Men’s lacrosse looks ahead

Going into the season, North Carolina men’s lacrosse coach Joe Breschi knew his team might have its ups and downs as he incorporated the nations No. 1 recruiting class.

And with both impressive wins and disappointing losses for the Tar Heels, so far he’s been right.

Breschi said he expected the uncertainty.

“We’re very much a work in progress,” he said. “I think we are one of those teams that without a lot of depth, we have to manage game well and manage what we do well as opposed to worrying about our opponents too much.”

Despite still being a work in progress, the Tar Heels have been able to post a 7-4 record and earn a No. 8 national ranking.

UNC has beaten top-tier teams such as Maryland and the University of Pennsylvania this season, and the Tar Heels were ranked as high as No. 4 in the country.

Some familiar faces have been key to UNC’s success, including attackman Billy Bitter and defenseman Ryan Flanagan. However, it has been a pair of freshman that has made the biggest impact for the Tar Heels so far.

Attackman Nicky Galasso came in as the top recruit in the country and has lived up to the billing.

“Nick has been the marquee guy who came in and was ready to play,” Breschi said. “There are very few freshmen out there that are able to step on and make an impact.”

Galasso’s impact has been huge, and he leads the team with 37 points. His 21 assists is more than double that of anyone else on the team. He’s found success all season long in setting up the team’s dangerous scorers.

While Galasso came in highly touted, he’s not been the only freshman to find success in the Tar Heels’ 2011 campaign.

Following the first batch of scrimmages, Breschi noted that his team would have trouble with draws because of inexperienced freshman taking them.

So it certainly comes as a bit of a surprise that one of the Tar Heels’ strengths so far this season has been at the face-off.

R.G. Kennan has stepped up and become one of the top face-off men in the country, winning over 60 percent of his draws. That’s something Breschi says has been a humongous part of his team’s success.

“It’s given us anywhere from 5-10 extra possessions a game,” Breschi said. “If you look back on some of the games we’ve won, they’re close and part of it is we’ve been able to win face-offs and have almost a make-it-take-it approach.”

Winning the battle at the face-off X will be important for the remainder of the season, as the Tar Heels will meet some of their best competition coming up in the ACC Tournament and in the season finale against last year’s national runner-up, Notre Dame.

As the team gears up for post-season play, Breschi said that to be successful UNC needs to continue to improve on the little things.

“We’ll talk about expectations but I think we’re really just worrying about ourselves getting better,” Breschi said.

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.