Mountain Hawks have built a program to last
4/26/2014 9:09:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse
Game Preview/Notes
The Lehigh men's lacrosse team lost a talented senior class that combined for more than 100 goals and nearly 200 points a season ago. Heading into the 2014 season with so many holes to fill, many people were counting the Mountain Hawks out. Flash forward to Saturday, April 26 and Lehigh is one win away from its third straight Patriot League Tournament Championship, 60 minutes from its third consecutive NCAA Tournament berth.
"If you build a successful program or a successful organization, the word succession comes to mind - having the next guy step up," said Lehigh head coach Kevin Cassese.
Lehigh's biggest holes came at the offensive end as the Mountain Hawks lost David DiMaria and his 73 points last season along with 47 points from Dante Fantoni, 21 from Brian Hess, 20 from Kyle Stiefel and 14 from Alex Drake. After a slow start offensively this year, the Mountain Hawks have turned it on, averaging exactly 13 goals per game over their last eight games. Lehigh scored 12 goals against Army Friday evening, the nation's top-ranked scoring defense. The Black Knights were allowing fewer than six goals per game and hadn't allowed an opponent to reach double figures until Lehigh on Friday evening.
"You think, how in the world are you going to replace 73 points? DiMaria was our quarterback last year," said Cassese. "The plan all along was to have Dan Taylor step in and become our quarterback. You are always hopeful that you can match the point total that was set the year before, but it takes a lot of hard work in order for that happen."
Taylor posted eight points on Friday and now has 44 points over his last seven games to reach 72 for the season (45 goals, 27 assists). He's had eight or more points four times in that seven-game stretch.
Sophomores Reid Weber, Casey Eidenshink and Alex Eaton played a combined 19 games last year, but have all played themselves into key roles. Weber scored the game-winning goal with just 3.7 seconds remaining against Army and now owns 44 points on the season (27 goals, 17 assists). Eidenshink has seen consistent time at long-stick midfield and close defense, recording 27 groundballs and 14 caused turnovers. Meanwhile, Eaton is running on Lehigh's first midfield line and is fifth on the team with 20 points (11 goals, nine assists).
"I give a lot of credit to Coach Cassese for the mentality we have," said Taylor. "You may have a guy in front of you, but every guy on the team is pushing you to be better. When guys leave, it's just an opportunity for others to step up. Our systems are intact and our coaching is so fantastic that the players are put into spots where they can make plays."
Reloading rather than rebuilding is the sign of a successful program. Lehigh is a win over #1 Loyola away from its third straight Patriot League Championship. The success hasn't happened overnight.
"With the emergence of the Lehigh Lacrosse program and the breakthrough over the last few years, it's become a minimum requirement that we compete for championships every single year, both in the league and nationally," said Cassese. "It's not just about the last three years, but it's also about my seven years and even the time before with the groundwork that was laid by guys like Chris Wakely, Joe Sterrett and Dan Smith. Others helped position the program where I could come in and take the final step towards competing for championships.
"It's great to be in the championship game, but it's another thing to win the championship trophy. We know it's going to be a tall order against the #1 team in the country but if you're going to win a championship, why not do it against the best."
The Mountain Hawks have gained valuable experience as this season has progressed. The Lehigh team that will hit the field for Sunday's title game is much different than the team that hosted the Greyhounds on March 1. There has been significant growth in all areas and the Mountain Hawks have hit their stride down the stretch, although they believe they have yet to play their best lacrosse.
"We had some guys in key roles who were rather inexperienced," said senior faceoff midfielder Ryan Buttenbaum who has stepped up to take a career-high 261 faceoffs this season. "They were good players, but they hadn't played a ton at the Division I level."
Despite a frantic game in the semifinals against Army, the Mountain Hawks showed tremendous poise and never panicked.
"Doing all our training, we have developed a mentality that helped everyone relax on Friday," said Buttenbaum. "We've played in big games before, we've played in high-pressure situations playing double overtime at Princeton and other big games like that. We were definitely prepared and that helped us play well in a high-pressure situation."
One thing going in Lehigh's favor is its familiarity with winning two games in three days in late April.
