If there’s one guarantee in New England’s Division III college lacrosse landscape, it’s that Springfield will win the NEWMAC. After all, this past weekend’s 12-10 win over Coast Guard ensured the Pride won the championship for the 12th straight year.

But this one had some extra special meaning, and not just because it marked 36-year head coach Keith Bugbee’s 400th career win. This past summer, his daughter, Lindsay Bugbee Crosby, died shortly after giving birth to her third child, a baby boy.

A GoFundMe page in memory of Lindsay raised over $360,000, and Bugbee said his team channeled her spirit all season long. She has her lacrosse and soccer numbers retired at Springfield, and used to coach lacrosse Westminster, a prep school in nearby Simsbury, Conn.

“It was so satisfying, because that was my daughter,” Bugbee said. “We talk about her a lot. She was a really gritty, tough athlete, a wonderful human being, and I really feel like they emulated her that day. It’s not about me. It’s not about her. It’s what I can to do help them in the big picture, and that was it. I was really happy for the guys.”

Bugbee often brought up the words “toughness” and “grit,” largely because a young and inexperienced Springfield team needed to learn what they truly meant. After a 15-7 loss to Middlebury on April 9 (the Pride trailed 15-0 at one point), they stood an uncharacteristic 4-8.

But the group hit a groove as conference play wore on, stalling belief that Coast Guard, a fifth-year program, would overtake the NEWMAC mantle. Springfield, as Bugbee said, never took its foot off the pedal, much like his daughter never did while playing in the mid 2000s.

“When I think of her and what she really did is she showed up,” Bugbee said. “She just loved to compete and what that all meant. She gave it her best, but my message really is that she showed up in life as a mother of three beautiful children, as a wife, as a daughter, as a coach. Whatever she did, she did it with passion and with her utmost heart.

“She just showed up, and that’s been my mantra for the whole season,” Bugbee continued. “Guys, just show up. Hopefully that becomes a habit for life. Be the best employee, best father, best mother, best husband, best wife, best person.”

They’re life lessons that extend well beyond lacrosse, Bugbee said. Towards the end of the year, some lightbulbs started to go off.

“I told my guys that I pray to God you never have to deal with something like this, but you will have some adversity in your life,” Bugbee said. “There will be divorces, problems with your kids, some departures of people from your life. Athletics are just a great way to practice toughness and grit. It’s just a game at the end of the day, but it’s also a great way to cultivate those things that only sports can.”

That’s all set up an NCAA tournament opener Wednesday evening against Ursinus, the first-time champion of the Centennial Conference. Truth be told, neither program knows much about the other — this is their first-ever meeting.

It’ll be another one of those “tough days,” Bugbee said, because his daughter used to text him on game days. However it goes, he can feel pride for how a tough year has evolved.

“I’m really proud of them,” Bugbee said. “They really improved a lot. That’s all I could ever ask for.”

Ursinus shocks the Centennial Conference

When the Centennial Conference preseason poll came out, nobody gave Ursinus much credit, and first-year head coach Gary Mercadante can understand why. The Bears were coming off a 3-11 season and were promptly picked eighth out of nine teams.

Fellow coaches shared a belief, Mercadante said, that Ursinus wouldn’t even make the playoffs. But in their locker room, a different tone emerged.

“Our staff, from the moment we got here, made the decision that we need to change the culture,” Mercadante said. “We have the talent, we have the personnel, but we need to change the culture and make the standard what we believe is a championship one. By doing that, we started to see the shift from our seniors all the way down in terms of how they were working.”

That all paid off, as Ursinus won its first Centennial Conference title this past weekend. The Bears downed Gettysburg 10-8 for their first-ever win over the Bullets, an NCAA tournament semifinalist in 2018.

They’ll now host an NCAA tournament game Wednesday against Springfield. But don’t expect anything to change from Ursinus.

“We're just focusing on us and what our pace of play and what our energy is,” Mercadante said. “That's what has allowed us to get to this point. As exciting as it is, we can't change that approach.”

That same mentality framed an early-season run, when Ursinus largely shocked the D-III lacrosse world. The Bears knocked off Stevenson, Cortland and Christopher Newport – all ranked at the time – and kept the results rolling, earning the No. 4 seed in their conference tournament.

Then came a 12-11 win over regular-season champions Franklin & Marshall in the semifinals, followed by the Gettysburg win. Senior goalie Nick Kirk made 22 saves against the Bullets and freshman attackman Tommy Reinhart stepped up with two goals and an assist, filling in for an injured Peter DeSimone (knee).

As the pieces together, it meant one thing: The Cinderella story that is Ursinus carries on for at least a few more days.

“After the celebrations, it was realizing that we get to play more together,” Mercadante said. “That's been our MO all season. In these big moments, it's embracing the opportunity to be together for another day, to get to go to practice another day. Our seniors talked a lot about that during our playoff games. It’s that love for each other and desire to work and get better has driven us all year.”

At this point, it’s better to not count Ursinus out.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ST. JOHN FISHER AATHLETICS

History for St. John Fisher

When the Empire 8 final was set, conventional wisdom was that Stevens would knock off St. John Fisher, just like it did on April 20 with an 11-9 win. After all, the Ducks were a constant in the national rankings and made the NCAA tournament’s third round last year before falling to RIT.

But the Cardinals, under second-year head coach Dave Dobbins, had other plans in mind. And now for the first time ever, after a 13-6 win over Stevens, St. John Fisher has an Empire 8 title and NCAA tournament berth in hand. The Cardinals play Gettysburg on Wednesday night.

So what keyed the turnaround?

“We tightened up our defensive game plan and played excellent there,” Dobbins said. “Then we shot the ball better and the execution of it was superb.”

On the defensive part, Dobbins wasn’t exaggerating. Their win marked the first time Stevens had been held to six goals or less since a March 4, 2017, game against Tufts, the NESCAC powerhouse program.

In light of that, Dobbins said junior defenseman Kyle O'Dea locked down senior attackman Max Bailey, a two-time All-American for Stevens. Bailey had just one goal and one assist, plus turned the ball over eight times. Then there was the star showing of junior goalie Darin Eakins, who made 16 saves — all with a cast for a broken hand.

It’s nothing flashy, but St. John Fisher seems to get the job done.

“We're not the most athletic defense in the country, we're not the most physically imposing defense in the country. We're far from it,” Dobbins said. “But our kids play really hard and they pay attention to the details and the little things. When they execute, we're as good as anyone.”

As for the challenge against Gettysburg? Dobbins said it’ll come down to playing St. John Fisher lacrosse and not being wowed by the Bullets’ past success.

“It certainly makes my job a whole lot easier with you have a great group to coach,” Dobbins said. “I haven't scored one goal this year, I haven't picked up one ground ball and I haven't made one save. They deserve all the credit.”