By Mark Walters
After being upset by Villanova in the first round of the CAA Tournament, the men’s lacrosse team held practice the next day. The day after losing at home to a team it had beaten four days prior, Pride head coach Seth Tierney had his team practicing, uncertain if they would earn the chance to play again this season.
Fast forward to last Sunday, ‘Selection Sunday,’ and you could say the practice has paid off.
“Thursday and Friday was hard,” Tierney said of the days following the loss to Villanova. “Thursday we didn’t use sticks; that’s how hard it was.”
The coach instead drilled his team, having them pick up ground balls with their hands when the lightning made it dangerous to practice with metal sticks on Friday.
“We had to get some things straight and we got it straight,” he added.
His team has responded well to the tough practices as it prepares to face Cornell this Saturday in Ithaca, New York, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
“The quote was ‘learn how to hate losing,’ senior attackman Tom Dooley said of Thursday and Friday’s practices. After a weekend off coupled with the collective sigh of relief breathed by the team when it earned a first-round matchup at Cornell, the team seems ready to roll. “The first two days this week have been a ton of energy,” Dooley said.
Classmate and midfielder Michael Colleluori mirrored Dooley’s statement, adding, “I’m actually surprised. The energy’s been a lot better.”
While a national tournament game always carries heavy implications, in addition to the lose-and-you’re-done label on this upcoming game a win over the Big Red would put the Pride back at James Shuart Stadium for the NCAA quarterfinals against the winner of Massachusetts and Princeton, both of which the Pride has beaten earlier this season.
“The thing is one game at a time,” Colleluori said. “That’s the approach, but it’s our dream to come back here and play on our home field.”
Coach Tierney mimicked that sentiment, but he’s not taking anything for granted at this point.
“We’re fortunate that we’re playing, just playing, a,” Tierney began. “And b, we’re having a good week of practice. The guys understand that it’s a fortunate situation to be practicing and not cleaning out lockers and having end-of-the-year meetings.”
Tierney ran through Cornell’s lineup, a powerful bunch that boasts the second-highest scoring average in the nation, 12.8 goals per game. Leading that attack is Ryan Hurley, Max Seibald, and John Glynn, who have scored 38, 23, and 19 goals on the season, respectively.
“Not a lot of teams out there have a one-two punch like Glynn and Seibald,” Tierney said. “We’re gonna try to cover ’em and we’re gonna try to cover ’em with everybody.”
While Cornell’s stats may be impressive though, Dooley addressed the fact that with the NCAA Tournament beginning, it’s a whole new season.
“At this point in the year you just throw everything from the regular season out,” he said.
LAX Notes
Seven Pride players were named to the All-CAA team, the league announced recently. Leading the way is sophomore attackman Jay Card, who earned CAA Player of the Year Honors. Head coach Seth Tierney was named Co-Coach of the Year, along with Villanova’s Michael Corrado. Tierney guided the Pride to its first CAA regular season title since 2006 in his third year at the helm.
Hofstra’s 11 victories are tied for the third-most wins since 1989 and are tied for the ninth-most in school history. Only the 2006 team that won a school-record 17 games and the 1999 squad that won 13 had more victories since 1989. This is Tierney’s first CAA Coach of the Year Award.
Car has been stellar for the Pride, amassing seven game-winning goals this season. He led the CAA in goals per game (2.36) and points per game (3.00). He also picked up 30 ground balls and had five man-up goals this season. His 33 goals and 42 points are career-highs. Card was named CAA Rookie of the Year last season as a freshman, in addition to being named to the CAA second team and the All-Rookie team. He is the 10th Hofstra player to be named conference Player of the Year since 1988 and the first since Chris Unterstein won the award in 2006.
Joining Card on the CAA first team are senior midfielder Michael Colleluori and junior defenseman Christian Scuderi. Senior long-stick middie Steve Prifte and sophomore middie Steven DeNapoli were chosen to the second team.
Two freshman, goalie Andrew Gvozden and attacker Kevin Ford, were named to the CAA All-Rookie Team.