By Sokphal Tun
The No. 3 men”s lacrosse team (5-2) got revenge against No. 4 Michigan on Saturday night, March 2, winning 12-9.
The Wolverines (2-2) beat the Cougars last season 10-5 on their territory, but on Saturday the Cougars led the entire game.
Two minutes before halftime, the Cougars scored two goals to give the team a 7-1 lead.
With seven seconds left in the half, Michigan”s junior Chip Thomas scored to make it 7-2.
Even with the win however, coach Jason Lamb is not satisfied.
“I”m happy that we won, but I”m not happy with our performance at all. It”s a game of halves, we just played a less-than-adequate second half,” Lamb said.
During the second half, the Wolverines scored seven goals while the Cougars scored only five.
A game of goals is not what Lamb was looking for.
“I told my guys that we don”t need any more goals to win,” he said. ” We just need to maintain a better defense. We just have to keep our edge, we celebrate too fast and then we get too flat,” Lamb said.
At times in the second half, the Wolverines led in goals, by scoring three in a row before the Cougar offense could retaliate.
“We did pretty good up until the very end when we let up a few more goals,” sophomore attack Mike Lee said. “I think we relaxed because we had such a big lead. At times we showed how well we can play, and other times we were sloppy.”
Lee scored three goals, the team”s second highest in the game, while junior attack Jordan Archibald had four goals and two assists. Lee clinched the win for the Cougars with a no-look pass from senior attack Rex Hardy with 1:43 seconds left in the game.
“If we could play 60 minutes of more of a steady course, that”s when we are going to peak,” Lamb said. “We had a lot of mental lapses, we certainly didn”t play our best. Bottom line is that it”s okay. It”s early enough in the season that if we continue to progress we”ll be okay.”
One player that Lamb felt had no mental lapses was senior co-captain Aaron Quiggle on defense.
“The game ball for me would go to Aaron Quiggle, he stepped up and he was just awesome. He played the whole 60 minutes with a real sharp mentally,” he said.
The Cougars” next match will be Saturday at 9 p.m. against No. 7 Virginia Tech.
“They are going to be good,” Lamb said. “Most of the kids there from Virginia, where most of our guys are from. They are going to be fired up and ready to play.”
