I’ve been pacing my room for the past hour trying to figure out why we lost to LMU this past Saturday. Talent definitely was not the issue. Yes, they’re ranked higher than us but we hung with them almost the entire game. Sure we had some trouble defeating their ten-man ride and yeah, we allowed ourselves, again, to be man-down more than we would’ve liked, but we owe the loss to something greater. I’m blaming the loss against LMU to team dissonance.
There’s been a heated debate among the team for almost two weeks now and it’s tearing us apart. There’s been yelling, fighting, stick throwing, even graphs and pie charts have been made in effort to try and explain who’s the hottest 2010 Sport Illustrated swimsuit model. No one can come to an agreement. It’s utter chaos.
I happen to think Melissa Satta takes the cake with her painted on Italian soccer jersey. Her swimsuit is painted on and that barely does her body justice. The woman is flawless. I challenge you to flip to that page and not feel immediate primal rage towards her boyfriend, ex-Italian striker, Christian Vieri. Dude plays soccer! Scratch that; played soccer. Come on! What does he have that I don’t? Looks? Na, there’s a picture of him. Millions? I’m working on that. Athletic prowess? I’m an SC Laxer!
I just don’t get women, man.
I’ve been pacing my room for the past hour trying to figure out why we lost to LMU this past Saturday. Talent definitely was not the issue. Yes, they’re ranked higher than us but we hung with them almost the entire game. Sure we had some trouble defeating their ten-man ride and yeah, we allowed ourselves, again, to be man-down more than we would’ve liked, but we owe the loss to something greater. I’m blaming the loss against LMU to team dissonance.
There’s been a heated debate among the team for almost two weeks now and it’s tearing us apart. There’s been yelling, fighting, stick throwing, even graphs and pie charts have been made in effort to try and explain who’s the hottest 2010 Sport Illustrated swimsuit model. No one can come to an agreement. It’s utter chaos.
I happen to think Melissa Satta takes the cake with her painted on Italian soccer jersey. Her swimsuit is painted on and even that barely does her body justice. The woman is flawless. I challenge you to flip to that page and not feel immediate primal rage towards her boyfriend, ex-Italian striker, Christian Vieri. Dude plays soccer! Scratch that; played soccer. Come on! What does he have that I don’t? Looks? Na, there’s a picture of him. Millions? I’m working on that. Athletic prowess? I’m an SC Laxer!
I just don’t get women.
Seattle, Washington – The Trojans gave themselves a Valentine’s Day present with a 12-11 win over the Huskies of the University of Washington in their second game of the Pac-10 Tournament. Jumping out to an early lead, the Trojans led the Huskies 8-4 going into half time, with goals contributed by multiple Trojan players. While penalties continued to plague the team, key contributions by midfielder Andrew Smulligan (Lowell Mass. / Lowell High School) in the form of 17 won face-offs and a last-minute assist to midfielder Matt Williams (Durham NC / Durham Academy) helped USC walk away with a win. Williams and attackman John Duddridge (Santa Ana, CA / Foothill High School) led the scoring with 4 goals each, followed by sophomore attackman Jack Buntmann (Greenwood Village, CO / J.K. Mullen High School) with 2, and midfielders Smulligan and Rich Giancola (Centennial, CO / Cherry Creek High School), who both contributed 1 goal.
Captain goalkeeper Alex Rice (Los Angeles, CA / Blair Academy) stopped an impressive 68% of the 34 shots he faced, including a clutch last-second attempt by the Huskies to tie the game.
The Trojans will look to continue the wins with a match against conference rival Loyola Marymount University this Saturday, Feb. 20 at 1pm at LMU.
Get all your USC Trojan Lacrosse information at www.usclacrosse.com
On the airplane back to L.A. we still couldn’t escape the excitement from the win over University of Washington. John Duddridge finished the game with 4 goals, 3 assists; but the greatest part about this win was that we played strong all across the field. Midfielder, Matt Williams, came up clutch with under a minute to go with the game winner, and Alex Rice proved he not only has ‘ice’ in his name but ice in his veins saving a last second shot attempt by the Huskies. Our only weakness was mental mistakes, allowing ourselves to be man-down far more than we would have liked. We were multiple men down on more than one occasion. Even on the flight home.
