(Photo Credit: Hofstra Athletics)
by Michelle Rabinovich
The Hofstra Pride men’s lacrosse team’s out of conference portion of the season as exemplified by a tough 15-8 loss to No. 15 Villanova University Wildcats on Saturday, March 4. The Pride’s record now sits at 2-4 with one more game left to go before conference play starts.
“Certainly disappointed,” said Hofstra head men’s lacrosse coach Seth Tierney. “Villanova is an athletic, older team; and they play a certain way on defense where they get after you a little bit and I thought we responded pretty well in the beginning.”
While both teams put up three goals each in the first quarter, it was Villanova who outscored the home team, 3-1 in the second quarter and picking it up a notch in the third 6-1.
“That quarter is what’s glaring,” Tierney said. “We lose 6-1 in that third quarter, otherwise we’re in it in that point in time with the first and the fourth being tied up.”
After consecutive tough match ups, citing the loses against Merrimack, Navy and Michigan, Tierney is still taking positives from all of these games.
“I was thrilled that we had an experience like this,” Tierney said. “Now we can go into the Syracuse game going ‘we’ve seen zone, we have seen a packed in man-to-man [defense], and now we’ve seen a little bit of a chaotic defense. Now we have film, we can break this thing down and we can learn from this thing before the conference lights go on.”
On the offensive side of the field, Hofstra’s John Madsen scored a hat trick, proving that he is consistently a threat every time he steps on the field.
“[Madsen] is a wonderful competitor. I love him because he drives me crazy,” Tierney explained. “He’s got a little bit of ‘coach if you’re going to yell at me, yell at me, but I’m going to do me’ and that’s what he’s doing.”
Despite the loss, Tierney was still proud of his players’ performance on the pitch.
“For the first half to go 6-4, it’s something to build on,” Tierney affirmed. “We win? I love my guys. We lose? I love my guys.”
With 10 days of rest ahead of this team, Hofstra has Syracuse living in their minds rent free.
“They’ve got some really, really good players, they’ve got some guys that can sling it,” Tierney said. “One third: we need to rest and we need to get healthy; one-third we need to work on us and get us better; and then the final third will be let’s start to prepare what Syracuse is going to bring to the table on Tuesday night at Shuart Stadium.”
