Men's lacrosse skid continues

By KEVIN BOILARD

After falling to Salisbury University and St. Mary’s College, the University of Mary Washington men’s lacrosse team extended its losing streak to three games with an 11-9 loss to York College on Saturday, April 13.

The Eagles, now 7-5 overall and 1-3 in conference play, have not yet won a game in April. Their last win came on March 30, when they took down Wesley College by a decisive 19-6 score.

Lately, UMW has allowed its opponents to jump out to early leads. After another slow start on Saturday, Head Coach Kurt Glaeser attributed some of the problem to a lack of team unity.

“We’re a team offense,” Glaeser said, “and, at times, we were a little bit too much individual, too much ‘me.’ It seems that people want to get their points, instead of helping the team win.”

Senior midfielder Paul Tunick, who scored a career-high four goals versus York, opened up the scoring and gave the Eagles a 1-0 lead. From there, however, York started picking up momentum. The Spartans were economical with their scoring, tallying three goals on only six shots in the first quarter.

The Eagles dominated the time on attack in the early going, peppering York’s defense with 21 shots in the first quarter alone. Senior midfielder Sean Dacey rattled several shots off the goalpost, while Spartans goalie Caleb Abney cleaned up the rest, finishing the game with 16 saves.

UMW still outshot York in the second quarter, 12-10, but the Spartans were able to extend their lead to 8-3 before halftime. The Eagles’ two second quarter goals, both unassisted, came from Dacey and junior attackman Luke Dick.

Tunick was motivated to right UMW’s ship in the second half, as he and the Eagles warmed up to the offensive unity that Glaeser believes is necessary for the team to thrive.

“I was just trying to get our team back in it,” Tunick said. “Whether it was me scoring or someone else scoring, I didn’t care. As long as there were goals being scored.”

The Eagles allowed two more goals in the third period before they began to rally. Sophomore attackman Griffin Burke finally stopped the bleeding by capitalizing on a feed from sophomore midfielder Chris Garcia at the 3:30 mark in the third.

Tunick followed up on the momentum provided by Burke’s goal, scoring back-to-back unassisted goals before the quarter came to a close. With the score 10-6, the Eagles were within striking distance.

York produced one final tally at the start of the fourth quarter, but the Eagles were heating up. Dick scored first, with Burke following shortly after. The time was ticking away, though, and with one final gasp, Tunick scored his fourth and final goal with 2:16 left to play.

Time expired, and the final score read York 11, UMW 9.

“Honestly, I would have rather scored zero goals and have our team win than me score four goals and lose,” Tunick said.

With only two CAC match-ups left (Frostburg State and Marymount) on the schedule, Glaeser is still confident that his squad can turn things around before the conference tournament.

“What we’re hoping to do is get two wins and hopefully get some help, and maybe have a home field game in the first round,” Glaeser said.