Faceoff

Washington College to meet familiar foe

Tue, 13 May 2008 11:30:56 -0500

When Washington defeated Lynchburg, 12-9, on Sunday in an NCAA tournament Division III second-round contest, that set up a quarterfinal meeting between the Shoremen (14-3) and Gettysburg (16-2) at Gettysburg on Wednesday at 3 p.m.

Those teams have faced each other twice this season with the Bullets winning in the regular season (17-10 on April 5) and the Centennial Conference championship final (12-7 on May 4).

"Someone said to me today that in the South, you have to win two or three national championships just to get to the national championship game," Washington coach J.B. Clarke joked. "Would I have preferred to play somebody other than Gettysburg? I don't know. It's easy to prepare for them because we know them so well. We have to beat teams of that caliber to get where we want to go anyway. So I think our guys are looking forward to the challenge."

The Shoremen are making their fifth quarterfinal appearance since Clarke became the head coach prior to the 1999 season. Although they have advanced to the semifinals just once, Washington is 2-0 against the Bullets in the postseason.

"They like the challenge," Clarke said of his players. "They know that Gettysburg has gotten the best of them a couple times, and I think they're ready to try and turn the tide a little bit."

And then there was one ...

Tue, 13 May 2008 11:24:04 -0500

Salisbury coach Jim Berkman became the NCAA leader in career wins when the seven-time defending national champion Sea Gulls defeated Ohio Wesleyan, 13-5, on Saturday in a NCAA Tournament Division III first-round contest.

Berkman, who is now 327-35 in 21 years of coaching, passed former Army coach Jack Emmer for the record.

"I think a lot more people were thinking about it than I was," Berkman said with a laugh. "I just feel very fortunate that I've had a lot of good players and a lot of good teams because we've had a lot of talent play here over the years. I feel very fortunate to have coached them and be the guy that's been managing the ship down here."

Salisbury (19-0) will meet Cabrini (17-2) in a quarterfinal on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at Sea Gull Stadium. The Sea Gulls have made it to the quarterfinals in all 19 years of Berkman's tenure there and have failed to advance to the semifinals just six times.

"I think some people take it for granted once in a while, but as coaches, we definitely don't take it for granted," Berkman said of the quarterfinals. "The expectation from the players' perspective is that if they don't make it to the championship game, the season isn't successful. That's from the players, and that's because of the bar that has been set."

Hofstra honors fallen teammate

Sun, 11 May 2008 20:42:22 -0500

When Pride coach Seth Tierney spoke minutes after his team's 10-4 loss to Johns Hopkins in an NCAA tournament first-round matchup earlier today, his voice was thick with emotion, and at times, he apologized for getting choked up.

Part of that emotion stemmed from watching his team's season come to an end and the eventual farewell to three departing seniors. But a good chunk of Tierney's sentiment had to do with Nick Colleluori.

Colleluori, who would have been a senior this spring, was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and passed away on Nov. 28, 2006. But before his death, Colleluori envisioned the creation of a foundation that would help raise awareness and funds to battle the disease -- a vision that became reality when the HEADstrong Foundation was formed. He even drew the foundation's logo while waiting to undergo a procedure.

"The only hard part is saying goodbye to a couple of seniors that have given everything they had to a program that's been through an awful lot with losing a young man," Tierney said. "It's been tough for them."

The team participated in the inaugural HEADstrong Foundation Nick Colleluori Memorial Classic last October, helping to raise $75,000. Plans are under way for a second lacrosse tournament, and the players wore patches with the No. 27 (Colleluori's jersey number) on their uniforms this spring.

"You wake up, you think of him," said junior attackman Tom Dooley. "... You walk into the locker room, and you see him. I don't think anybody in the past has meant more to this program than he has. He's the heart and soul, and he continues to be the heart and soul of this program. He was looking out for us a lot this year. We got him a [Colonial Athletic Association] conference championship, and every day is for him."

For more information, please visit www.HEADstrongfoundation.org.

Navy: Rested or rusty?

Fri, 09 May 2008 11:15:40 -0500

When the Midshipmen (9-5) take the field against fourth-seeded North Carolina (8-5) tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m. in a NCAA tournament first-round matchup, it will have been 16 days since Navy lost to Colgate in the Patriot League semifinals on April 25.

So will the Midshipmen be energetic or lethargic? They pick the former.

"The week off helped us," sophomore midfielder Basil Daratsos said. "It almost made us more hungry to play lacrosse because we didn’t think we were going to be here. So it’s a second chance that we never thought we would get. So I don’t think we can take it for granted."

