Don Zimmerman

UMBC's 11-7 victory over Rutgers on Saturday to even the team's record at 1-1 was highlighted by an impressive performance from the attack unit. Senior Matt Gregoire led the team with three goals, and senior Scott Jones chipped in two goals and one assist. Freshman Nate Lewnes scored a goal, and senior Joe Lustgarten came off the bench to record one goal and three assists. The trio of Jones, Lustgarten and Lewnes combined for four goals and three assists in a12-9 loss to Robert Morris in a season opener that Gregoire missed for undisclosed reasons.

After opening the season with just one win in its first five games, UMBC is now one victory away from making its first NCAA tournament appearance since 2009. All the the team has to do is knock off No. 10 Albany in Saturday morning's America East tournament final at Stony Brook in Stony Brook, N.Y. Retrievers coach Don Zimmerman said getting to this stage of the year is an objective every program discusses, which makes Saturday's contest that much more exhilarating. “You work hard all year - not just all season - with fall ball, weights, conditioning, and it boils down to this game,” he said Friday.

Read our transcript with the UMBC men's lacrosse coach Don Zimmerman is in his 12th season as head coach at UMBC. The Retrievers finished 6-8 last season. Baltimoresun.com: What have you learned about your team in the preseason? Don Zimmerman: We've had two scrimmages and I think we played well in one and didn't play as well in the other, so we were a little inconsistent. We've been hampered by the weather a little bit. They are re-doing the turf in our stadium and we've been practicing on grass and have been forced to play indoors.

UMBC has enjoyed some memorable comebacks wins during Don Zimmerman's tenure. Just a couple that come to mind include a five-goal rally to edge Maryland, 8-7, on March 6, 2012 and a 5-1 fourth quarter to nip Albany, 14-13, in an America East tournament final on May 3, 2008. But the longtime coach said that the Retrievers' six-goal explosion in Thursday's 15-13 decision over Hartford in a conference tournament semifinal at Stony Brook may have been one of best he witnessed. “That was a special comeback, especially against a team like Hartford in a championship setting,” Zimmerman said Friday morning.

Maryland coach John Tillman has already voiced his intention to go with Wednesday night's home contest against UMBC as planned despite the impending approach of a storm forecast to dump as much as eight inches of snow on the Washington, D.C. area. Retrievers coach Don Zimmerman feels the same way. “We scheduled to play this game, and the guys want to play,” Zimmerman said Tuesday afternoon. “When you have a chance to play the No. 1 team in the country in a venue like Byrd Stadium, that's what kids dream about.

There are still several weeks left in the college lacrosse season, but the Coach of the Year award should already be determined. The award has to go to UMBC's Don Zimmerman. There are compelling cases for others such as Ohio State's Joe Breschi, Drexel's Chris Bates and Syracuse's John Desko. But Zimmerman has put together strong back-to-back seasons with the Retrievers, who have won nine straight games. And he has done it under some very tough circumstances. "He lost his entire attack from a year ago," Maryland coach Dave Cottle said.

The first time I met Don Zimmerman was in 1987 when he was the coach at Johns Hopkins. He was as intense then as he is now. He would leave a trail after the game from pacing the sideline. He would run a fast break with his team going down the field. Like most young coaches, his top priority was winning. Twenty-one years later, winning is still a priority of Zimmerman's, but it's not No. 1. If it were, Zimmerman would still be a candidate for the coaching job at North Carolina. Instead, he withdrew his name recently and decided to stay at UMBC, where he has been the head coach the past 15 years.

In 1994, Dave Ford left his home in Lutherville for UMBC. It's a 20-mile spin around the Beltway, but to his lacrosse buddies, Ford might as well have been an 1840s adventurer who packed his belongings in a covered wagon, had his wife ride shotgun and headed off for the wilderness."

Joe Lustgarten scored the final two goals, including the game-winner with 55seconds left and an insurance goal 21seconds later, to cap a 6-0 run as the third-seeded UMBC men's lacrosse team upset second-seeded Hartford, 15-13, in an America East Conference semifinal at Stony Brook's LaValle Stadium. The Retrievers (7-7) advance to their first championship game since 2009 and will meet No. 10 Albany on Saturday at 10 a.m.. Lustgarten led the Retrievers with four goals and two assists, while Scott Jones and freshman Pat Young added three goals each.

