It was a fine day for lacrosse in early March, unfortunately it was April 23! On a cold, damp day with snowflakes blowing, Middlebury defeated Williams 11-6. The win guarantees that we win the NESCAC title, thus gaining the #1 seed in the tournament, a bye this Sunday in the first round and the right to host the Final 4 on May 3 and 4. Most importantly, we keep the Thomsen Trophy in Middlebury for another year. Williams last had the trophy after defeating us in 1993. I still remember that game clearly as we were leading and playing sharply in the first half, then they switched to a freshman, lefty goalie, Andy McDonald, in the second half and he stoned us for the victory. Lefty goalies were much more of a rarity in those days and we consistently put the ball in his stick, and he also turned out to be an outstanding goaltender.

The goalie for Williams was also part of the story yesterday. He is a bit of an enigma, as he played great against us two years ago at Williams and created much the same game as yesterday. Last year we scored 20 goals and he could not stop anything. Their scores during the year support this apparent inconsistency, winning 4-2, losing 19-10. In any event he played well yesterday, keeping the game tight, making 19 saves, many on point blank shots. I do not think it was a factor of terrible shooting, either, as I know a couple of saves in particular were outstanding. Mike Frissora had a hard off hip shot to the far corner that I thought was going in for sure, the goalie got to the far pipe and saved the shot. So, they made us work for our goals which was not good news for us the way we started the game! The first quarter saw lots of turnovers and missed opportunities. I'm not certain of the cause as both teams seemed emotionally ready to play, maybe it was the shock of the conditions for a late April game? It was a low scoring first, ending at 1-1. Williams was doing a nice job early in the game, and throughout the first half with their offensive possessions, creating some nice feeding opportunities, but not capitalizing on enough to pull away. Middlebury graduate, Adam Pascal '99,is running their offense and doing a nice job. They are lacking attackmen that can threaten with a dodge, so our long sticks were able to control their attack and often take the ball away. They took advantage of their nice stickhandling and plays to score a few in the 2nd, but we were able to keep pace and open up a little, creating a 5-4 halftime lead.

On our offensive end, we did not adjust well enough to their quick slides from the crease as we held the ball too long, looking to feed directly to the crease instead of moving the ball with a couple of passes and then feeding the crease. We did get a couple of nice looks into the crease, but it also cost us a couple of possessions. Charley Howe finished well for us as the game progressed, which was nice as he struggled a bit during our tough Tufts/Bowdoin/Amherst stretch. Ben Tobey played well controlling the offense with crisp feeds and his excellent quickness keeping a step ahead of his defenseman. Unfortunately, most of his feeds were not finished and he missed a couple of scoring opportunities himself, so his solid play does not show in the stat book. Senior Brian Gault has been practicing great and earned his first playing time of his career in a tight situation and he came through just as we hoped and expected. He has been "instant offense" whenever we have inserted him this year, but it has typically been when we were already comfortably in the lead. He just kept proving in practice and games that he deserves a shot at some minutes, and has maintained a great attitude all the while. He does not necessarily create his own shots, but has a knack for getting open, catching the ball and finishing his shots, sometimes in an improbable manner, gaining the phrase "circus" attached to many of his goals! He immediately sparked us yesterday, only ended up with one goal on a great feed by Dave Leach, but got us going with excellent opportunities and hard riding.

As you know, we finish our regular season with Bates at home this weekend. For us the focus is on the task at hand, play well-beat Bates. Lots going on around us with Peter Kohn's big weekend, lots of parents and alumni visiting. Also looming is the possibility of an undefeated regular season in NESCAC which would be a great accomplishment for this team after what we graduated from last year's team. I look forward to seeing many of you this weekend.

Erin