By Taylor Nigrelli
Staff Writer
After going 2-0 to start the season, the lacrosse team has lost its last two games, the latest defeat coming in blowout fashion, 20-8, against rival Canisius last Wednesday.
According to coach Ryan Lynn, the losing streak comes during mere warmups for conference games.
“Nonconference games are more like practice for conference games,” Lynn said. “They don’t affect our main goal of being in position to compete for the Atlantic 10 Championship.”
The Bonnies will have a chance to work toward that goal when league play begins at home against Temple (6-3) today at 3 p.m.
Despite his optimism for conference play, Lynn knew that a few changes needed to be made after the Canisius game. The team switched from a 3-5-3 to a 4-3-4 system, which means it now plays four on attack, three midfielders and four defenders at a time.
According to Lynn, the Bonnies will run a couple of midfield lines to keep fresh legs in the game. In order to do this, a few players on the team changed position. Freshman Taylor Venture moved from attack to midfield, sophomore Lily Timlin moved from midfielder to defense and freshman Mackenzie Jordan has moved from attack to midfield.
These changes will be in place today. Although this looks to be a tough matchup for the Bonnies, Lynn said he believes it’s a winnable game as long as the team doesn’t play the way it did against Canisius.
“Against Canisius, we were off mentally from the time we arrived,” Lynn said. “We made a lot of fundamental mistakes and our heads deflated; we can’t have that happen in conference play. Temple is a bit of a challenge, but we match up well against them. We need to stay mentally focused.”
Lynn is not alone in his thinking. Many of the players also view this as a tough-but-winnable matchup, including senior midfielder Daisy Timlin.
“Temple is a strong team in the A-10, but at the same time, they are a beatable team,” Timlin said. “That’s the nice thing with the conference we are in; there is always competition.”
League play will continue for the Bonnies at La Salle (7-2) Sunday morning at 11:30 and then at home against Duquesne (7-3) Thursday at 3 p.m.
Timlin said she views these games the same way she views the Temple game.
“Like Temple, LaSalle and Duquesne are beatable teams,” Timlin said. “But we need to play our game and play hard for the full 60 minutes. Every conference game is up for grabs — it is just a matter of what team wants it more and what team is willing to mentally focus and get the win.”
While these games may be winnable and the team’s goals might be attainable, Lynn said he needed to shake things up a bit to get the team back on track.
“The Canisius game was a wake-up call,” Lynn said. “After that, we had individual meetings to get everything sorted out and to make sure everyone was on board. We’re really hoping to make a turn here; A-10s are our main focus and everyone coming together is what we need.”
nigreltn11@bonaventure.edu
