On Saturday, March 21, Joe Breschi was on a walk with his family and took a glance at his iPhone. When he saw the time — 12 o’clock noon — he couldn’t help but smile.

If this were a normal day during the lacrosse season, Breschi would be pacing the sidelines right about then, with his No. 4 UNC team just seconds away from starting a huge home game against No. 7 Maryland in the heart of North Carolina’s campus.

Instead, he was miles deep in the woods behind his Chapel Hill home. His players were scattered across the country. And that top-10 game, along with all other NCAA spring sporting events and championships, was canceled in reaction to the coronavirus pandemic. So Breschi opted for humor.

“Hey, opening faceoff,” he texted Maryland coach John Tillman. “We just missed.”

“You’re up 3-0, and I called a timeout,” Tillman replied.

“We just gave up 16 goals to Bryant,” Breschi shot back, “so I'm sure it’s 3-3 five minutes into the game.”

The longtime UNC coach laughed this week as he recounted that conversation — an attempt, he said, to keep things light in “this time of extraordinary uncertainty” for the sport and the world at large. The past two weeks have been a blur for UNC, which, at 7-0, was off to its best start in five years.

The Tar Heels played their final game on March 10. On March 12, they met to discuss the ACC’s suspension of all spring sports. Fifteen minutes after the hour-long meeting ended, the NCAA canceled all spring championships. So they met again.

“I think a lot of guys knew what was on the horizon,” senior Justin Anderson said.

Five days later, the inevitable announcement came: the ACC had canceled all athletics-related activities. North Carolina held a final team meeting, and its season was officially over.

Players dispersed rapidly, flying or carpooling to their homes along the East Coast and, for some, farther. Breschi estimated 90 percent of the roster is home now; the remaining 10 percent have stayed in their off-campus houses due to the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in their hometowns.

“This was so much bigger than a game,” Breschi said. “This is the game of life, as opposed to the game of lacrosse … and the bright young men in the room, they all understood that.”

Anderson agreed, quick to emphasize that sports are merely a sliver of what the virus is affecting right now. But he was honest, too, in assessing the timing of it all.

“It stings a bit more this year,” he said, “because we had an incredible team.”

Indeed. After missing the NCAA tournament two years in a row, the Tar Heels started 2020 on fire. They led the country with 125 goals (17.9 per game), 86 assists (12.3 per game) and a 77.3 man-up offense conversion percentage. Superstar transfer Chris Gray played his part with a team-high 27 goals, 21 assists and 48 points. The rest of the offense was also surging. Sophomore Nicky Solomon had 29 points, and Anderson and Tanner Cook — both seniors — were on pace to shatter their previous career highs in goals and points.

“It was a common consensus, across the 55 or so guys on our team, that everyone cared about the team success more than their personal success,” Cook said. “That was a special feeling I'll never forget.”

Zac Tucci set a program record for single-game face-off wins with 25, and goalie Caton Johnson, the 2019 ACC Freshman of the Year, was putting together a solid sophomore season alongside an inexperienced but improving defense.

It’s all speculation now for the Tar Heels, who, instead of riding out their championship aspirations, settled for an impromptu Senior Day in their film room.

One by one, veterans addressed their teammates and coaches on a promising season cut short. Anderson, who took a two-year mission in Chile for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints before joining the program, couldn’t get a single word out.

“There weren't many dry eyes,” Breschi said.

The coach is “cautiously optimistic” about the NCAA’s intention to grant an extra year of eligibility to Division I spring-sport seniors. Anderson, Cook and UNC’s other seniors (including captain William Perry) will spend the coming weeks and months deciding, with their families and coaches, whether to return.

There’s plenty to discuss and consider, but Cook said there’s already a pervasive feeling among the group that most aren’t done yet. They don’t want to end their last season on a slew of what-ifs.

“Our mindset is, there’s kind of some unfinished business for us,” Anderson said. “Regardless of graduation, guys want to win a national championship. I think we’re trying to put together pieces to see how this could work and if it could work.”