The men's lacrosse team couldn't quite finish out its ACC Championship run losing 15-13 in Kenan Stadium on Sunday and the reason was an unfamiliar one for the Tar Heels.
UNC's Shane Walterhoefer is one of the best faceoff specialists in the country. The senior midfielder ranks 2nd in the NCAA winning 64.6 percent of his faceoffs. He ranks fourth all-time in the NCAA for faceoffs won. Sunday's ACC Championship game figured to be a battle between him and Duke's own faceoff specialist Sam Payton who ranks 12th nationally.
Here's where it starts getting interesting - after Walterhoefer bested Payton on eight of the first 13 faceoffs" Duke called in a freshman reserve long-stick to do battle against the NCAA leader in total faceoffs won.
And the freshman dominated.
CJ Costabile took nine of 16 faceoffs from Walterhoefer and chipped in three goals on the way to claiming ACC Tournament Most Outstanding Player honors.
""I would just have to say the ball was going my way" Costabile said. He's probably the best faceoff kid in the game right now and when it comes down to it" I was really lucky to get some bounces going my way.""
On two separate occasions" Costabile picked up a faceoff to start the quarter ran down to the UNC goal and deposited the ball past James Petracca for a quick strike goal" just seconds into the quarter.
""CJ Costabile" the MVP had three goals and he's a long-pole coach Joe Breschi said. He did a heck of a job on ground balls and he's a difference maker. We have to treat him as a short-stick when he's in there" and he made some big plays at key points in the game.""
The Tar Heels also struggled to stay out of the penalty box. In the second half" North Carolina was whistled for 5:30's worth of penalties which - in theory - would compromise the defense and forces them to be a little less aggressive.
The reality was a little different. UNC's Billy Bitter scored twice with a man down" while Duke only scored once in their man up opportunities. Those two goals doubled the Tar Heels' short-handed tally so far this season.
""We were fortunate enough to stop them on defense - we played a lot of defense in the third quarter" Bitter said. Our defense stepped up and we stopped their man up and usually when the ball comes up on the offense and we're a man down we're supposed to hold it but if I see a lane and they overplay" I go to the goal.""
Playing so much defense wore down the Tar Heels"" as evidenced by the 3-1 scoreline in the third quarter. It was the only quarter that was not played to a draw.
""I really think we didn't have the ball" Breschi said about the third quarter. I think we probably played defense for 12 minutes of the third quarter and a man down several times. They have a good defense" and I think the strength for them is having the ball and not having to play defense. I think it wore us down a little bit.""
Though the game marks Breschi's first ACC Tournament loss in 10 games as a player" assistant coach and head coach the Tar Heels can at least celebrate the win on Friday against Maryland which was their first win against an ACC opponent since 2004. That does not eliminate the pain of losing the championship game" though.
""It leaves us with a bad taste in our mouths" Walterhoefer said. Losing the ACC Tournament just does not feel very good" and I think we're all going to think about it for the next two weeks before our first playoff game. We're going to remember how it feels to lose.""
