May 17, 2009

Virginia Romps Past Johns Hopkins 19-8

ANNAPOLIS, MD—Shamel Bratton scored a career-high five goals to lead a potent Virginia Cavalier squad to a 19-8 win over Johns Hopkins in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championship before a crowd of 12,142 fans at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium this afternoon.

Virginia improves to 15-2 this season and fifth in a row over Johns Hopkins. The Cavaliers face Cornell, a 6-4 winner over Princeton yesterday, in one national semifinal next Saturday at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. This is their second consecutive appearance in the national semifinals and fourth in the last five seasons.

The win is the 300th of Virginia head coach Dom Starsia's career as he became only the third coach in Division I history to win 300 games. He is tied with former UMass coach Dick Garber for third all-time.

Senior Garrett Billings, who scored four goals in a 1-goal win over the Blue Jays earlier this season, scored four times and had three assists, while freshman Steele Stanwick scored two goals and assisted on five more. In two playoff games Stanwick has tallied 12 points (5g, 7a).

Adam Ghitelman was outstanding between the pipes with 14 saves in 53 minutes of action to highlight a dominating performance by the Cavalier defense.

Foxborough Bound: Duke Defeats North Carolina In NCAA Quarterfinals

ANNAPOLIS, Md.— Senior attackman Ned Crotty scored two goals and handed out six assists to lead third-seeded Duke to a 12-11 win over sixth-seeded North Carolina and guide the Blue Devils to their third consecutive national semifinal appearance. A crowd of 12,142 at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium witnessed Duke’s 11th straight win over the Tar Heels on an overcast and cool Sunday afternoon.

Duke (15-3) advances to face second-seeded Syracuse next Saturday at 12 p.m., on espn2 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. The national semifinal berth is the fifth in school history (1997, 2005, 2007, 2008 & 2009), where Duke holds an all-time record of 2-2. North Carolina ends its season at 12-6. Saturday’s second semifinal will feature top-seeded Virginia against fifth-seeded Cornell at 2 p.m.

Since the arrival of head coach John Danowski prior to the 2007 season, the Blue Devils are 50-8 overall including a 16-1 ledger versus ACC opponents. Duke has now won 10 of its last 13 NCAA Tournament games and improved to 16-6 all-time in the event when scoring 10 or more goals.

With his eight-point effort, Crotty moves into the NCAA lead for total points in 2009, passing North Carolina’s Billy Bitter who entered Sunday’s contest one point ahead of Crotty, 69-68. Crotty now has 76 points on the year including a nation’s-best 53 assists. Bitter was held to just two assists against the Blue Devils, with sophomore defenseman Michael Manley drawing the primary assignment.

Duke got goals from eight different players with sophomore Zach Howell leading the way with three goals. North Carolina was led by Wagner and Delaney with three tallies each.

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