Many Navy players thought they would never get this chance. Daratsos said he was pained when he saw senior attackman Nick Mirabito shed a few tears while embracing his mother after the Colgate setback.

But then Princeton lost to Brown and Army was upset by Pennsylvania last Saturday, and the Midshipmen discovered they were in the NCAA tournament Sunday night. The wait was excruciating, but coach Richie Meade said a valuable lesson was learned.

"When you get something taken away from you, you start to appreciate it even more," Meade said of the automatic bid that comes with winning the Patriot League. Navy had captured the qualifier for the previous four years before Colgate's win this season.

"So for us to have the opportunity to play again and see what level we can play at is obviously very rewarding and appreciated," Meade said.

The Midshipmen have an arduous task in trying to knock out a Tar Heels squad that has beaten Johns Hopkins, Notre Dame and Cornell this season. North Carolina bounced Navy from the first round last spring, winning 12-8.

"We owe them one," senior midfielder Terence Higgins said. "We’re excited. They’re good. They’re always good. … We just have to be sound in what we do. Every team has an agenda, their own M.O., and we just need to worry about what we do. We do everything 100 miles per hour, and we need to enjoy it."

Hopkins not overlooking Hofstra

Thu, 08 May 2008 12:58:42 -0500

The Blue Jays have rebounded nicely from a five-game losing skid, ending the season with five consecutive wins to grab the fifth seed in the NCAA Tournament. But the first-round game pits Johns Hopkins (8-5) against Hofstra (9-5), the team that sent the Blue Jays on their tailspin.

"We don't think they can beat us. We know they can," Johns Hopkins coach Dave Pietramala said of the Pride, who prevailed, 8-7, in overtime on March 8. "They've beaten us. So there is a great level of respect we have for them."

Although the Blue Jays have never lost to Hofstra at home in seven meetings and never in the NCAA tournament in three tries, the Pride has won two of the last three matchups. Coach Seth Tierney, the former associate head coach at Johns Hopkins who recruited guys like seniors Paul Rabil, Kevin Huntley and Stephen Peyser, seems to be taking advantage of his inside knowledge.

Hofstra upended Drexel for the Colonial Athletic Association championship and has won four straight courtesy of an opportunistic offense sparked by freshman attackman Jay Card and the improving play of sophomore goalkeeper Danny Orlando.

"They're a very formidable opponent, one that -- quite honestly -- got the better of us," Pietramala said. "They played harder than we did, they played smarter than we did. So when that happens, you have to respect them."

While many players might have preferred tangling with a team they hadn't seen this season, Pietramala said the team can't be concerned with that.

"You can't pick or choose," he said. "We all want to say that this team deserves this and that team deserves that, but the bottom line is it's the NCAA tournament. There are 16 teams selected, and we're one of those 16 teams. We have to go play whoever they put us up against."

Maryland doesn't believe the hype

Wed, 07 May 2008 15:55:40 -0500

One of the first objections observers have had about the 16-team field in the NCAA Tournament is the presence of Denver, which finished third in the Great Western Lacrosse League behind Notre Dame and Ohio State.

Maryland coach Dave Cottle, whose seventh-seeded Terps play host to the 10th-seeded Pioneers on Saturday at noon, isn't one of those critics.

"I give them credit; they played a tough schedule," Cottle said, noting that Denver added North Carolina, Cornell, UMBC and Colgate to its non-conference schedule. "We've got our hands full."

The Pioneers went 2-5 against teams that made the tournament, but they did defeat Notre Dame and Colgate. Cottle pointed out that Denver's 10-6 record could be better had the team not scheduled back-to-back road games against UMBC and Towson on March 1 and 2.

"That's a little hard to do," Cottle said. "So playing one game, I think that will help them a little bit."

Cottle said he was impressed with the Pioneers' offense, but would need more time to draft a game plan against Denver.

"I have to study them a little better to see what we're going to do," he said. "We'll do our best to try and figure out who they are in a short period of time and try to come up with a game plan that will give us a chance to win."

Loyola's second date with Duke

Tue, 06 May 2008 11:08:25 -0500

Like UMBC coach Don Zimmerman, Loyola coach Charley Toomey has every right to be livid about getting matched up against top-seeded Duke when Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference champion Canisius has a weaker RPI and strength of schedule than the Eastern College Athletic Conference champion Greyhounds.

And like Zimmerman, Toomey isn't complaining about traveling to Durham, N.C., to tangle with the Blue Devils on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.

