Like most other teams on Senior Day, the seniors on the No. 4 North Carolina men’s lacrosse team addressed their teammates in the locker room before their last home game.
Unlike most other teams, though, this wasn’t new. The seniors have given a speech before every single game this season.
"They say something every game to get (the team) jacked up and get us jacked up as a staff,” Coach Joe Breschi said.
That energy has propelled the Tar Heels to a 12-1, 3-0 ACC record, including a 17-15 win over No. 2 Syracuse on Saturday sparked by a 5-0 game-opening scoring run.
The 11 UNC seniors — including attackman Joey Sankey, who set UNC's career scoring record Saturday with 214 points — have been instrumental to the season’s success.
“All of them have meant so much to this program,” Breschi said. “Those guys hustle so much, they scrap so much, they have a never die mentality.”
Attackmen Jimmy Bitter and Sankey form the tip of the spear for UNC’s offense. The diminutive duo — Sankey is 5-foot-5, Bitter 5-foot-7 — make up in impact what they lack in size. They set the tone for every game.
“We try to go into every game acting like we’re down a few goals, getting that chip on our shoulder,” Sankey said.
Sankey and Bitter have scored 26 and 31 goals, respectively, for UNC this season. Bitter also has an NCAA record of 54 straight games with a point, closely followed by Sankey with 49.