With its season set to start in February, the Oregon men’s club lacrosse team is already getting work in.
The team hosted its annual Fall Classic tournament last Saturday afternoon, welcoming Boise State, Western Oregon and Portland State to campus. The Ducks won both of their games, defeating Boise State 18-10 in the first game and overwhelming Portland State 23-3 in the second.
Despite topping Boise State by an eight-goal margin, the Ducks left the game unsatisfied with their performance.
“We were lacking big time on communication on defense,” defenseman Austin Zilis said. “That was huge. No one really knew where they were. Offensively, we tried to force it a little too much.”
“I feel like we played really tentative and slow, and didn’t put everything we’ve been talking about into game speed,” head coach Joe Kerwin said about the Boise State game. “That’s something we want to work on.”
But after showing signs of preseason rust against the Broncos, something clicked for the Ducks during their defeat of Portland State.
“I would say in the second game we played better as a team,” goalkeeper Austin Ryan said. “All of us stepped up and played better. With the score, we definitely showed it.”
The tournament was the first action the Ducks have seen since their disappointing first-round exit from the 2010 MCLA National Championship Tournament at the end of last season when No. 11-seed Colorado upset the sixth-seeded Ducks 9-8 in overtime.
The team had expectations to go much deeper in the tournament.
“It’s just one of those things where it’s just ‘bang,’ it’s over, and no one really expected it,” Zilis said about the season-ending loss. “But that just gave us more motivation for this year. We’ve still got that taste in our mouth.”
“We felt like we should have been one of those final four teams,” Kerwin said. “We kind of slipped up there. We took one quarter off in our game in the tournament, and it came back to bite us.”
The Ducks went 2-3 in regular season matchups against the tournament’s final four teams, including an overtime loss against national champion Michigan. In the three losing efforts, the Ducks lost by a total of six goals.
Kerwin hopes his team looks at those results and realizes that they’re not far from the reaching the top.
“We’re on the right track, and if (the players) keep applying what we’re doing, we’ll have some success,” he said.
This season the Ducks are implementing a retooled version of their offense, which will now focus more on team play rather than individual athletic play that the team has previously relied on.
“We really changed it up a lot from what we’ve done in the past three years, so we’re kind of getting in the flow of that,” midfielder Brook Pittenger said. “It seems like everyone is starting from scratch this year.”
“We’ve got a great defense, a lot of seniors,” attacker Justin Eckenroad said. “But once our offense starts clicking, I think we’re going to be right where we need to be.”
Kerwin doesn’t think any one aspect of his team — offense, defense or goaltending — will stand out over the others.
“I think we’re just well-balanced,” he said. “We have a great goalie. I think we have a really strong defense. Attack is really deep. And I think we have excellent (midfielders).”
The Ducks play in their alumni game next Friday and then have a two-month break until the regular season. The team still plans to have team activities a few times a week during that layoff, according to Zilis.
“We’ve done some good things this fall, but we’ve just got to take it to the next level and really gel as a team,” Zilis said.
“We have a lot of potential, and we’re going to grow a lot, which is exciting,” goalkeeper Jake Stroud said. “The seniors are really good for team leadership. I imagine we’re going to have a great year.”
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