By Chris McBride
After an underwhelming season for Youngstown State’s Lacrosse Club, Gordon Ngo, the president and captain of the team, said he is optimistic for 2017’s games after he and his teammates bonded over last year’s loss-filled season.
The 2016 team had an impressive no-win season. While that would ruin the spirits of most athletic clubs, the lacrosse team grew closer and saw this experience as one of growth.
According to Ngo, the hardest loss came against Robert Morris University. With the Youngstown State University lacrosse club up 7-3 at half, a series of mishaps cost them a chance at their first win on the season. They ended up losing 13-9.
Ricky Koewacich, one of the team’s middlemen, said that the loss came on after the team got too confident in their skills.
“We got in our own heads and let the game go,” he said.
Luke Doyle, co-captain of the lacrosse team, said that the team finally came together after an 18-3 loss against Robert Morris University.
“It was the first game where we went out together aftewards as a complete team …” Doyle said. “It was the solidifying point of the season for us. We had a chant ‘Family on three’ that we’d do before each game, but after that loss it actually meant something more to us.”
From then, the team made an effort to meet after their losses and discuss what went wrong. The new found chemistry went a long way towards setting the stage for improvements in the next.
As soon as the team began making progress, they lost their goalie during the offseason.
“He ended up transferring after the season so it left us with a huge hole to fill come the next season,” Doyle said.
Ngo was determined to fix the situation and hit the recruiting process extra hard in the summer. He found the team’s new goalie, Dave Sadinski, in Canfield. Sadinski played as goalie for Canfield’s lacrosse program and was an incoming YSU freshman.
YSU’s first preseason lacrosse game with a new goalie brought promise, securing a 7-4 win against the University of Findlay, Sadinski accumulating five saves in the game.
Seventeen players will be returning to play for YSU’s lacrosse team in the 2017 season. The new players fit right in with the older team, making the atmosphere fun and exciting, Koewacich said.
“At practice we talked among guys we were familiar with but it doesn’t take long for the new guys to get in on the joke and join in,” Koewacich said.
In preparation for the new season, the team has begun holding practices twice a week. During practices, Doyle said the team watches back on old tapes to see where they can improve.
“We’ve been going back watching tape and seeing what went wrong in games last season,” Doyle said.
The YSU Lacrosse club is set to play their first game of the season March 4th at Edinboro University.
