This past weekend, the University of Rochester’s men’s club lacrosse team fell to St. Bonaventure 9-3. With an early season win and a few hard-fought losses, this makes the team’s season record 1-3.
Although the past few games have not gone Rochester’s way, as a team they have great potential and has come a long way. When the team was founded in 2011, there were only about 15 members. Now, in their third season in the National College Lacrosse League (NCLL), the team has grown to 25 members and has stepped up their competition to a new level.
Even with players constantly battling injuries which have made multiple key players unavailable for play, the games have been highly contested.
Rochester plans to make several strategic changes as they look to become a to be a serious playoff contender.
“Looking forward we need to execute a better clear, because on the offensive side we have the weapons to score,” junior and captain Shahyan Rehman said, recognizing the skills offensive powerhouses sophomore Greg Shinaman and freshmen Mitch Soufleris, Haden Baker, Ryan Henry and Ryan Bartell as key players. “But the problem is [actually] getting the ball to the offensive side. We look to correct this issue for the coming games.”
Clearing the ball is a very common issue for many teams in lacrosse. Due to the limited number of players allowed in a given section of the field, creating individual defensive mismatches is a very difficult tactic to execute.
With a slight adjustment to their strategy in clearing the ball, combined with a deep freshmen class full of strong players, UR club lacrosse shows a lot of potential.
The team will take on Geneseo, Brockport and LeMoyne this next weekend at home, and looks to make huge leaps forward as a team, setting up a very bright future both for the remainder of this season and for as upcoming years.
Kuhrt is a member of the class of 2017.
