Koontz) came back out to play I think it just lifted the whole group. And of course, when the goalie plays you're going to play good defense, and (Tillman Johnson) was on his game all night."

Virginia Sophomore Joe Yevoli:
"I just felt that we had a great day. We were talking, we were moving well with the ball, and I just thought that defensively we were excellent. Everybody was hustling. Of course, we loved being able to have Mark Koontz out there. To see him able to play made everybody feel great."

"If you start thinking that you have the game locked up, then things go wrong, we'd be on our heels and then they can have a run. It takes pressure off of us when the defense plays really well, especially when Tillman (Johnson) plays well. He was unbelievable, I've never seen him play like that. It helps the offense out a lot."