Drew Thompson scored a late goal to send the game to overtime.

The third-ranked Virginia men's lacrosse team needed late game heroics from Drew Thompson and Garrett Billings to stave off 10th-ranked North Carolina on Saturday evening as the Cavaliers notched a thrilling 10-9 overtime victory.

"That was a really good win against a quality North Carolina team," said Virginia coach Dom Starsia. "This is the end of a long week for us. That Tuesday game [a 10-7 win over Binghamton] really took a lot out of us. I give our guys a lot of credit for battling right to the very end here tonight."

After holding a three-goal advantage at halftime, the Cavaliers (10-1, 2-0 ACC) allowed North Carolina (7-4, 0-3 ACC) to score four straight goals as the Tar Heels took an 8-7 lead early in the fourth quarter. Shortly thereafter, Virginia's Ben Rubeor scored his only goal of the evening to tie the game but North Carolina re-took the lead little more than a minute later on an unassisted goal by Michael Burns.

The situation was starting to look precarious for Virginia as the minutes ticked off the clock. But with 2:06 remaining, Thompson, a senior middie, evened things up with a shot from eight-yards out.

The Tar Heels won the overtime face off but Virginia goalkeeper Kip Turner made a save and, after a failed Virginia clear attempt, UNC turned the ball over with about two and a half minutes remaining, setting up the final possession of the game.

With 2:03 on the clock, UNC's Brian Burke was called for a push, giving Virginia a man up advantage. The Cavaliers passed the ball around several times before Billings received the ball from Riley and found an open look at the net.

"We were man up and were trying to get into a different play," Riley said. "They were shutting off Ben [Rubeor], so we had to get into a different formation. We were just moving the ball and I just moved it once more to Garrett and he got the open shot."

Fireworks erupted from the track in front of Klockner Stadium and 2,566 frigid fans jumped to their feet in elation before moving quickly toward the exits and warmth.

"I thought we made a lot of mistakes. I thought we gave the ball back to them a number of times. But I thought we were playing hard, which has sort of been the defining characteristic of this team to date," Starsia said. "This was a meaningful win against a quality team."

North Carolina opened the scoring in the game's second minute. Bart Wagner sent a pass to Ben Hunt just outside the crease and Hunt fired a point blank shot past Turner to give the Tar Heels a 1-0 lead.

The Cavaliers evened things up less than five minutes later. Mike Timms, a sophomore longstick middie, forced a UNC turnover, picked up the groundball and passed it to Danny Glading, who converted on the fastbreak opportunity with a shot into the back of the net.

"Mike Timms plays a position that doesn't get a great deal of attention," Starsia said. "He's one of the best longstick middies in the country, without a doubt. He's so long and rangy; he just gets his stick in your hands a little bit, in a lot of different passing lanes. He just makes a lot of things happen and right now he's playing with a great of confidence. He has that look in his eye of someone who wants to make a play."

Virginia took its first lead of the game with 6:44 remaining in the opening quarter. UNC goalkeeper Grant Zimmerman saved George Huguely's shot but Drew Garrison swooped into to pick up the rebound and score.

A goal by Rob Driscoll gave UNC a 4-3 lead with 12:58 remaining in the second quarter but the Cavaliers responded with four straight goals to carry a three-goal advantage into halftime.

In the third quarter, however, Virginia could not buy a goal against Zimmerman. The sophomore netminder recorded six third quarter saves.

"I thought we came out in the second half and began to play well," Starsia said. "We just couldn't put the ball by their goalie and they got the goals instead of us. So I don't think that we stopped playing during that period of time. But they got a little bit of momentum, which carried through to the end of the game. We just couldn't get the ball past Zimmerman there, in the third quarter especially."

UNC took advantage of Virginia's offensive struggles to mount an impressive comeback. Hunt scored three of Carolina's four goals during the run that gave the Tar Heels the 8-7 lead early in the fourth quarter.

Dom Starsia's team rallied from a fourth quarter deficit to top UNC.

"UNC took pretty good possessions with the ball," Billings said. "They didn't make any bad decisions so our offense didn't get as many touches."

Temperatures had dropped into the low 30s by the team the game had drawn to a close, perhaps explaining why the attendance number was well below the goal of 8,000 set by the Virginia athletics department.

None of the players, however, used the weather as an excuse for anything.

"It was cold but [UNC] had to play in the cold too and they're from North Carolina," Turner said. "We're only from Virginia."

Virginia has now beaten UNC in 14 of the last 16 meetings between the two schools.

The Cavaliers have made a habit of winning close games this year (with the sole exception being the season-opening loss to Drexel), which should only benefit the squad as it approaches the post-season.

"I think any good team faces adversity," Turner said. "This is going to help us down the line."

Starsia concurred with his senior goalkeeper, who finished with 14 saves.

"This is a team that has been soaking up information so hopefully this is something we can use," Starsia said. "Certainly, we know that we need to play better if we expect to be successful down the stretch of this season."

Up next for Virginia is a monumental road test next Saturday afternoon at Duke (9-2, 2-0 ACC). The Blue Devils have won their past four games, including an 11-9 victory over Johns Hopkins this afternoon in Baltimore.

"It'll be an interesting game," Starsia said. "It'll be interesting to get ready for this one emotionally because there are a lot of kind of subplots going on."

Rest will be one primary concern early this week, due to the rigors of having played three games in the past eight days.

"We played two tough games this week," Starsia said. "I think our guys earned a little bit of extra time off this week before we go down to Durham for another important game next weekend."

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