"We knew going into the tournament, we were going to see a terrific team," Toomey said after the brackets were released Sunday night. "Whether it was Syracuse, Virginia or Duke, that first-round game was going to be a difficult one. First and foremost, we're excited to be back in the tournament."

Loyola was the victim of the NCAA's archaic travel policy, which limits just two teams to flights for trips of more than 350 miles. With Denver flying to Maryland and Colgate flying to Notre Dame, the Greyhounds and Canisius had to drive to the site of their first-round opponent. So the Griffins remained in New York, taking on Syracuse, while Loyola got the unenviable task of meeting Duke.

Toomey, however, was philosophical about the shuffling.

"Being in Baltimore is great for recruiting, but it's also 350 miles from just about anywhere on the Eastern seaboard," he said. "... But you pick your poison. We're excited to be headed down there, and we're going to go after it and have a lot of fun this week knowing that we're back in the tournament."

Saturday's contest is a rematch of Duke's 21-8 throttling of the Greyhounds on March 8. Toomey said the team has already reviewed the game film.

"We're still going to stress a lot of the things we stressed in that game -- defending one possession, being smart with the ball, not putting the ball on the ground and allowing Duke to run," he said. "That was our goal the first time around, but we didn't achieve our goal. We kind of have to redefine what we're trying to do and make sure we execute a little better than we had."

Leftovers from UMBC-Albany

Sun, 04 May 2008 07:34:42 -0500

UMBC's postseason run will likely depend heavily on how the No. 7 Retrievers fill the void left by junior attackman Ryan Smith, who -- according to coach Don Zimmerman -- tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee during last night's America East tournament final against Albany at UMBC Stadium in Catonsville.

Smith, who leads the team in goals with 29, injured his knee just 77 seconds into the contest when he and senior midfielder Terry Kimener forced out a Great Danes player near midfield. Smith had to be helped off the field by two team trainers and was spotted using crutches after the conclusion of the game.

"He's a great player," sophomore attackman Matt Latham (Liberty) said of Smith, a Fallston graduate and Essex Community College transfer. "Can't say enough about how much we miss him. But that's when we have to come together as a team."

Without Smith, the Retrievers appeared confused on offense, especially in the first half when they settled for some questionable shots from long range that Albany senior goalkeeper Brett Queener gobbled up. But Latham and sophomore midfielder Kyle Wimer combined for seven goals to help UMBC rally from a nine-goal deficit to edge the Great Danes, 14-13.

So who will fill Smith's spot on attack? The most immediate option is Kimener, who moved from midfield to attack last night. But Zimmerman could also use freshmen attackmen Dom Scalzo or David Scott or add a fourth midfielder (junior Alex Hopmann and freshman Jamie Kimbles, who scored the game-winning goal, would be the first two options) to the offense.

"We'll start to figure that out on Monday," Zimmerman said. "But I think we did a pretty good job adjusting tonight. We just asked guys to step in. ... We get an awful lot of mileage out of a few guys and especially when you're down the way we were. We just had to keep going back."

Other notes:

*A key to the Retrievers' comeback was winning 19 of 29 faceoffs. Senior Taylor Marino won a career-high 19 of 28 and is now 14 faceoff wins shy of tying Ray Ignacio's all-time record of 450 career faceoff wins. "I think Taylor did a heck of a job of scrapping for the ball, and our wings did a good job," Zimmerman said. "Possession is everything when you're down by nine goals. ... Your whole team is depending on you to get the ball. So we had to keep fighting, and it was huge for us."

*Winning the America East tournament gave UMBC the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Retrievers will be making their third straight appearance in the tournament for the first time in school history.

*With 12 wins in 15 games, UMBC eclipsed the school's single-season record for Division I wins of 11 -- a mark set in 1999 and matched last year.

*The Retrievers have captured 13 consecutive games at home and 18 of the last 19. The streak is the third-longest in the nation behind Duke and Notre Dame.

Villa Julie going pink

Thu, 01 May 2008 11:20:52 -0500

The Mustangs men's lacrosse team will participate in a show of support for the seriously injured girlfriend of a player by dyeing their stick heads in pink and using those sticks in Saturday's home game against Stevens Tech at 3 p.m.

Coach Paul Cantabene said that sophomore midfielder Cory Baldwin (Calvert Hall) and his girlfriend Brittany Perkey were involved in a car accident about three weeks ago. Although Baldwin suffered only minor injuries, Perkey, a sophomore at Villa Julie, suffered a broken leg and pelvis and head injuries. Perkey is still in a coma at Maryland Shock Trauma Center, but Cantabene said family and friends are hopeful that she will awaken soon.

