Last Saturday, we had a disappointing performance in our scrimmages against Dominican and Western Connecticut. We were inexplicably flat to start, against Dominican, before settling down and playing fairly well, the rest of the way. The second scrimmage was the opposite. We started fairly well and finished that contest, poorly. It was not all bad, of course. At times we played very well. But, the overall product was just not what we had been hoping for. Instead of continuing, what had been a consistently upward trajectory, we were slipped off that path. Based on that, I was really not sure about our prospects for the season, as we approached our first game, against the Adelphi Panthers, who begin the season ranked third in the nation!

As we began our pre-game warm up, I tried to find comfort in the fact that we have always risen to the occasion, and played some of our best lacrosse against the toughest competition.

All of the excitement and intensity of an opening game, were present. I would say they were even magnified, due to the fact that we have nine seniors, for whom this would be their last “first game” of the season! You could almost see that extra importance weighing on them.

We began the game with great Energy, Effort and Enthusiasm (the Three E’s), but fell behind 4 – 0, as our Execution (the Fourth E) was a bit lacking, and Adelphi is very good. The Panthers showed why they are a perennial national power, displaying speed, athleticism and skill. But the Lions refused to go down quietly. I was proud of the competitiveness we showed throughout the contest. Adelphi was never able to really pull away and they had their starters in until just before the very end of the game.

So, despite falling by a final score of 17 – 9, I was pleased with our performance, overall. Once we acclimated to the pace, we had to play at, we were able to play at a high level – the type of lacrosse we will need to play, if we are to be playing important games in May. We know we can play high level lacrosse, we need to demand that of ourselves, and not settle for anything less. We need to recall this game and the kind of effort it took to compete at that level.

We have another Non-Conference Game tomorrow at Georgian Court in New Jersey, hopefully, we are back on that upward trajectory.

Georgian Court also call themselves Lions, So GO MOLLOY!