Playing in rain and mud, Duke's lacrosse team had too much talent for UMBC and ground out a 14-7 victory yesterday before a drenched crowd of 200 at UMBC Stadium.Duke (3-1) looked more like the No. 9 ranked team this time. Saturday, the Blue Devils blew a 12-10 lead against Maryland with 1:14 to go and lost in overtime, 13-12.Ken Fasanaro and Bob Carpenter had three goals each yesterday for Duke. Fasanaro, a senior attackman from Stony Brook, N.Y., is Duke's leading scorer with 12 goals.For unranked UMBC (1-1)

Joe Lustgarten scored the final two goals, including the game-winner with 55seconds left and an insurance goal 21seconds later, to cap a 6-0 run as the third-seeded UMBC men's lacrosse team upset second-seeded Hartford, 15-13, in an America East Conference semifinal at Stony Brook's LaValle Stadium. The Retrievers (7-7) advance to their first championship game since 2009 and will meet No. 10 Albany on Saturday at 10 a.m.. Lustgarten led the Retrievers with four goals and two assists, while Scott Jones and freshman Pat Young added three goals each.

Of the 11 different players who have started in UMBC's midfield, freshman Pat Young has the most starts with 11 and junior Conor Finch is second with six. Next on that list is senior Joe Lustgarten, who has made five starts after spending the last two seasons as a starting attackman. As the Retrievers prepare for Thursday's America East tournament semifinal against Hartford at Stony Brook, Lustgarten is slated to make his fifth consecutive start in the midfield. In the team's last four contests, he has scored four goals on nine shots and assisted on five others.

With a 6-7 record, UMBC's only path to the NCAA tournament entails winning the America East tournament at Stony Brook and capturing the automatic qualifier that accompanies that honor. A loss to Hartford in Thursday's semifinal or to the Albany-Stony Brook winner from the other semifinal would mean the Retrievers would begin their offseason next week while the NCAA tournament rages on. The importance of the conference tournament is not lost on coach Don Zimmerman. “Beginning Thursday, it's sudden death,” he said Tuesday afternoon.

The UMBC men's lacrosse team's offense sputtered throughout the first half of Saturday's game against visiting Binghamton. But the Retrievers came alive in the second half and rallied for a win that put them into the America East tournament. Freshman Pat Young scored all four of his goals in the second half, the final one a tie-breaker with 1:18 left, giving UMBC a 10-9 comeback victory. The Retrievers UMBC (6-7, 3-2 America East) will be either the No. 3 or 4 seed in the four-team conference tournament, which begins Thursday at Stony Brook.

Last year's regular-season finale ended on a sour note for UMBC when Binghamton stunned the Retrievers with a 15-8 rout in Vestal, N.Y. But the loss wasn't too costly as UMBC had already clinched a berth in the America East tournament. This Saturday should have a much different feel to it. The Retrievers (5-7 overall and 2-2 in the league) will meet the Bearcats (5-8, 1-3) this Saturday at UMBC Stadium in Catonsville to cap the 2013 campaign, but at stake is a spot in the conference tournament.

This season, UMBC has featured one of Division I's more opportunistic man-up offenses, converting 39.5 percent of its chances (15-of-38) which ranks 14th in the country. The program's strength will soon be tested this Saturday when America East rival Binghamton pays a visit to UMBC Stadium in Catonsville. The Bearcats (5-8 overall and 2-2 in the league) are tops in the nation in suffocating extra-man opportunities, surrendering just four goals on 28 man-up chances and turning away 85.7 percent of those opportunities.

UMBC opened the season without Scott Hopmann, and the status of the junior midfielder is unclear. The Annapolis native and St. Mary's graduate, who scored 11 goals and posted 13 points last season, has missed most of the preseason because of a hamstring injury. Hamstrings are notoriously finicky, which is why coach Don Zimmerman said the team is being cautious with Hopmann's return. “We're hoping,” Zimmerman said when asked if Hopmann might be available for Sunday's contest against Rutgers.

Despite Friday night's 16-10 setback to No. 11 and America East foe Albany, UMBC is in the driver's seat regarding its entry into the conference tournament. If the team defeats Binghamton this Saturday at UMBC Stadium in Catonsville, the Retrievers will finish in the top four of the league standings and lock up a spot in the tournament. A loss would drop UMBC to 5-8 overall and 2-3 in the America East and into a tie with the Bearcats, who would improve to 6-8 and 2-3 respectively.

No midfielder has made more starts for UMBC than Pat Young, and the freshman continues to reward the coaching staff for that decision. Young, who has started nine of 11 games for the Retrievers (5-6), ranks second on the team in both goals (22) and points (28). He has recorded eight goals and four assists in three contests against America East foes and was named the conference's Rookie of the Week after he scored two goals - including the game-winner - in UMBC's 13-12 decision over Stony Brook last Saturday.