UNC vs Duke men's lacrosse quarterfinals pre-game notes

Posted Sunday, May 20, 2007

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Durham, NC - The top seed in the 2007 NCAA Tournament, Duke advanced to the quarterfinals with an 18-3 win over Providence last Saturday at Koskinen Stadium ... Zack Greer scored five goals and Matt Danowski had two goals and a career-best seven assists ... The Blue Devils travel to Annapolis, Md., for Sunday’s quarterfinal game with North Carolina ... Face-off is set for 3 p.m. and the game will be televised live by ESPNU.

FACING OFF
• Duke owns an overall record of 15-2 and is the number one seed in the NCAA Tournament ... The number one seed is the first for the Blue Devils, with the program’s previous high seed of number two coming in 2005
• Duke and North Carolina will meet for the third time this season, marking the first campaign that the Blue Devils and Tar Heels have faced each other more than twice ... Duke secured wins in both the regular season (9-7 in Chapel Hill) and ACC Tournament (13-9 in Durham) earlier this year
• Duke and North Carolina have squared off just one previous time in NCAA Tournament play, with the Blue Devils earning a 16-14 triumph in the first round of the 1998 event
• Duke is 10-10 all-time in NCAA Tournament action
• The Blue Devils have won 10 straight games
• Duke finished the regular season with the number one RPI (Rating Percentage Index) and number one SOS (Strength of Schedule)
• The Blue Devils have a nations-best seven wins over opponents currently ranked in the top 10 of the USILA national poll
• Duke is 38-7 over the last three seasons
• Duke is ranked second in the final USILA national poll ... The Blue Devils also finished the regular season ranked second in 2005
• Zack Greer has 130 goals in 45 career games and is one of two players in ACC history to register two campaigns of 50 or more goals in a career
• Duke is 37-4 when Greer scores at least one goal and the Blue Devils are 25-0 when he has three or more tallies
• Greer’s older brother, Bill, is a member of the Rochester Knighthawks organization that captured the NLL Championship this past Saturday
• Goalkeeper Dan Loftus is 23-5 as a starter at Duke and the Blue Devils are 34-8 in games in which Loftus has appeared in
• Matt Danowski is the only player in the country with 35+ goals and 35+ assists this season and leads all attackmen nationally with his 64 ground balls
• Danowski leads the country in assists (43) and total points (81)
• With 118 career assists, Danowski is two helpers shy of matching the career total of his father, Blue Devil head coach and former Rutgers star John Danowski
• Danowski and Greer form the top point-producing tandem in the nation with 159 combined points ... Albany’s duo of Frank Resetarits and Merrick Thompson is second with a combined 146 points
• Freshman Max Quinzani has scored at least one goal in eight of the last nine games

AGAINST THE 2007 FIELD
The Blue Devils have played 11 games against teams in the 2007 NCAA Tournament field, posting an 9-2 ledger ... Duke earned victories over Delaware, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, Maryland, North Carolina (2), Providence and Virginia (2) while suffering defeats at the hands of Cornell and Loyola.

ROAD SUCCESS
The Blue Devils posted a perfect 4-0 record in road games this season with victories over Maryland, North Carolina, Georgetown and Johns Hopkins ... Dating back to the 2005 season, Duke has now won eight of its past nine road contests.

DANOWSKI IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT
Duke head coach John Danowski is making his ninth appearance in the NCAA Tournament having led Hofstra to eight berths in his 21 seasons at the helm of the program ... Danowski, who owns an overall record of 5-8 in NCAA Tournament action, guided the Pride to postseason play in 1993, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2006.

FATHER-SON TANDEMS
Last week against Providence, Duke’s John Danowski became the sixth head coach to participate in NCAA Tournament action alongside a son ... Other coaches to accomplish the feat include Roy Simmons, Jr. of Syracuse, Henry Ciccarone of Johns Hopkins, Richie Moran of Cornell, Dave Urick of Georgetown and Bill Tierney of Princeton.

