Category Archives: Men’s lacrosse

Apr 27 2013

UMass men’s lacrosse gets help, makes CAA Tournament

Stephen Hewitt/Daily Collegian

Stephen Hewitt/Daily Collegian

 

On April 13, the Massachusetts men’s lacrosse team suffered a heartbreaking, 15-14 defeat at the hands of Drexel to fall to 0-4 in Colonial Athletic Association play, all but ending its CAA Tournament hopes.

Two weeks later, the Minutemen are in.

After closing out the season with consecutive wins, UMass (7-7, 2-4 CAA) got the help it needed on Saturday night to earn the fourth and final seed in the CAA Tournament. Hofstra fell to 2-4 in conference play with a 16-7 loss to Penn State, and were eliminated due to the Minutemen holding the tiebreaker after beating the Pride, 9-8, last weekend.

Saint Joseph’s held the tiebreaker after beating UMass earlier this season, but fell to 1-5 in the CAA with a 13-6 loss to Towson, dropping the Hawks to last in the conference and eliminating them from postseason play.

The Minutemen move on to Wednesday’s CAA semifinal take on the top-seeded Nittany Lions in University Park, Pa., at 3 p.m.

UMass lost the previous meeting between the two teams at Garber Field on March 16, 7-5, in Will Manny and Colin Fleming’s return from injury in the CAA opener.

Stay with the Daily Collegian for more updates on UMass men’s lacrosse in its return to the CAA Tournament.

Apr 27 2013

UMass men’s lacrosse players, coaches anxiously await playoff fate

Stephen Hewitt/DailyCollegian

Stephen Hewitt/Collegian

After topping Delaware, 16-8, in Friday night’s regular season finale at Garber Field, the Massachusetts men’s lacrosse team is now anxiously awaiting its fate with its season hanging in the balance on Saturday night.

The Minutemen (7-7, 2-4 Colonial Athletic Association) need Penn State to win at Hofstra and Towson to beat Saint Joseph’s on the Tigers’ Senior Night in order to clinch the fourth and final CAA Tournament spot. Both games are on at 7 p.m. and both scenarios are very realistic.

The Nittany Lions are undefeated in CAA play and can win the conference regular-season title outright with a win over the Pride, whom UMass beat, 9-8, last weekend.

The Hawks’ only win in conference play this season came against the Minutemen at home, giving them the tie-breaker if they defeat Towson on Saturday night. However, the Tigers haven’t lost a home game in conference play this season, while Saint Joseph’s has stumbled to four-straight losses down the stretch.

While UMass should like its postseason chances, senior attack Will Manny can’t bear waiting to find out if his career is still intact.

“I’ll be watching,” Manny said. “It’s at (7 p.m. on Saturday) so it’s kind of annoying we have to wait the whole entire day, but we did what we needed to do. “

Fellow senior Kyle Smith, who lives with Manny, doesn’t plan on joining his teammate in watching the games. In fact, he doesn’t plan on watching at all.

“Probably not,” Smith said, “because you just get too pissed off when one team scores. But I’ll probably follow it every quarter.”

UMass coach Greg Cannella said after Friday’s win that he plans on taking a trip to Hofstra on Saturday with assistant coaches Doc Schneider and Brian Jacovina to do some scouting — the Minutemen would play Penn State on Wednesday in the CAA semifinal if things go their way — as well as hope for a positive result.

When asked if being at Saturday’s game will be as nerve-wracking as it gets, Cannella said, “I guess. When you do what you do and you go watch a game, it’s actually fun to watch other people play. But we are scouting (Penn State).”

While the players and coaches may have different approaches to Saturday’s games, they all share one hope: to get in the CAA Tournament and keep the season going for at least a few more days.

“You wanna play. It’s the playoffs, it’s a new season if you make it past (Saturday) and get some help (Saturday). We did what we needed to do (Friday). It’s what you live for, to keep on going.”

Apr 26 2013

Rapid Reaction: UMass 16, Delaware 8

The Massachusetts men’s lacrosse team (7-7, 2-4 Colonial Athletic Association) kept its CAA Tournament hopes alive Friday night with a convincing 16-8 win over Delaware at Garber Field.

Offensive explosion: The Minutemen offense came alive Friday night with 16 goals against the Blue Hens. A majority of those goals came in the second quarter when UMass scored eight goals on 21 shots.

Manny and Smith: The two main offensive weapons for UMass were seniors Kyle Smith and Will Manny. Smith scored six goals while Manny tallied four.

Senior Night: Friday was Senior Night for UMass and as a result, the Minutemen celebrated the accomplishments of its eight seniors – Bobby Tyler, Ryan Hollenbaugh, Brett Tobin, Colin Fleming, Smith, K.R. Jurgelevich, Jake Smith and Manny.

The Minutemen will now have to wait and hope that Towson defeats Saint Joseph’s and Penn State defeats Hofstra. If both of those teams win tomorrow, UMass will make the CAA Tournament as the No. 4 seed.

