CHEMOTTI SHINES ON
Could there possibly be a better way for a coach to effectively motivate a team to be gritty, determined, focused and physical than to be sporting a black eye while doing so?
It was hardly an intentional ploy by Richmond coach Dan Chemotti, who wore a noticeable bruise under his left eye during the Spiders’ 13-10 victory over North Carolina on Saturday. But it was a topic of discussion after Richmond earned its first-ever NCAA tournament victory.
Chemotti said the injury occurred at the end of the first quarter of Richmond’s Atlantic 10 tournament title game victory over High Point, when after a tough defensive play the Spiders celebrated on the sideline. Faceoff man Jared Chenoy was standing next to Chemotti and inadvertently poked the end of his stick into his coach’s face.
“The funnier part is he’s trying to give me ice on the sideline to put on it,” Chemotti said. “I’m like, ‘We have a championship to win.’ It stunned me for a minute, and I didn’t know it would look like this.”
The Spiders’ Lucas Littlejohn and Max Merklinger laughed when the subject was brought up. For his part, Chemotti has found himself telling the tale several times in the last week.
“I forget about it,” Chemotti said. “Even this morning in the [hotel] elevator, somebody gets in the elevator and it’s a nice couple and I smile at them and they’re [recoiling].”
TOBACCO ROLLED
Duke and North Carolina lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament in the same season for the first time since 1995, combining for a Saturday to forget in the Research Triangle.
North Carolina easily had the better of play for the first half against Richmond but only had a three-goal lead to show for it. The Spiders wiped that out in the first three minutes after halftime, and neither team built more than a two-goal lead the rest of the way until Richmond’s Gavin Creo scored an empty-netter with 1:41 to go.
For a team that was 9-2 in mid-April, it was a premature conclusion to a year that included a share of the ACC regular season title and the program’s first NCAA berth since 2021.
The Tar Heels were heavily reliant on attackmen Owen Duffy and Dominic Pietramala all year, and that manifested itself Saturday. That duo — banged up in the second half of the season — combined for six goals on 21 shots. The rest of the roster had four goals on 24 shots.
“The support staff, they were unreal patching Owen Duffy and Dom Pietramala together throughout the year and just giving them a chance to play on Saturdays,” Breschi said. “Those guys didn’t practice much during the beginning of weeks. We had Army and then five straight ACC games, which we know is just a slugfest, and then the NCAA tournament game.”
Hours later, Duke never had the lead against Georgetown, though it did forge a halftime tie on faceoff man Cal Girard’s goal from the restraining line. The Hoyas scored the first three goals of the second half, and Duke’s erratic half-field play coupled with Georgetown faceoff man Ross Prince’s strong day prevented the Blue Devils from keeping things tight.
Duke was sort of the reverse of North Carolina, struggling to find itself for much of the season before winning three in a row (Syracuse, Virginia, North Carolina) to help secure a first-round home game even with an ACC title game loss.
But whatever mojo the Blue Devils enjoyed was gone by the time the postseason arrived, and there was an abundance of things that were not particularly sharp against the Hoyas.
“Passing, catching, shooting, ground balls, faceoffs, clearing, team defense, individual defense,” coach John Danowski said.
Danowski didn’t let anyone off the hook, least of all himself. And unlike North Carolina, Duke didn’t have a conference regular season title to latch onto and it took a step back in the postseason compared to last year’s quarterfinal disappointment against Maryland.
All that was left was to wonder how it happened — something several Duke players undoubtedly were doing as they lingered around the Koskinen Stadium field more than an hour after their season ended.