THE DUKE-NORTH CAROLINA SERIES
North Carolina leads the all-time series with Duke by a 39-25 count ... The Blue Devils have won five straight in the series and nine of the past 12 meetings ... The Tar Heels won 30-of-31 games over Duke from 1968-95 — a run that was ended with the Blue Devils’ 14-6 victory in the 1995 ACC Tournament championship game.

TEWAARATON FINALISTS
Duke senior Matt Danowski has been named one of five finalists for the Tewaaraton Trophy ... The winner will be announced on May 30 ... Joining Danowski on the list are Paul Rabil of Johns Hopkins, Frank Resetarits of Albany, Ben Rubeor of Virginia and Max Seibald of Cornell ... Danowski was a finalist for the honor two seasons ago after leading the nation in scoring with 92 points.

CHASING DAD
While Matt Danowski has established the Duke career record for assists with 118, he still has some work to do before he can claim top feeding honors in his own family ... Blue Devil head coach John Danowski enjoyed an outstanding playing career at Rutgers from 1973-76, helping the Scarlet Knights to NCAA Tournament berths in his first two seasons ... On the assist front, the elder Danowski set school records for helpers in a game and season and currently ranks second in career assists ... John Danowski’s 54 assists in 1973 rank tied for 17th on the NCAA’s single-season chart.

SCORING COMBINATIONS
The Blue Devil tandem of Matt Danowski and Zack Greer is the top point-producing duo in the nation this season, combining for 159 points on 94 goals and 65 assists ... Albany’s pair of Frank Resetarits and Merrick Thompson are second with a total of 146 points ... Danowski and Greer are closing in on the ACC singleseason record for combined points by two teammates, a standard of 161 (1996) held by Doug Knight and Michael Watson of Virginia ... The NCAA record is 193 points set in 1975 by Cornell’s Mike French and Eamon McEneaney.

STREAKING
Duke enters the NCAA quarterfinals riding a 10-game winning streak — a run that stands as the second-longest such streak in school history ... Duke’s 10-game run is the second-longest active streak among NCAA Tournament participants, trailing only Cornell’s current 14-game stretch.

DUKE SENIORS
Duke’s seniors played their final home game last Saturday versus Providence ... The class has helped the Blue Devils to a four-year record of 43-15 with two ACC regular season crowns, one ACC Tournament championship and two NCAA Tournament berths.

WINS IN A SEASON
Duke’s 15 victories this year rank as the second-highest single-season total in school history and matches the fourth-best total in ACC history ... Duke’s 2005 team and Virginia’s 2007 squad hold the conference standard with 17 wins ... In addition, the Blue Devils have reached double digits in the win column for the 10th time in school history.

ACTIVE LEADERS
With 241 career points, Matt Danowski ranks third among the nation’s active scoring leaders, trailing Frank Resetarits and Merrick Thompson from Albany ... Danowski has 123 goals and 118 assists in 58 career games at Duke, and ranks sixth on the ACC’s all-time scoring list.

TURNAROUND
The seniors on the Duke roster have played a major role in the program’s marked improvement over the past four seasons ... As freshmen, the group experienced a 5-8 campaign and went winless in four games versus ACC competition ... Since then, the Blue Devils have posted a 38-7 ledger with a 10-2 record against league foes.

ACC ACCOLADES
Duke’s Matt Danowski garnered his second ACC Player of the Year trophy this year, joining Maryland’s Joe Walters (2004 & 2006) and North Carolina’s Ryan Wade (1993-94) as the league’s only two-time winners of the award ... Joining Danowski on the All-ACC squad were teammates Zack Greer, Casey Carroll and Nick O’Hara ... In addition, Blue Devil head coach John Danowski was named the conference’s Coach of the Year ... The elder Danowski has guided Duke to the program’s first number one national ranking in the USILA poll as well as the ACC Championship and the top seed in the NCAA Tournament.