By Andrew Scharff

There were so many storylines in Saturday’s Hofstra men’s lacrosse season opener against the Minutemen of Massachusetts. Their was the fact last year’s team (who was in attendance Saturday afternoon) only two losses, including the overtime loss in the NCAA tournament came at hands of the Minuteman. It was also the debut of an essentially new team, as nine of the ten starters are first time starters. And the biggest storyline of the day was that the Pride played their first game without fallen teammate Nick Colleluori and coincidentally it was his brother Mike who scored the game winner.

Lying underneath all of that was that Saturday was also the debut for first year head coach Seth Tierney. Tierney, 37, took over the helm here in Hempstead, after previous head coach John Danowski left to take head coaching position at Duke University.

But after the 8-6 win over UMass, Tierney did make much of his first victory as a head coach as he was very quick to give all the credit in world to his team on how they showed their poise as he kept his personal accolades a low priority.

“Winning is a wonderful experience, it really is,” says Tierney. “But when you compare it to what these guys went through last year and Nick Colleluori, I am happier for those guys, for coach Amplo, coach Caputo and coach Danowski. I am sure he will hear about these scores.”

“And also this win was for last year’s seniors. And certainly for Nick he knows about it. He was out there with us today,” Tierney added. “So I have no problems seeing my first win go to them.”

Tierney will be looking for another first as head coach as he will be looking for his first win on the road as next up for the Pride will be a Saturday afternoon contest against Brown University “I’m going for my first win in the state of Rhode Island next week,” Tierney said.