Men’s Lacrosse Shows Gradual Improvement
BY BLAKE REHBERG

The Oberlin men’s lacrosse team suffered their final loss to Wooster on Saturday to close out their season. The 20-8 defeat dropped their record to 0-5 for the conference and 2-10 overall.
Having to deal with an inexperienced team, the Yeomen fought to attain a degree of consistency throughout the season.

Last Saturday’s game revealed this problem. They played a good first quarter, keeping the score to 3-1 in Wooster’s favor. However, they lost control of the play in the second and third quarters. In the fourth quarter they once again played extremely well, out-scoring Wooster five to four.

“We show ability to play well but we don’t sustain it throughout the ball game,” Head Coach Jim Donovan said. “I think that’s due to our inexperience and youth.”

The Yeomen were certainly not without great performances. Junior goalie Dave Smolev had 32 saves for the game. “Smolev was outstanding in goal,” Donovan said.

However, throughout the year problems plagued the team making it difficult to have a productive season. “We just had a problem possessing the ball. It got better, but it really hurt us in the first two-thirds of the season,” Assistant Coach Jeff Ramsey said.
The team may have struggled this season, but it provided an excellent opportunity for growth.
“As tough as this season was we did progress, we did get better as the season went on,” Donovan said.
Although the scores often did not reflect this growth, it was apparent in individual performances.

“We got better as the season progressed. We were faced with a number of problems, but the team did improve their skill level and you could see it on the field as the season progressed,” Ramsey said.

This growth offers the potential to have a great season next year. The team should also benefit from having a lot of returning players next year. “Part of our problem this year was we thought we had a lot of returning people last year and for various reasons some people didn’t play,” Donovan said.

The only senior that will leave the team is Tyler Smith. His loss will be felt. “Losing Smith is going to hurt. He had a great year defensively. He was a rock on defense,” Ramsey said.
Along with the talented first-year class that is expected, the large returning class should give the team ample potential next year. Among those returning will be sophomore Erik Vachon, who finished ninth in the conference for points with 36 points coming from 23 goals and 13 assists. “[Vachon] just has that savvy that we hope other people watch and learn from,” Ramsey said.
The team will have one last chance to hone their improvements Saturday in the annual Alumni game.
“[The alumni game] is always a good contest,” Donovan said. “The old guys come back and try to knock heads with the young guys.”