Apr 26 2013

1st Half Thoughts: UMass 11, Delaware 4

The Massachusetts men’s lacrosse team leads Delaware, 10-4, at halftime. Here are some thoughts from the first two quarters of play.

Senior strength - In a must-win game on Senior Night to have a chance to keep the season and careers of eight players alive, UMass’ seniors came up big in the first half. The Minutemen have had arguably their best offensive half of the season much to the credit of their senior class, which has been responsible for eight of UMass’ goals so far. Kyle Smith has five goals for the Minutemen while Will Manny (two goals, two assists) and Colin Fleming have also found the scoreboard. UMass’ struggles this season, especially offensively, could be credited to a lack of cohesion with the ball after both Manny and Fleming missed significant time with injuries. But the Minutemen have looked more in sync offensively than they have all year and it couldn’t have come at a better time.

Taking advantage - Delaware has played like a team with nothing to play for tonight, and UMass has taken advantage. Joe Calvello has dominated the faceoffs, and even assisted Smith for a goal right off the draw following a Blue Hens goal. Calvello even scored a goal of his own off a faceoff at 6:30 of the second quarter. On top of that, Delaware has struggled to keep possession as the Minutemen have made forcing turnovers look easy. It all started on UMass’ first goal of the game at 11:39 of the first quarter. The Minutemen were a man up and Blue Hens goalkeeper Conor Peaks failed to make a clear. Instead, Manny scooped up the groundball and got his team on the scoreboard. Delaware has struggled offensively as well. While the Blue Hens have found a way to beat UMass goalkeeper Zachary Oliveri at times, they’ve taken some poor shots that have gone way off target.

Apr 26 2013

Pregame notes: UMass vs. Delaware

MASSACHUSETTS MINUTEMEN (6-7, 1-4 CAA) VS. DELAWARE BLUE HENS (5-9, 1-4 CAA) 

GAME NOTES

  • The Massachusetts men’s lacrosse team comes into tonight’s regular season finale with its CAA Tournament hopes at stake. The Minutemen not only need to top Delaware tonight, but they also need losses from both Hofstra and Saint Joseph’s tomorrow night to clinch the fourth and final postseason spot, and earn the right to take on Penn State in Wednesday’s first round matchup. UMass hasn’t won a home game since its season opener against Army back in February. The Minutemen’s eight seniors — Will Manny, Kyle Smith, Ryan Hollenbaugh, Bobby Tyler, K.R. Jurgelevich, Brett Tobin, Colin Fleming and Jake Smith — were honored before the game for Senior Night ceremonies.
  • The Blue Hens come into tonight’s game with virtually nothing to play for but pride after losing to the Nittany Lions last Saturday, eliminating them from postseason contention. Delaware could very well play spoiler for UMass tonight with a win on Senior Night at Garber, led by senior midfielder Nick Diachenko with 33 goals for the season.

STARTERS

UMass

Attack – Will Manny, Kyle Smith, Grant Whiteway

Midfield – Ryan Izzo, Joe Calvello, Brett Tobin

Defense – Ryan Hollenbaugh, Kyle Karaska, Jake Smith

Goal – Zach Oliveri

Delaware

Attack – Eric Smith, Ian Robertson, Brian Kormondy

Midfield – Connor McRoy, Nick Diachenko, Danny Keane

Defense – Trip Ashley, Brandon Worrall, James Connelly

Goal – Conor Peaks

Apr 13 2013

1st Half Thoughts: UMass 7, Drexel 7

The Massachusetts men’s lacrosse team is even with Drexel at 7-7 at the half. Here are some thoughts on the first half of play.

Star power - Trailing 2-0 early, UMass’ top attack unit took it upon themselves to lead a 4-0 Minutemen run to give them a 4-2 lead early in the second quarter. Grant Whiteway scored twice in the sequence while Will Manny got a goal and two assists. Kyle Smith also got a pair of big assists in that stretch while midfielder Connor Mooney notched UMass’ third goal while a man up. Smith then came up huge late the first quarter as he scored twice less than 30 seconds apart in the final 90 seconds of the half to put UMass up 7-6. The top attack  The ball movement and offensive play was the best its been all season for that short period of time. That’s the type of offensive efficiency that UMass needs for 60 minutes to be successful.

McIntosh, Trizano in control - UMass had trouble containing Drexel star attack Ben McIntosh, who has three goals and an assist to the lead the Dragons and put them back ahead in the second quarter. The junior has a team-high 28 goals and will continue to be the biggest threat to UMass in the second half. Nick Trizano was also key in killing the early Minutemen momentum in the second quarter, scoring twice in a short span of time to turn a 4-2 UMass team into a tie game.

Taking advantage - The Minutemen had four man-up opportunities in the first half and they capitalized twice. The first was on Manny’s first quarter goal when Drexel had two one-minute penalties at the same time. The second carried into the second quarter when Mooney scored 23 seconds in to give UMass the lead at the time.