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Small College Scoop: North Country Awakening
March 27, 2008
by Jac Coyne, Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff Right about this time every season a team pops up on the radar after posting a surprise victory or two over some quality competition. Sometimes the team goes on to have a great season and threatens to grab a postseason bid. More often than not, the squad returns to Earth and is not heard from again past mid-April. It's too early to tell what the final fate of the Clarkson men's lacrosse team will be, but the Golden Knights have grabbed the collective attention of Division III. The season started out as expected for Clarkson, which has not had a winning record since back-to-back appearances in the NCAA tournament in 2002 and '03. In the opener, No. 4 Cortland jumped on the Golden Knights from the start, coasting to a 12-4 victory. But something happened on the way to another middling season The Clarkson defense coalesced. A Bowdoin team that hung 17 goals on defensive-minded St. Lawrence was thwarted in a 6-5 overtime victory for Clarkson. Three days later, the Golden Knights stalled the always-dangerous RIT offense to pick up a 6-4 triumph. The solid play on the backline is a bit of a surprise considering only one player, junior captain Andrew Kott, earned any serious time on last year's 6-10 team. Clarkson head coach Bill Bergan credits Kott for the communication and smooth slides that have been the hallmark of the defense so far. Even in the loss to Cortland, Kott shined, holding Ryan Heath - a player Bergan said is probably the best attackman in the country - to just two goals and one assist. Filling in the spots around Kott was a process for the Golden Knights' staff. Sophomore long pole Evan Renwick was thrown into the mix after apprenticing his rookie season and junior John Weingold was converted to close defense from middie. Senior Matt Opar and freshman Mike Perkins have also provided minutes in front of senior goalie Greg Lamb, who has made 71 saves in four games.
With this defensive unit leading the way, Clarkson has upped its record to 3-1 and is now just three spots out of cracking the USILA Top 20 poll. Bergan, who is entering his 20th season as the head coach of the Potsdam, N.Y. institution, has been around long enough to take a realistic view of the early success.
"After Bowdoin put one on St. Lawrence I think we got them at a good time," he said. "I don't think they were really expecting us to come out and play them as hard as we did. In the RIT game we didn't play particularly well in the first half but our defense kept us in it and we managed to score a couple of goals. With as cold as it is in the North Country, the games tend to be low-scoring early in the year and I think that favors us a little bit right now." Bergan has also seen how the advent of the Internet shapes the focus of players these days, meaning the staff will have to be vigilant in keeping the Knights on task with their newfound success. "If you watch the way kids act these days, they are all score-watching," said Bergan. "Well, if this team beats that team then we should beat them. That's what they do. You've just got to keep them away from that as much as possible and explain to them, whether they want to believe it or not, any team can beat anybody on any given day, it's just a matter of who shows up." The coaching staff is holding the large junior class responsible for keeping the rest of the team on message. Clarkson's Class of '09 consists of 14 players, including Kott, Weingold and the Golden Knights' three leading scorers - Tom Ross (11 points), Brian Hoey (9) and Greg Gibbons (8). The point in their careers has arrived for them to put their mark on the program. "It's been said to them a number of times: it's time," said Bergan. "You can't say you're young anymore. You're a junior and you've been playing for two years so it's time to get something done." Maybe Bergan can be accused of not enjoying his team's current success, but when you've recorded a 26-35 mark over the past four years one tends to temper expectations. And a daunting Liberty League schedule that includes talented program in St. Lawrence, Skidmore and RPI looms. But Bergan's willing to concede a small level of satisfaction. "If you had asked me before the spring trip if I'd be happy finishing 2-1, I'd say, yes, I'd be pretty happy," he said.
