Chuck Czerkawski '12 carries the ball upfield against Bowdowin. Photo by Duncan Spaulding.
A season that started off with much promise is now halfway over and the men’s lacrosse team now finds itself in the exact opposite position that it was in this time last year. The team has posted a weak 2-6 record, but, perhaps more strikingly, has failed to win a game against a NESCAC opponent, going 0-4 in conference play thus far.
The team immediately met a setback in their home opener when the Camels dropped a 14-9 decision to in-state rival Trinity College. It was a game in which Head Coach Dave Cornell described, “We got our tails kicked, top to bottom. Trinity played with more composure, more heart. We got out-coached and their leadership stepped up for them. Hats off to them and we have a lot of work to do.”
After the loss, with their #10 national ranking still intact, the Camels bounced back with a dominating 12-3 win over the University of New England. However, in the very next game the Camels fell again, this time at the hands of Clarkson University, posting a 12-9 loss against a team that has much less force than Conn’s rival NESCAC competitors.
Conn posted a nearly perfect NESCAC record last year, losing only to Colby College. This season, not only have the Camels failed to win a NESCAC game, but they have been unable to put together a consistent performance across four quarters during an in conference game. The Camels have lost by at least four goals in each of their NESCAC games, including very poor decisions to Amherst, 10-3, and Middlebury, 12-4.
This weekend’s contest against the Bowdoin Polar Bears was a chance for the Camels to turn around their season at the midway point. Both teams had yet to win a NESCAC game and had posted losses against out-of-conference opponents. The game was fairly close; going into the fourth quarter, the Camels found themselves only down by two. However, Conn never held the lead during the game and the score gap doubled by the final whistle, ending in a 9-5 loss that could very well have signaled the loss of a season.
After this weekend the Camels stand alone as the only NESCAC team without a conference victory. Williams sits just above Conn at the bottom of the NESCAC standings. The Ephs have an overall record of 1-5, but have suffered tough out-of-conference losses to teams receiving ranking votes within the top twenty of Division III lacrosse. Fittingly, the Camels next game will put them up against Williams in a battle between two teams struggling to find ways to win.
What will become of Conn’s men’s lacrosse team as they begin the last half of their season? In the first eight games the Camels have only cashed in on eight man-up opportunities out of a total of forty, a poor .200 conversion percentage. Additionally, the team has suffered twenty-five turnovers compared to their opponents’ thirteen. These will have to be two areas to improve upon if the Camels want to have any shot at a successful season.
Be sure to come out and see Camel men’s lacrosse as the team takes on Williams this Wednesday at 4 PM on Silfen Field. The team will need home field support to get their first NESCAC win and regain some of the swagger they found in last years success.
