Men’s lacrosse seniors start their final season in success

Coming off a big 18-9 victory on Sunday, Feb. 16 against Hampden-Sydney College, the men’s lacrosse team now has its highest expectations in years.

The team is now 2-0 after winning their Wednesday game against Randolph-Macon College with an overall score of 13-7.

“It’s our year,” Senior attacker Billy Kelly, who scored a career-high seven goals in Sunday’s season opener. “We came out with the right mentality on Sunday. The offense moved the ball well, and goals were coming just one after another,” he said

Experience, according to Kelly, is on their side. The team has ten seniors on the roster, including attackmen Kelly, John Bolinger and Luke Dick, who all scored at least three goals in the season opener.

“We’ve been waiting for this year for four years,” said senior goaltender Zack DelGrosso.

Head coach Kurt Glaeser was pleased with Sunday’s victory from his senior-heavy team.

“We have a good bunch of leaders on the team. We were fundamentally sound on offense, and patient when we needed to be,” coach Kurt Glaeser said.

The three captains, Kelly, DelGrosso and senior midfielder Joey Marson, lead the team, though others play important roles as well, according to Glaeser.

“(Johnny) Esposito was great on face-offs and made a big difference in the game,” Glaeser said.

“We started out well last year, but couldn’t finish as hot as we started,” Glaeser said. “We just want to take it a game at a time, we don’t want to look too far ahead.”

Last season, the team started the year 7-2, but slumped to a final record of 9-7. The team’s first game of the season in 2013 ended in a dramatic 9-8 loss to Hampden-Sydney.

“That was my first game starting at goalie,” DelGrosso said. “It was a crazy ending, but it felt good to go out and win this time.”

Glaeser said he and his team want to take the season a game at a time.

“We don’t want to look too far ahead,” he said.

Seven of the lacrosse Eagles scored goals in Sunday’s match-up, with Bolinger and Dick contributing six of the team’s nine assists.

“The offense was phenomenal,” DelGrosso said. “We’ve never played that well.”

The team dominated Hampden-Sydney in multiple facets of the game, outshooting them 44-23 and winning 20 of 30 face-offs.

“Kelly and Luke present really tough match-ups, Glaeser said. “Luke got the best defender, and that really opened things up for Kelly. He is a smooth and smart player. This is a reason he is a captain.”

Though the offense performed well, the defense had a few hiccups, according to Glaeser.

“The defense broke down a couple times during the game, and we gave up some goals that we maybe shouldn’t have. Being fundamentally sound equals success,” he said.

The team really clicked on the field, according to Kelly, but also wants to make the defense stronger.

“We are experienced; we just have to keep on improving,” said Kelly.

DelGrosso expressed criticism of his own play.

“The defense needs to step up, but we’ve all looked at the game film, and we’re making corrections. I need to make bigger saves too,” said DelGrosso.

DelGrosso saved five of 14 shots against Hampden-Sydney.

“I think the season opener really showed us how good we can be,” said DelGrosso. “We’re looking to just take it game by game to put ourselves in a good position for the (CAC) tournament.”