Tri-City Blues "Well, that's a good way to say it," said Holz, with a loud laugh. "Yeah, our numbers are kind of low this year." I would say so. Just 14 players (and, oddly enough, no goalies) are listed on the Thunder's roster, and of that group, nine are rookies. The paltry numbers are the result of a coaching issue resulting in the departure of the program's original coach and the insertion of Holz, who was initially hired as an assistant, into the interim head coaching spot. In order to fulfill the obligations of the 10-game schedule amassed for this spring, Holz had to scramble to find enough players. "We had to get a lot of girls who were already on campus, which was great because there was a lot of interest," said Holz. "They are learning a lot in and out of practice." With the current condition of the program, Holz is ignoring the past year and treating this spring as the initial building process. "I'm starting fresh," said Holz. "We're working to recruit a lot of girls this year, but I'm not going to disregard my girls I have now. It's going to be a long season, but at the same time we're taking steps in the right direction. We have a lot of recruits who have committed to Tri-State and we have some key returners who have the potential to grow into the sport." Predictably, the low numbers and relative inexperience of the players has made for a tough start to Tri-State's spring. The Thunder has played one game, a 19-1 loss to Wittenberg, and because of rotten weather the scheduled game against Kenyon has been canceled. The tentative first steps for the program have not dampened the spirits of Holz, a four-year letterwinner at Niagara. "I believe we are successful right now," she said. "The expectations aren't as high as a program that has been up and running but we're looking to improve game-by-game right now and then we'll compare the whole season from beginning to end."
Slides & Rides - It doesn't appear Lock Haven will be making a return appearance to the NCAA Division II women's tournament this spring. The Lady Eagles put themselves in a tough position with their loss to Limestone earlier in the season and Saturday's 20-8 rout at the hands of PSAC rival West Chester puts their backs to the wall. There are some eventualities that could resurrect Lock Haven's chances, but if it loses on Monday to Gannon, another South region foe, you can put a fork in the Eagles. - When was the last time the ODAC men only had one team in the poll? Over the past several years it seemed at least two members of the conference's top quartet of Lynchburg, Roanoke, W&L and Hampden-Sydney were floating around the polls, but now it's just the Hornets (ranked tied for 10th) holding the ODAC banner. W&L (4-4) and Sydney (2-4) never got out of the starting gates this season and Roanoke (4-3) has had an unbelievably inconsistent campaign illustrated by its last two games against No. 16 Tufts (W, 20-8) and unranked Virginia Wesleyan (L, 15-12). Sewanee, a first-year program, put an exclamation point on the ODAC's woes by defeating Guilford. - While they are still getting plenty of love in the polls, the NESCAC women are off to an ugly start. No. 3 Middlebury was dominated on Tuesday by No. 8 W&L, 13-8, and with seven-consecutive games against ranked opponents - including No. 4 Gettysburg today - who knows what the Panthers will look like at the end of the season. Also, No. 13 Colby and No. 17 Williams both lost to No. 11 Union, with the White Mules taking a 17-5 shellacking. We're not into April and Amherst remains as the only undefeated and even the Lord Jeffs haven't exactly been doing it in dominating fashion. Don't hold your breath for more than one at-large for the NESCACers this spring. - Since No.1 Le Moyne and No. 2 NYIT don't play, the last important game of the Division II men's season will likely be played this weekend when No. 3 C.W. Post and NYIT square off to decide which team will be the Central region pick to the NCAAs (the winner) and which squad will be the Wild Card (the loser). Barring a massive meltdown by the Dolphins or the emergence of Merrimack as a team a lot better than I thought, Le Moyne has the North bid wrapped up and Limestone is in a similar situation in the South. It kind of takes the suspense out of the season when you can pretty much lay out the brackets (Post at Le Moyne; Limestone at Tech) for the tourney, but such is life with only four bids. - Wednesday was a brutal day for ranked teams in men's Division III. No. 16 Tufts (which was as high as No. 5 this year) has now lost three straight after bowing to Connecticut College, 9-5; No. 9 Nazareth fell behind Utica by six goals and couldn't catch up in an 11-9 setback; and Hamilton stunned No. 10 Geneseo with a goal in the final minutes to snare an 8-7 upset. As Clarkson's Bill Bergan said: it just matters which team shows up on gameday. - Judging by the numbers it looks like the showdown between No. 3 Ithaca and No. 4 Cortland was as even as the 9-8 overtime score indicates. The tipping point in favor of the Bombers was the play of junior goalie Ben Connery, who made six of his 16 saves in the fourth quarter. With Ithaca at 8-0 and Matt Nelligan averaging nearly four goals per outing, he has to be in player of the year discussion at this point. Have an idea for the Small College Scoop? Email Jac Coyne.
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