It has been just five days since the Massachusetts men’s lacrosse team knocked off No. 7 Syracuse, ending a 21-year drought against the Orangemen, but the Minutemen have had little time to celebrate, with a season-ending matchup on the road against conference foe Rutgers on Saturday.
“I don’t think you ever will [come down from the high of beating the Orangemen], but the guys understand that they have another task at hand this weekend,” UMass coach Greg Cannella said, “and that’s to go down there, play Rutgers and hopefully come out on top.”
The Maroon and White (12-1, 3-1 Eastern College Athletic Conference) moved up to No. 3 in the national polls this week, helped by Dartmouth’s victory over then-No. 2 Princeton this past weekend.
The Scarlet Knights (9-4, 2-2 ECAC), on the other hand, have lost their last two to Georgetown and Penn State, and dropped to No. 9 in the nation.
“Penn State beat us and our Georgetown game could have gone either way,” Cannella said. “They’re playing tough teams. They’re a very good team, and they’ll be ready for us.”
With a victory Saturday, the Minutemen would pick up a share of the ECAC title and an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament, though they have likely already wrapped up an at-large bid to the postseason. A victory would tie the Maroon and White with Georgetown at 4-1 in conference for first place.
“[Winning the ECAC] is very important,” Cannella said. “This is one of the goals that our guys set at the beginning of the year – to win the ECAC title. We’ve been able to win a share of it in 2001 and win it outright in 2002, and no team has won it three years in a row since the ECAC lacrosse conference has started.”
Though the Scarlet Knights have dropped consecutive contests and four of their last six, they have mixed in wins over Maryland-Baltimore County and on the road at Syracuse. According to Cannella, getting up for the game should be no problem for the home squad.
“There’s a lot on the line,” he said. “It’s their senior day. They’re going to be emotional, they’re going to be fired up, ready to play for their seniors on their home field for the last time. They have a chance to beat a top quality team to get them into the NCAA Tournament, so there’s really a lot on the line for this game, and there should be enough motivation for both teams.”
Rutgers is led offensively by senior Jeff Duca and attackman Delby Powless, while freshman netminder Greg Havalchak has turned aside approximately 63 percent of the shots he has seen.
“Certainly they’ll be aggressive,” Cannella said. “They’re very well coached. They’ll be aggressive on loose balls and they have to play really solid defense. They have an outstanding goalie. He’s having a great year, as a freshman. They’re pretty similar to us.”
One potential concern for the Minutemen is that this, the 14th game of the season, will be their first on natural grass in 2003. The team has been practicing all week on the Lower Boyden Fields, and according to Cannella, Rutgers has one of the finest facilities in the nation. He sees no reason to think that the grass will affect his team’s play.
“What we say to our guys, we don’t care if it’s snowing, raining, windy, cold, hot, turf, grass – that shouldn’t determine how we play,” he said.
Notes: Senior midfielder Kevin Leveille was awarded the ECAC Player of the Week for his hat trick against Syracuse. It was his second such award this season, as the co-captain is second on the team with 44 points. The other co-captain, Tom Fallon, was injured for the second time this season in last week’s victory. According to Cannella, the team is unsure as to how much time, if any, the senior will miss. Fallon missed 39 days with a groin injury earlier this year.
