By Mark Walters

Coming out of a film session Wednesday afternoon, attackman Jay Card was just having one of those days.

Tired from burning the midnight oil the previous night for a paper that was due, Card was met with a leaking bag he ordered from the Coliseum Deli. His iced tea was leaking, and it was a mess. Halfway through the week though, he figured he’d make it.

While things don’t always come easy for the Canadian sophomore, on the field is a different story. This season, Card has 22 goals through nine games. His team-leading 2.2 goals per game is impressive, and twice this season he’s scored more than three goals in a game-five against Delaware and four at Brown-but what is more impressive is the ice water in his veins.

“I think he has five or six game-winning goals in the past two years,” senior attacker Tom Dooley said. “His game is shooting the ball and he’s obviously able to do that pretty well.”

Simply put, Jay Card is clutch. He thrives when the pressure is on.

“He wants the ball,” Pride head coach Seth Tierney began. “But he wants the ball when the game’s on the line. There’s no way around it. He wants the ball and he makes himself available.”

Take for instance the double-overtime thriller at Army on March 24. He scored the game-winning goal in addition to one in the third period, an over-his-shoulder shot that ranked No. 3 that evening on Sportscenter’s Top 10 plays. He didn’t know about it until he received a text message from his sister.

“Her boss at work said that she saw her little brother on the TV, so we stayed up late that night and just watched it [while] on the phone,” Card said.

Naturally modest, he attributes his character to lessons learned from Brodie Merrill. Card attended Merrill’s prep school, The Hill Academy, and learned a lot from his high school coach, one of the best players in the game.

“He’s very humble,” Card said. “He’s done a lot of great things in lacrosse. He’s been a Tewaaraton finalist, played on Team Canada, plays professionally. He was named like the best lacrosse player a couple of years ago, and you would never know it.”

Card was recently named one of the 21 nominees for the Tewaaraton Trophy, which is college lacrosse’s equivalent of college football’s Heisman Trophy.

Coming to Hofstra, Card’s character fits in well with Tierney’s system.

“It’s not negotiable,” Tierney said about how his players conduct themselves. “They will be thankful for the gifts that they’ve been given and it’s the only way to go through life in my eyes.”

Card has been given gifts aplenty, including the path that led him to Long Island. Late in the recruiting process he had only heard from Rochester Institute of Technology, a Division III school. His last high school tournament was the Turkey Shoot in Ithaca, NY, and that’s where Hofstra assistant Matt Rewkowski saw Card and told Tierney about him.

“I was fortunate enough to have a really good tournament and it just so happened that there was a lot of Division I schools there,” Card said. That’s when his phone started ringing. Virginia, Maryland, Georgetown. But…

“As soon as I stepped fot on this campus, I met the guys and the coaches, I knew this was where I wanted to be,” Card said. He liked the coaches and their support, the family that is Hofstra lacrosse. Coming from so far away, he needed a place where he felt comfortable.

“I wouldn’t be able to come home as much as I would like to and I feel like the coaches, they do a good job of looking after me, as well as the guys. [They’re] all great guys, especially the seniors.

“It felt like family right from the get-go.”

The lacrosse tradition runs deep at Hofstra, and it was not difficult for Card to feel at home.

“When the guys on the team saw his talent, you tend to fin in a little bit quicker,” Tierney said. “He’s very focused, a focused competitor. Love’s the ball in his stick.”

While the ball is frequently in his stick, a stick is even more frequently in Card’s hands, as he eats, sleeps, and breathes lacrosse.

“Doesn’t matter if I’m sitting around the house,” he said. “The stick’s a part of me. I’m always thinking about lacrosse. I think my main ingredient to my success is my love for the game.” Card always wants to get better.

Tierney referred to his attacker as a lacrosse rat, a title Card willingly accepts. But he brings more to the team than just his talent and work ethic. He tries to lighten the mood to improve morale.

“If it’s a Monday, guys are gonna be down,” Card began. “I just try to make the atmosphere better. I crack jokes a lot, with the coaches, just try to get everyone in a good mood.”

As his team continues to strive toward improvement and its goals, Card sees more confidence in his team than last year’s squad that suffered a 10-4 rout at the hands of Johns Hopkins in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The team feels confident with the game on the line, and while Card admits it would be nice if they could play with that same sense of urgency for a full game, they do have a 19-year-old clutch pedal by the name of Jay Card, and he’s ready to shift.