CU men’s lacrosse gets 11-7 victory in last home game of regular season
CU Men’s Lacrosse defeated Chapman University April 3 in their last regular season home game. The 11-7 win was emotional for the eight seniors, reflecting in their play, which turned particularly physical at some points.
“The difference for us, especially the seniors, was it was our last home game on this field for the regular season,” senior Jon Atwood said. “We have been playing on this field for four years and it means a lot to us to just get a win at home.
Despite the intensity of the game, the referees still found time to supervise the fans. In fact, one of the referees threatened to end the game if the fans did not move another few feet back from the sideline.
The fans replied that the referee should have been focusing on the game. As the game turned more and more physical towards the end of the third quarter, it appeared that a fight was about to break out. After one particularly strong hit ending in two players entangled on the ground, Atwood jumped up and threw his stick down angrily as the fans began to scream “Fight! Fight!”
“It was getting a little rough,” Atwood said.
No fight did break out, and CU came out in the second half to add another 7 points to the 4-2 lead.
“I thought we started off a little slow,” senior Scott Cadiz said. “The team picked it up and we came out strong in the second half. That is what made us come out with a victory.”
After big on-the-road defeats of then-ranked No. 11 University of Arizona, No. 13 Arizona State University, and No. 1 University of Oregon over the past 11 days, CU took a hard loss to UC-Santa Barbara on March 29.
“I think after we came out and we beat the No. 1 team at the time, Oregon; we just came out a little flat thinking that we were kind of high and on a plateau. The game showed us that we aren’t the best team out there yet, we have got to keep working towards our goal,” Cadiz said. “It was good. Coming out and losing a game like that; showing us that we aren’t the best team. We will come out and we will have more of a blue-collar attitude that we can bring into the games.”
Despite the positive effects of the loss, Atwood realized the realities of what the setback meant.
“After that loss it really put us in a tough position looking towards our seeding and nationals,” said Atwood. “We have to win every game or there is a possibility that we might not even make it to nationals.”
CU will take on No. 13 University of Utah and No. 2 Brigham Young University in the next week. The final road games will culminate at the Nationals.
“It’s a real big test. It’s our division; our league and all the teams in there can beat teams at any time. I’m looking forward to it but we got to really focus,” freshman Blake Whitcomb said. “We really just need to play some hard-nosed defense and run our offensive system and we will put up goals. We got definite good players on offense and our D is amazing, which is huge for us.”
As of March 28, CU has moved from No. 7 to No. 5 on the Shamrock Lacrosse MCLA Division A polls. The team looks for big road victories in the last five regular season games to move up in the polls and secure a trip to nationals.
Contact Campus Press Staff writer Margot Schneider at margot.schneider@thecampuspress.com.
