Seven Overtimes Later, Top-Ranked Virginia Staves Off Maryland

It took a Division I record seven overtimes yesterday for Virginia's top-ranked men's lacrosse team to fend off No. 9 Maryland, 10-9, and remain undefeated. Brian Carroll scored the winning goal one minute into the final extra period in Charlottesville.

The Terrapins (6-3, 2-1 ACC) thought they had won the game nine seconds into the first of the four-minute overtimes, but Grant Catalino's apparent goal was waved off because the officials had granted Maryland a timeout that its coaching staff said it had not requested. A victory would have given the Terrapins the regular season title in the four-team ACC.

The Cavaliers (11-0, 1-0 ACC) rallied from a 9-6 deficit in the final 5 minutes 41 seconds of regulation. Steele Stanwick scored a goal in transition to start the rally. Danny Glading brought Virginia within one, and Carroll scored after the Cavaliers won the ensuing faceoff.

Stanwick led Virginia with four goals. Glading had a goal and four assists.

"I'm a little bit exhausted, but it's probably better to be on the winning end," Virginia Coach Dom Starsia said last night. "To be honest, we were having trouble putting together two passes on offense. There wasn't a lot of pixie dust in the air for us offensively most of the day, and Maryland was playing good defense. I think each coach had used every timeout in the first six overtimes, and then that last time we just let the kids play."

Maryland outshot Virginia 14-6 in the overtimes. Cavaliers goalie Adam Ghitelman, though, kept the score tied and finished with a career-high 22 saves in 83:53, and Mark Wade made one save while Ghitelman was out with a penalty. Brian Phipps played all 85 minutes for the Terrapins, making 11 saves.

-- NAVY 10, GEORGETOWN 8: Coach Richie Meade opted for experience in net for the Midshipmen's game at Georgetown's Multi-Sport Field, and the move paid off as senior Tommy Phelan made a career-high 15 saves in the win.

No. 16 Navy (7-3) had lost five in a row and seven of eight to the Hoyas (3-5), who were coming off an overtime home win Wednesday against No. 13 Harvard.

"That may have been one of the biggest wins I've ever had," said Meade, in his 15th season at Navy.

The win helps the Midshipmen's chance of making the 16-team NCAA tournament, and they'll have more opportunities in their three remaining games (at home against Maryland on Friday night, vs. Army in Baltimore on April 11 and at home against Johns Hopkins on April 19).

After going with freshman R.J. Wickham for six of the previous nine games and senior Matt Coughlin for the other three, Meade turned to the goalie who led Navy's stretch run last season. Phelan made 12 saves in a first-round NCAA tournament victory over North Carolina.

Yesterday, Phelan's most painful save came on a third-quarter attempt from Andrew Brancaccio. He was able to block the hard shot with his knee and was still limping when he stopped a shot more than two minutes later.

Brancaccio "is a phenomenal shooter," Phelan said. "We were looking for him to take some outside shots all day, and I was waiting for it. My left leg just went numb. I tried to get up on both legs, but I really could just get on one."

Georgetown was behind 6-2 until scoring twice in the last minute of the third quarter and once in the first minute of the fourth. The Hoyas were within 8-7 until Tim Paul and Bruce Nechanicky pushed Navy's lead back to three goals with 3:15 left.

"I think we didn't get a good jump-start on the beginning of the game. That really hurt us," Georgetown attackman Craig Dowd said.