The tournament was a great way to start off the season and the Washington game was a great way to head into our conference game this weekend against LMU.
Make sure to watch Sean White take home gold this week. Go USA.
Greetings from Seattle, Washington.
The Lax Gods wept today (or maybe it was just the crappy Seattle weather) as the Trojans lost against the OSU Beavers.
With the excitement of the Avatar DVD wearing off, the team turned its focus towards today’s game. The Trojans came out firing scoring six goals in the first quarter. In the 2nd quarter we continued to get good shots off but couldn’t put them in the back of the net. Going into the second half the score was tied, 6-6.
The fourth quarter we recovered from our offensive slump and tied the Beavers 10-10. But just like Apolo Ono, we just couldn’t bring home the gold.
The good news is Will Purvis’s attempt at a mustache is coming in much more cleanly than anticipated. We’re hoping that’ll be a great intimidation tool for the second middy line. And with yours truly suffering a still painful collarbone injury, lefty attackman Jack Buntmann is getting his debut start against Washington tomorrow. He sadly, can’t grow facial hair, but is known to be an artist with eye-black. So he’s got his intimidation on lock.
Go USA!
The Trojans came out of the gates strong against a deep-benched Oregon State University, racking up 6 goals in the first quarter. After their offense stalled in the second quarter, the men in cardinal and gold found themselves plagued by penalties the rest of the game and unable to produce, despite multiple shot opportunities.
Leading the scoring was returning, starting midfielder Matt Williams (Chapel Hill, NC / Durham Academy) with 3 goals. Attackmen John Duddridge (Santa Ana, CA / Foothill) and Jordan Levitz (Chicago, IL / Stevenson) both contributed 2 goals, while attackman Avery Brovick (San Diego, CA / Francis Parker) and middies Will Purvis (Coronado, CA / Coronado) and Kase Lawal (Houston, TX / Kinkaid) all put one in.
Starting goalie, Jeff Barton (Englewood, CO / Cherry Creek), played a solid game with 13 saves and 12 clears, but with 8 1/2 penalty minutes against the Trojans, they found themselves on defense too much which resulted in an OSU Beavers 12-10 win.
Due to field conditions at our backup site, Mira Costa High Schoool, the UNLV @ USC game for 2/7 has been canceled.
The venue for the UNLV @ USC game for 2/7/10 has changed to Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach, CA. The start time is now 11:30am.
Not since we found out the DVD release of Avatar would have an alien sex scene in it has there been so much excitement among the ’10 USC Men’s Lacrosse team. The 2010 season begins this Sunday at home against UNLV and the Trojan laxers plan to start the season out with a bang. Though our ’09 season didn’t produce the record we would’ve hoped for, the changes we made to our organization last year created a buzz that brought out a wave of talent for the ’10 season.
The Trojan Lax team is stronger at every position. With more numbers than we’ve had in the past, competition for spots on the starting roster has caused every practice to become a proving ground for each player. As a result, each player finds they are fueled by the same motivation that the team has as a whole: to prove ourselves every chance we get.
The ’09 season left a bad taste in our mouth, and after many trips to the bar we’ve realized there’s only one way to wash it out. We plan to set the tone for our entire season this Sunday against UNLV. In our minds, the spotlight is on us to see if the USC Men’s Lacrosse program can become a national contender. Equipped with an improved coaching staff and more talent than ever, the 2010 Trojan Men’s Lacrosse team is ready to step up to the challenge.
I am happy to announce that you will now be able to hear about Trojan lacrosse directly from the players in a new section on the website called the Team Blog. Starting off our blog posting is Sophomore Attackman Jordan Levitz. In his first post, you can read about his take on the state of the team and the upcoming 2010 season. Enjoy!
- Coach Aktary
