Grand Valley State had its first practice of the spring season on January 7. The Lakers played their opening game of the 2019 campaign on February 22, posting a 14-4 victory over Lake Erie. And now, almost three months after that first practice and five weeks after their first game, Grand Valley State will play its home opener, hosting GLIAC opponent McKendree later this afternoon. 

Nine straight road games to start the season was not the original plan for first year head coach Mackenzie Lawler, although the schedule she inherited did begin with seven road games. Some late adjustments to fill out the slate added two more trips to the start of the schedule, preceding the three-game spring trip to Colorado earlier this month.

Lawler embraced the challenge.

“All the travel has actually helped us as a new staff because it gave us more time with the players,” she said. “All the moments at dinner and at the hotel give us a chance to learn more about our team.”

The Lakers have fared relatively well thus far, winning six of the nine games. All three losses have come against ranked teams: Colorado Mesa, Regis, and Indianapolis. Six of the final seven games, starting today, are at home.

“Of course, the players are excited to finally be playing at home,” Lawler said. “It’ll be fun to have friends at the game and some of them have families in town for the weekend.”
 

Bentley Embracing the Courage of Overtime

Maybe it’s a new national record. Maybe it’s not? Either way, it’s such an oddity that the NCAA does not even track it in its official record book.

One thing is for sure; the players at No. 16 Bentley are putting in a lot of extra time. 

The Falcons had a run of four straight overtime games come to an end on Wednesday with their 14-10 win at Franklin Pierce. The result was decided during a regulation 60-minute game, which has been a virtually unheard of occurrance for Bentley in 2019.

“I told our team that I knew we could do it, to win a game in regulation time,” said second-year head coach Taylor Bastien. “This has been a wild ride.”

Now standing 5-1 overall, Bentley played four consecutive overtime games between March 9 and March 23. The Falcons prevailed in each of the first three of those OT thrillers before losing their first overtime contest at Stonehill last Saturday. Needless to say, fingernail biting has become a popular pastime among fans in Waltham. 

“Yes, it’s very stressful and it does take a lot out of you emotionally, but we’ve also learned that we can execute under pressure,” said Bastien, a former player for the Falcons who still ranks second in program history with 121 assists and third in points with 220.

The Falcons have adopted the Finnish idea of “sisu” as their motto, which is roughly translated as determination, sustained courage, and strength of will. With 17 underclassmen on the 21-player roster, Bastien is trying to impart the importance of grit to her young team. 

“We have talked about trying to start games with more urgency so we can avoid having to go to overtime,” she said. “We’re still a work in progress.”

ESU, Tampa Fuel Upset Wednesday

The first six weeks of the season provided few major upsets, evidenced by the fact that the top nine teams in the Nike/US Lacrosse Top 20 had a 75-3 cumulative record at the start of this week. That changed on Wednesday.

It started with No. 12 East Stroudsburg handing No. 4 West Chester a 15-14 overtime loss in a battle of the PSAC’s best. ESU forced the extra time by scoring the final three goals of regulation, then had Krista Mitarotonda score her only goal of the day in the extra session to claim the win. 

The heroes for ESU included Emma Rufolo, who had a hand in each of the three goals over the final 1:55, scoring twice and assisting once, and goalie Tatyana Petteway, who finished with 18 saves.

“Tatyana came up huge for us,” said Warriors coach Xeni Barakos-Yoder. “Our defense did a fantastic job shutting them down in overtime.”

For East Stroudsburg, the victory was just the second in program history over an opponent ranked in the top five nationally. Both of those wins are against West Chester. 

A few hours later, No. 14 Tampa defeated No. 5 Florida Southern for the first time ever, claiming a 16-14 win at home. FSC rallied from a seven-goal deficit to tie the game at 13 with eight minutes remaining, but Tampa (7-2) answered with three straight goals to claim its first-ever win over a top five opponent. 

“We got the monkey off our back,” said Kelly Gallagher, the only coach in the program’s seven-year history.

Gallagher credits a strong senior class for helping to elevate the Spartans into a contender in the Sunshine State Conference. 

“We have 10 seniors, and their passion has spilled over to the rest of our team” she said. “They want to leave a legacy.”

Last Dance

The best match-up of ranked teams Saturday is No. 2 Adelphi hosting No. 13 LIU Post.  With the Pioneers reclassifying to NCAA Division I next year, this may be the last meeting between the non-conference neighbors who are situated just 10 miles apart on Long Island. Or they could possibly meet again later this spring in the NCAA postseason tournament. Combined, the two programs have claimed 10 of the last 13 NCAA championships.