Playing together has been the glue that meshed the men’s lacrosse team’s success this year, and something the Stags will need to continue to do when heading into their conference schedule this weekend.
Fairfield finished its non-conference schedule Wednesday against Brown before traveling to Butler in the team’s league-opener on Sunday.
“We’re right where we want to be right now. These next two games [Brown, Butler] are winnable games for us,” head coach Ted Spencer said. “But we know if we don’t play well, we can lose to any team we play. We’re not talented enough, that talent will carry us alone.”
Fairfield held a 3-2 record heading into Wednesday’s game at Brown, a team the Stags have never beaten on the road. The Stags two losses were against Penn State and Syracuse, two of the nation’s elite programs.
“We didn’t execute well against Penn State and Syracuse,” Spencer said. “We went at the goal like we were better than we were. Harvard was the culmination of all our hard work.”
The Stags snapped their two game losing streak by defeating Harvard 10-6 two weeks ago behind three goals off transition, something Spencer said is important for the team’s success. Fairfield has been able to score two or three goals a game off quick outlet passes out of its own zone, according to Spencer.
“We had hoped to win some of our earlier games,” said defenseman Peter Babbles, ’05. “We’re right there though, we have some momentum now.”
The Stags further gained momentum last Sunday when the team defeated Providence 10-6 behind Justin Geluso’s hat trick.
“We’re pretty solid in all facets of the game. I think it just comes down to execution,” Spencer said. “It’s an efficiency game for us. We need to work on being more efficient.”
The Stags won the Great Western Lacrosse League (GWLL) Title last year after having a 4-1 record in league games, the team’s lone loss coming to Air Force 8-5.
Fairfield opens its GWLL schedule Sunday at Butler, a team the Stags beat 11-7 last year.
“It’s going to be a tough match up,” said attacker Troy Bamann, ’04. “We beat them last year, but they didn’t really graduate anyone. We need to get on them early … we should beat them again.”
Both Ohio State and Notre Dame have been amongst the top teams in the league in past years and will be out for revenge on the Stags this season, according to Babbles.
“We need to keep challenging as a team and playing as a team,” Babbles said. “We have some fine tuning that we need to do. Our defense and offense has really been coming into their own, but we can always be better.”
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