Cantabene said the players decided to honor Perkey by dyeing their stick heads with her favorite color, and the five-member coaching staff will wear pink shirts.

"They kind of did it on their own," Cantabene said of the players. "I'm in full support of it. It's kind of nice."

Off the radar, Mustangs riding high

Thu, 01 May 2008 09:37:21 -0500

While the Division I schools grab most of the attention in the area, head coach Paul Cantabene has been quietly building up Villa Julie. In his fourth season, Cantabene has the Mustangs at 12-4 and ranked No. 10 in Division III.

You kind of figured the Mustangs would have success. Cantabene has been as assistant at Hopkins, Maryland and Towson before taking the job at Villa Julie. Cantabene has a lot of energy and it will be interesting to see how long he stays at Villa Julie, because a number of larger schools will try to sign him.

Overcoaching to blame for slowdown?

A lot of fans talk about it, but apparently the head coaches aren't listening. The game of lacrosse has slowed down over the years, and we're seeing fewer fast breaks.

Why?

One of the reasons is the overcoaching. The days of the two-way midfielders are over. Instead of flying down field for fast breaks, the midfielders are running to the box to get replaced. We've got long-pole middies, defensive middies, offensive middies. Shoot, some of these guys are only getting on the field for 18 seconds and then they're off. There's no continuity.

The sad thing is that it's not just the college game -- it's in high school lacrosse and recreation leagues as well.

More on concussions

I saw that Steve Stenersen, president of US Lacrosse, wanted me to contact him about a column I did recently on concussions, and how the "lords of lacrosse" keep ignoring it. In Stenersen's letter in The Sun Sunday, he mentioned all the things that the governing body is doing and blah, blah, blah ...

All I know is that kids are dropping like flies, and the designs of the helmets haven't kept pace with the speed of the game, and the increased physical violence. And I'm not a doctor, or a scientist, or on some board or focus group collecting a check and doing nothing.

Anytime you criticize U.S. lacrosse, Stenersen has to reply. He reminds me of a former Baltimore mayor who went on to become the governor of Maryland.

Berkman bucks the trend

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 12:06:45 -0500

Salisbury coach Jim Berkman isn't one victory shy of the NCAA record for career wins by a coach by maintaining the status quo.

Berkman, who is 325-35 in 21 years of coaching, began this season with junior Riley Clark in goal. Clark, who played in 17 games last spring, started in the Sea Gulls' first 11 contests, but was pulled after surrendering two goals to Gettysburg in the first nine minutes of the game on March 29.

Berkman inserted junior Zach Krissoff, and the Annapolis native and graduate has started the last six contests. Although Krissoff has a better goals-against average (5.35 to 7.23) and save percentage (.617 to .527) than Clark, Berkman said he would not hesitate to use Clark if the situation called for a goalie change.

"I think most of the players on our team would say that it didn’t matter who was in goal, that they could both stop the ball," Berkman said. "And no one had emerged to be that much better than the other one. Riley had a big game against Dennison and then he had a rough start in the Gettysburg game. Zach answered the bell and Zach had a great game the other day. … We’ve got two really good goalies, and we feel very good about them. They both handled it extremely well. If you go to the tailgates after the game, who are the two guys sitting together? It’s Riley’s and Zach’s dads."

Krissoff will need to play well today against a Washington team that averages 12.8 goals per game. The Shoremen (12-1), ranked No. 4 by Inside Lacrosse, are itching to beat No. 1 Salisbury (17-0) for the first time since May 4, 2002 -- a string of seven consecutive losses for Washington.

A budding rivalry?

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 16:24:38 -0500

When it comes to rivalries in the state of Maryland, Johns Hopkins-Maryland may be No. 1 with Salisbury-Washington a close No. 2.

No. 2A just may be Salisbury-Villa Julie.

The Capital Athletic Conference foes combined for 19 penalties resulting in 17 minutes, 30 seconds of man-up (or man-down depending on how you look at it) play. Throw in the teams' first meeting on April 5, and Salisbury and Villa Julie have racked up 36 penalties and 30 minutes.

Today's CAC Tournament final featured six unnecessary roughness calls (three on each team), five slashing whistles (four on Salisbury) and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty assessed to Villa Julie coach Paul Cantabene near the end of the third quarter.