"The last two years, we've been able to deal with Patriot League Championship weekend. We've done it in a couple different ways," said Cassese. "Two years ago, we were on the road up in Hamilton. Last year, we were at home. There's no anxious feeling, there's none of the jitters that come with a new situation. Our guys have been there and done that as far as the surrounding circumstances of the game.
"I'm sure once they hit the field, they'll have the butterflies just like anybody else," Cassese continued. "I think that's where the experience comes in, just knowing how we've done things in the past."
Following a 10-2 loss at Yale in mid-March, the season was at its lowest point. A program that wasn't built with a strong foundation may have crumbled, but the Mountain Hawks have regrouped and have won seven of their last eight games heading into Sunday's title tilt.
From day one of Coach Cassese's tenure, success has come back to a base culture of hard work.
"We have built a culture of hard work mixed with a tremendous chip on our shoulder of always having something to prove," said Cassese. "That's what everything was founded on. When I got here, we said to ourselves that we would not be outworked and we would always strive to be the toughest people on the field. We were not the most talented, especially early on, but boy did we compete.
"The next part was building a culture of winning and understanding how to make the little plays to win games," Cassese continued. "I think we did that towards the end of the 2010 season when we knocked off [nationally-ranked] Villanova and Lafayette, which led us to the next year when we made our first Patriot League Tournament in five years and in subsequent years, winning the championship."
The Mountain Hawks are used to being counted out, but internally, the team always believes in each other.
"I give a lot of credit to the guys in the early years - one of those being Coach Scudder - of buying into the philosophy and understanding that this would be a long-term gain," said Cassese. "Our guys really did that and now you're seeing the fruits of the labor.
"This is just the tip of the iceberg. We're excited to be in this position, but certainly our goals and our vision is not only in the league but also on the national landscape," Cassese continued. "The league has changed now with Loyola coming in our league. We want to win the Patriot League, so we're also going to be on the national spotlight since the top team in the Patriot League also happens to be the top team in the nation."
"Everyone on this team is a competitor," said Buttenbaum. "No one is happy to just be here. We're excited to prove a bunch of people wrong who thought we wouldn't be back in this game, but we're definitely not satisfied. We're hungry to win that third straight championship and we're not going to go down without a fight."
The Lehigh men's lacrosse team lost a talented senior class that combined for more than 100 goals and nearly 200 points a season ago. Heading into the 2014 season with so many holes to fill, many people were counting the Mountain Hawks out. Flash forward to Saturday, April 26 and Lehigh is one win away from its third straight Patriot League Tournament Championship, 60 minutes from its third consecutive NCAA Tournament berth.
"If you build a successful program or a successful organization, the word succession comes to mind - having the next guy step up," said Lehigh head coach Kevin Cassese.
Lehigh's biggest holes came at the offensive end as the Mountain Hawks lost David DiMaria and his 73 points last season along with 47 points from Dante Fantoni, 21 from Brian Hess, 20 from Kyle Stiefel and 14 from Alex Drake. After a slow start offensively this year, the Mountain Hawks have turned it on, averaging exactly 13 goals per game over their last eight games. Lehigh scored 12 goals against Army Friday evening, the nation's top-ranked scoring defense. The Black Knights were allowing fewer than six goals per game and hadn't allowed an opponent to reach double figures until Lehigh on Friday evening.
"You think, how in the world are you going to replace 73 points? DiMaria was our quarterback last year," said Cassese. "The plan all along was to have Dan Taylor step in and become our quarterback. You are always hopeful that you can match the point total that was set the year before, but it takes a lot of hard work in order for that happen."
Taylor posted eight points on Friday and now has 44 points over his last seven games to reach 72 for the season (45 goals, 27 assists). He's had eight or more points four times in that seven-game stretch.
Sophomores Reid Weber, Casey Eidenshink and Alex Eaton played a combined 19 games last year, but have all played themselves into key roles. Weber scored the game-winning goal with just 3.7 seconds remaining against Army and now owns 44 points on the season (27 goals, 17 assists). Eidenshink has seen consistent time at long-stick midfield and close defense, recording 27 groundballs and 14 caused turnovers. Meanwhile, Eaton is running on Lehigh's first midfield line and is fifth on the team with 20 points (11 goals, nine assists).
