NCAA CHAMPIONs
By the Numbers
goals after the fi rst quarter. UNC battled back from a 13- 11 defi cit with 7:49 left. “That will go down as one of the best games ever,” Balkam said to Goldstock. Sure will.
In many respects, the end of the season befi tted a topsy- turvy college lacrosse season defi ned by upsets and parity. North Carolina was unseeded in the NCAA tournament for only the second time in eight straight postseason appearances since Breschi returned to lead his alma mater ahead of the 2009 season, and started to attract a steady stream of highly regarded recruiting classes. Until they put together four
36 LACROSSE MAGAZINE » July/august 2016
consecutive wins to claim the program’s fi rst NCAA title since 1991, and make their fi rst fi nal four since 1993, the Tar Heels had not won more than two games in a row all season. They didn’t have perennial All-Americans like Jimmy Bitter, Joey Sankey, Chad Tutton or Marcus Holman anymore. They became the fi rst unseeded national champion; the fi rst to win a title with six losses. “There was no talk about
North Carolina getting to the fi nal four until, really, we were in the quarterfi nals,” Breschi said. “Most years, we’ve been top-fi ve and everyone is talking about, ‘This is the year.’ That mounts on a kid.
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Seniors on Marquette’s roster who led the Golden Eagles to their fi rst NCAA tournament and a home game as the sixth seed in just their fourth season. Marquette upset Denver in the Big East championship game. Among them was All-American long- stick midfi elder Liam Byrnes, the Big East Defensive Player of the Year, who helped render Tewaaraton fi nalist Connor Cannizzaro scoreless.
In overtime of the title game, North Carolina players remembered the late Michael Breschi with his signature thumbs up.
©KEVIN P. TUCKER
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