"We recruit against them a lot," Cantabene said of competing with the Sea Gulls. "We don't necessarily agree with everything they do, but I don't think they necessarily agree with everything that we do. ... They've won a lot of titles doing the things that we do, and we're a building program trying to get to what they do. We're close, but we're not as mentally tough as they are."

Salisbury senior defenseman Ryan Phillips laughed when he was asked if the number of penalties suggested that the two teams don't like each other.

"Whenever we play them, we know it's going to be a tough game," Phillips said. "They're battlers just like us. They're not going to back down from any groundballs. We know it's going to be a little rough, but we tried to keep our heads."

Navy: Our lips are sealed

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 11:56:22 -0500

Junior Matt Coughlin has returned to practice and is moving around with little effect from his aggravated right hamstring, but no one is saying whether Coughlin or junior Tommy Phelan will start in the net in the No. 10 Midshipmen's contest against No. 6 Johns Hopkins (4-5) on Saturday.

"He's ready to play. We just haven't made a decision yet," coach Richie Meade said of Coughlin. "But he's ready. We think he's practiced to a point where we think he's recovered."

Coughlin, who started the team's first eight games before injuring his hamstring in Navy's 4-3 overtime win against Bucknell on March 19, compiled a 4.53 goals-against average and a .600 save percentage. The goalie production has barely slipped with Phelan, who has posted a 6.25 goals-against average and a .597 save percentage in four starts.

So does Meade go with the guy who was 6-1 in Coughlin or the hot hand in Phelan, who is 3-2?

"Those types of decision are the decisions that coaches make," Meade said. "I haven't decided one way or the other. We're in that process right now."

Take steps to limit concussions

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:40:16 -0500

Concussions are becoming a big part of lacrosse, and there are a number of ways to reduce them.

First of all, there are some real nicely designed helmets out there. They have as much padding inside as football helmets. They might be slightly heavier than the lacrosse helmets, but after a while, players rarely notice the difference. These helmets might cost more money, but are worth the price.

I also think that the officiating groups that govern lacrosse should get together and either administer more penalties for blows to the head, or just give out ejections. Right now, blows to the head are subjective calls, just like facemasking penalties were in the NFL. There were five-yard penalties for some facemasks, and 15 yards for others. Now, the NFL has ruled that all facemask penalties are 15 yards. That's the way it should be in lacrosse with blows to the head.

Finally, coaches need to be challenged. We live in a bloodthirsty world. We teach kids to play for the big hit, the "kill shot." That's wrong. It's one thing to teach a kid to be physical, another to allow them to take out other players intentionally. I've often seen kids walk to the sideline after a late, cheap shot, and the coaches don't say anything. We really need to do a better job of educating players about safety.

Lacrosse is a great game, but the number of concussions in the sport are rising. They'll keep going up until we make some changes, or unfortunately, until some kid really gets seriously hurt.

-- Mike Preston

Tigers still in the hunt

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 10:57:19 -0500

Minutes after Towson’s 9-6 loss to UMBC on April 1, Tigers coach Tony Seaman held court inside Johnny Unitas Stadium and insisted that the team, 2-6 at the time, still had a shot at earning an invitation to the NCAA Tournament. An at-large bid was out of the question, but Towson needed to qualify as one of the top four teams in the Colonial Athletic Association and win the conference tournament to get the automatic qualifier.

The Tigers took a step toward realizing that goal by upending then-No. 16 Delaware, 10-7, on Saturday. Towson improved to 3-6 overall and 2-1 in the conference and is currently third in the CAA standings behind No. 10 Drexel (9-2, 2-0) and No. 17 Hofstra (4-4, 2-1).

"It definitely puts us back in the picture now," Seaman said of the victory. "We beat one of the better teams in the CAA, a team with a pretty good record that had a couple big wins and was ranked."

After the loss to UMBC, several Tigers players publicly released some steam before walking back to the locker room. The mood has changed since Saturday.

"It’s completely different," senior midfielder Timmy Andre said. "It’s not easy being 3-6, and it’s very easy to leave when things aren’t going well. ... But [winning] just felt good. Everybody’s on the same page, everyone was excited about it. We’re looking forward to the next game."

Towson has three games against CAA opponents remaining, including a road contest against Sacred Heart today and a home tilt against the Dragons on Saturday. Then it’s on to the league tournament, where the Tigers can determine their future.

"Coach Seaman has said it before: you never want to leave it up to the [selection committee] to decide if you’re going to get in or not," Andre said. "We just want to win our conference. That’s always our first goal every year."