April 23, 2000

2000 Atlantic Coast Conference Men's Lacrosse Tournament No. 1 Seed Virginia 11, No. 3 Maryland 7 Sunday April 23, 2000 Byrd Stadium, College Park, Md.

Dick Edell, Head Coach University of Maryland

"I genuinely feel that today's game was played in two different halves. We certainly were in a greater state of emotion in the second half. I think we were five down at the half and they scored right away to put us six down. But, I have lived with these guys for a long time and there is no quit in any of them. They made a tremendous run against a very good team and we talk all the time about how much energy is expended to get a game to within one goal. I think we did that. Maybe the carryover of getting off the field late on Friday night and the fact that we were playing a great team - if you make a mistake or if you suffer a breakdown they are going to exploit you. I can't criticize the effort of our group in any way.

"The bottom line is that Yale on Friday night is our opening playoff game. We'll put the pressure on ourselves. We don't want the decision to go behind closed doors and to debate. We had that experience 12 months ago and it wasn't a good experience for us. We have two more statements to make. I think that we have seven kids who have put a lot of their life into this. The have worked four years and this is the end for these guys. Friday night is going to be special. We are going to make it special for our seniors. Then UMBC - we have had two tough goes with them and we will be ready."

Dom Starsia, Head Coach University of Virginia

"This was a great, great win for us. Congratulations to Maryland for playing hard and for playing a great game. This is a credit to Jay Jalbert and his class -- three ACC tournament championships for a senior class is quite an accomplishment. For us to came back in here this weekend and beat two quality teams like this, after we had just played them over the last couple of weeks, is a really significant win for the program. I felt like this win last season really (in the ACC championship game) set us up for the NCAA Tournament. I feel like we still have some lacrosse to play. But you feel like you get a shot of confidence out something like this. It really sets us up as we head in to May.

"We do need to play better, we all agree with that, but I would have taken two victories this weekend in any way, shape or form. The fact that we were down Friday night and we were reeling a little bit at the end of the third quarter here today and our kids responded, those are the kinds of memories that you carry over from an experience like this as the lacrosse gets more intense a little bit later on. You can remember that you were in these kinds and settings and that you were able to be successful. I'm not disappointed in how we played but I am very, very pleased that we figured out a way to win in two very difficult situations. It's a great win for the program.

"I though that we were very serious and very intent about this game. I think we came away from Friday night feeling like we got our ears pinned back and that we were lucky to come away with a win. We knew that this game was going to require a better effort. I have a mature group and that they showed their experience today. We stopped playing for about 10 minutes, stood around on offense, and we just needed to get back to playing lacrosse again. A key tactical change in the came was assistant coach Chris Colbeck bringing Connor Gil out of the box a couple of times. That created a couple of wrinkles that we hadn't showed them earlier in the game."