By Mark Walters
What a difference a day can make. Or in this case four.
Having handled Villanova 10-3 last Saturday night at James Shuart Stadium, the Hofstra men’s lacrosse team figured to be a lock to advance to this weekend’s Colonial Athletic Association Championship game. Guess again.
Villanova came back to Shuart Stadium and this time handed the Pride a 9-7 loss in front of its home fans Wednesday night.
Disappointment would be an understatement. They say it’s tough to beat the same team twice. While there are statistics to dispute that in other sports, in lacrosse it certainly rang true this week in Hempstead. Tierney came to the press conference with no players and his pauses were long and almost painful. The loss hung over Shuart Stadium like a bad hangover.
“They came in, they were focused,” Pride head coach Seth Tierney said. “They had the revenge factor in their back pocket.”
Maybe it was revenge, but Hofstra wasn’t firing on all cylinders. They had too many unforced errors and played sloppy. On that specific night Villanova was the better team. They used a zone defense to neutralize Hofstra’s high-powered and fast-paced offense.
“Once we got throttled 10-3, we realized that this is it,” Villanova senior midfielder Matthew Fritts said. “It was kind of a wake up call for us.”
The Wildcats certainly were awake in the fourth quarter. They outscored Hofstra 4-1, scoring the final four goals-all unanswered.
Of course what now needs answering is whether the Pride will be picked for the 16-team NCAA Tournament field or not. My guess is that they will, but forget about a top-eight seed and a first round home game. Unfortunately it’s out of Tierney and his team’s hands.
“We’re gonna practice tomorrow,” Tierney said when asked about moving forward and the NCAA Tournament. “We’re gonna hope that our body of work throughout the course of the season in being 11-3 with some big wins and some tough wins gets us into the NCAA Tournament.”
Going 11-3 is no small feat, and while two of the losses were to No. 7 North Carolina and No. 8 Johns Hopkins, the most recent one to Villanova is staining the Pride like a regrettable tattoo.
The Ratings Percentage Index, somewhat of a strength of schedule if you will, has Hofstra ranked fifth, but that will drop with the Nova loss. Hopkins has the top RPI in the nation and North Carolina is eighth. Quality wins against No. 4 Princeton, No. 10 Brown, and No. 15 UMass bode well for the Pride and the CAA has sent more than one team to the national tourney three times since 2003, but until Sunday it’s all speculation.
“I’m hoping that it’s enough, Tierney said. “We can sit down with a calculator and figure this whole thing out and there’s a couple guys from the NCAA who are gonna say something different,” Tierney said.