"I give a lot of credit to Coach Cassese for the mentality we have," said Taylor. "You may have a guy in front of you, but every guy on the team is pushing you to be better. When guys leave, it's just an opportunity for others to step up. Our systems are intact and our coaching is so fantastic that the players are put into spots where they can make plays."
Reloading rather than rebuilding is the sign of a successful program. Lehigh is a win over #1 Loyola away from its third straight Patriot League Championship. The success hasn't happened overnight.
"With the emergence of the Lehigh Lacrosse program and the breakthrough over the last few years, it's become a minimum requirement that we compete for championships every single year, both in the league and nationally," said Cassese. "It's not just about the last three years, but it's also about my seven years and even the time before with the groundwork that was laid by guys like Chris Wakely, Joe Sterrett and Dan Smith. Others helped position the program where I could come in and take the final step towards competing for championships.
"It's great to be in the championship game, but it's another thing to win the championship trophy. We know it's going to be a tall order against the #1 team in the country but if you're going to win a championship, why not do it against the best."
The Mountain Hawks have gained valuable experience as this season has progressed. The Lehigh team that will hit the field for Sunday's title game is much different than the team that hosted the Greyhounds on March 1. There has been significant growth in all areas and the Mountain Hawks have hit their stride down the stretch, although they believe they have yet to play their best lacrosse.
"We had some guys in key roles who were rather inexperienced," said senior faceoff midfielder Ryan Buttenbaum who has stepped up to take a career-high 261 faceoffs this season. "They were good players, but they hadn't played a ton at the Division I level."
Despite a frantic game in the semifinals against Army, the Mountain Hawks showed tremendous poise and never panicked.
"Doing all our training, we have developed a mentality that helped everyone relax on Friday," said Buttenbaum. "We've played in big games before, we've played in high-pressure situations playing double overtime at Princeton and other big games like that. We were definitely prepared and that helped us play well in a high-pressure situation."
One thing going in Lehigh's favor is its familiarity with winning two games in three days in late April.
"The last two years, we've been able to deal with Patriot League Championship weekend. We've done it in a couple different ways," said Cassese. "Two years ago, we were on the road up in Hamilton. Last year, we were at home. There's no anxious feeling, there's none of the jitters that come with a new situation. Our guys have been there and done that as far as the surrounding circumstances of the game.
"I'm sure once they hit the field, they'll have the butterflies just like anybody else," Cassese continued. "I think that's where the experience comes in, just knowing how we've done things in the past."
Following a 10-2 loss at Yale in mid-March, the season was at its lowest point. A program that wasn't built with a strong foundation may have crumbled, but the Mountain Hawks have regrouped and have won seven of their last eight games heading into Sunday's title tilt.
From day one of Coach Cassese's tenure, success has come back to a base culture of hard work.
"We have built a culture of hard work mixed with a tremendous chip on our shoulder of always having something to prove," said Cassese. "That's what everything was founded on. When I got here, we said to ourselves that we would not be outworked and we would always strive to be the toughest people on the field. We were not the most talented, especially early on, but boy did we compete.
"The next part was building a culture of winning and understanding how to make the little plays to win games," Cassese continued. "I think we did that towards the end of the 2010 season when we knocked off [nationally-ranked] Villanova and Lafayette, which led us to the next year when we made our first Patriot League Tournament in five years and in subsequent years, winning the championship."
The Mountain Hawks are used to being counted out, but internally, the team always believes in each other.
"I give a lot of credit to the guys in the early years - one of those being Coach Scudder - of buying into the philosophy and understanding that this would be a long-term gain," said Cassese. "Our guys really did that and now you're seeing the fruits of the labor.
"This is just the tip of the iceberg. We're excited to be in this position, but certainly our goals and our vision is not only in the league but also on the national landscape," Cassese continued. "The league has changed now with Loyola coming in our league. We want to win the Patriot League, so we're also going to be on the national spotlight since the top team in the Patriot League also happens to be the top team in the nation."
"Everyone on this team is a competitor," said Buttenbaum. "No one is happy to just be here. We're excited to prove a bunch of people wrong who thought we wouldn't be back in this game, but we're definitely not satisfied. We're hungry to win that third straight championship and we're not going to go down without a fight."
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