Lehigh reflects on season; hands out awards
5/12/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
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After a season in which it made its second straight appearance in the Patriot League Tournament, won its most league games since 1999 and established its lowest goals against average since the inception of Patriot League play, head coach Chris Wakely took the time to reflect on what was another successful year for the Brown and White. “We took on a very competitive schedule this season, one of the toughest we’ve had in recent memory,” Wakely explains. “Each of our losses was to teams ranked within the top-20, including two by a single goal, and three of the schools we went against (Cornell, Navy, Notre Dame) are going to be participating in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.”
“This was a good step forward for our program this season,” Wakely said. “We gained national recognition by playing a tougher schedule and I thought the senior class of Jeff Davis, Kevin Hartmann, Dane Kasschau, Jeff King, Dave Larson, Mike Moran, Tom Weiss and Jeff Wiener showed tremendous leadership throughout. The seniors were exemplary in everything they did, both on and off of the field, and they will be sorely missed. Each one of those guys played a part in helping the program get to where it is today.”
“I thought the team ascended well. They were not happy with their performance in our preseason scrimmages and they were disappointed after the loss to
Following the season opening loss to
On April 1, Lehigh defeated No. 19 Bucknell at home 7-5, a victory that helped go a long way in securing a berth in the league tournament. The win was the Mountain Hawks first over the Bison since 1999. One week later, the Brown and White traveled to
For the first time in school history, the Mountain Hawks earned the number-three seed in the Patriot League Tournament, which was held at Colgate. Lehigh drew two-time defending champion Navy, and gave the Midshipmen all they could handle for three quarters before falling. Despite the loss, Lehigh had proven that it is a program to be reckoned with in the Patriot League.
“Defensively, we were sixth in the country and second in the Patriot League in goals against average (7.2), and we were first in the league in fewest penalties per game (2.53/game),” explains Wakely. “I thought we played smart, disciplined defense, which was a by-product of the experience we had on that end of the field. The defense was highlighted by Jeff King being honored as the Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year and a First-Team All-League selection.”
Assistant coach Jim Shreve commented on King’s season. “Jeff King absolutely owned the field in the defensive box. No one in the Patriot League was better at it than he was. He could literally take games over and even win them for us. That is saying a lot for someone on the defensive end.” King was recently honored as the team’s Athlete of the Year, presented to the team member who makes the most outstanding athletic contribution to the accomplishments of the team.
“The loss of senior Jeff Davis will be big (next year),’ Wakely explains. “His off-ball abilities and communication skills were very effective in getting everyone on the same page. He had a great knack for intercepting passes or knocking down balls and was able to keep us organized on the defensive end.” For his leadership abilities and intangibles on and off of the field, Wakely presented
On the offensive end, Lehigh will return a trio of players that each had big junior seasons, in Stephen Marino, Blake Best and Alec Hooff. Marino led the team with 18 assists and 39 points, while Best was the leading goal scorer with 22 and Hooff chipped in with 14 goals and seven assists from the midfield position. “Our offense was still young this season, but we return almost everyone (in 2007). We graduated two guys (Andrew Lucas and Greg Morin) from last year’s team that both scored over 100 career points, and that combined with injuries and a shuffled lineup could have had a negative effect on the offense. But I thought our guys did a tremendous job in managing all of those variables.”
Wakely continues, “We began the year by putting guys into new spots and they adjusted well. Moving forward into next season, if we can stay healthy, we have a lot of potential. Our offense was highlighted by the All-League selections of Alec Hooff and Blake Best.”
Wakely then added, “Senior Tom Weiss had his best season yet in terms of face-offs, which allowed us to control the tempo of games. Tom certainly lived up to the ideals of a four-year starter and carried on the tradition of the recipient of the number-44.” Weiss, who carries a 3.46 grade point average in the classroom and is an Academic All-American nominee, was honored as the Scholar Athlete of the Year. This award goes to the student-athlete who in the eyes of his/her teammates exemplifies the ideal of the scholar-athlete.
“Stephen Marino has not been completely healthy since his freshman year, but still led us in scoring,” Wakely said. “And Michael Zurfluh was able to make the transition from defensive midfield specialist to perhaps our best overall midfielder. He played offense, he played defense, he played man-down and he played the wing on face-offs. His minutes went up and he really established himself as an explosive offensive threat.”
Shreve then added, “Jeff Wiener was able to provide us with that finishing punch inside, as evidenced by his two game-winning goals. When he was healthy, Jeff really came up big for us in clutch situations.”
Lehigh’s 17 wins over the past two seasons are the programs most since the 1997 and 1998 seasons. The Mountain Hawks return 74 percent of their goal scoring and 78 percent of their assists for next season, along with each of their goal keepers and two of their All-League selections. All of this points towards a bright future for the Brown and White.
Photos Copyright (2006), Walt Young.
