WestConn wins Little East Conference Men’s Lacrosse Title with 18-7 win over Plymouth State University

Courtesy of WestConn Athletics

   Junior goalie Kyle Wood (Hyde Park, NY) stopped nearly everything and the Western Connecticut State University offense was nearly unstoppable. A great combination on Saturday afternoon as the Colonials captured the Little East Conference Men’s Lacrosse Championship with a convincing 18-7 victory over Plymouth State University at WestConn Athletic Complex before 500 fans. With the LEC crown comes an automatic berth into the NCAA Division III National Championships that begin on Wednesday, May 7.

   Senior midfielder Dennis Skarda (Danbury, CT), who had three goals and four assists against the Panthers, was named the Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. It was his goal on Thursday afternoon, in the closing seconds, that sent the game into overtime against Keene State College. The Colonials went on to defeat the Owls, 14-13, on A. J. Barbieri’s maker 2:19 into the extra time to send them to today’s title match.

   The Colonials edged Plymouth State, 9-7, back on March 29 at The WAC. Since then, they have won nine of 12 games and ran their winning streak to four games today.

   “We are a much different team than we were the last time we played Plymouth State,” said Skarda. “Everything has come together for us over the past four or five games. We knew we would be tough to beat today and it was a team effort across the board.”

   On Saturday, the contest appeared to be just as tightly matched through the first 15 minutes of play. WestConn jumped out to a 2-0 lead following a goal from Adam Lanehart (Redding, CT) at 10:36. Plymouth State rallied right back and evened the score at 2-2 when Matt Johansmeyer (Shelburne Falls, MA) registered his eighth goal of the season.

   As the first quarter wound down, Skarda connected with Lanehart and the Colonials took a 4-2 lead into the second stanza. That assist gave Skarda 200 points for his career, but he was far from done on the day. The Danbury High School graduate went on to score three goals of his own and assist on three others before the final buzzer sounded.

   WestConn, 13-6, pulled away from the Panthers during the second quarter. It outscored the visitors, 7-1 during the period and took an 11-3 lead into intermission. During the quarter, Tom Begley (East Islip, NY) scored three goals and was one of four Colonials’ players to have at least three goals.

   Plymouth State came out of the locker room after intermission and drew within seven goals, 11-4 in the first 13 seconds, but WestConn would not allow it to get any closer, scoring three unanswered goals over the next 10 minutes. Skarda netted his 13th and 14th goals during that stretch, but the Colonials weren’t ready to celebrate, yet. It wasn’t until they went into the final stanza with a 14-5 lead before they felt comfortable.

   Lanehart continued his blistering goal-scoring pace with a game-high four goals on Saturday. He goes into the NCAA Tournament ranked in the Top 25 nationally with 56 goals.

   “After coming off Thursday’s win over Keene State and putting up 14 goals against them, we were fired up today,” stated Lanehart.

   Lanhart had a lot of praise for Skarda and Woods after the game.

   “It’s been a pleasure to play with Dennis the past two years, I’m going to miss him next year,” added the Joel Barlow graduate. “He seems to know where I am on the field at all times. When Kyle is on, we are on, and today, he and the defense were fantastic,” added Lanehart.

   Wood made 13 saves on the afternoon, the bulk of those coming in the first 30 minutes and almost single-handedly kept the potent Plymouth State offense at bay. The Panthers’ top two scorers Adam Krinsky (Concord, NH) and Brian Giroux (Wolfeboro Falls, NH) (57 goals between them coming into Saturday) combined for two goals in the title game.

   “Our philosophy today was to be aggressive defensively and get ahead of Plymouth,” said Wood. “We were that and then some today.”

   Since its loss to Keene Statem 14-5, back on April 12, WestConn has only one loss and the offense has put up an average of more than 13 goals and given up fewer than seven a game.

   Plymouth State was coming off a monumental upset in the Little East Conference semifinals as well, upsetting top seed Eastern Connecticut State University, 11-10 in double overtime on Thursday.

   “We have been on a hot streak of late,” stated fifth-year PSU Head Coach Andrew Brauch. “Before the game, we talked about not watching the ball, and today we got caught watching the ball. Today, WestConn was the better team and we did not bring out “A” game.”

   GAME NOTES: It was the first championship of any kind for the rather young WestConn lacrosse program, which began playing at the intercollegiate level in 2004. The Colonials will find out their opponent on Sunday night when the NCAA has its Selection Show from its headquarters in Indianapolis.

WestConn Softball Eliminated by Eastern

 Courtesy of Eastern Athletics

   Top seed Eastern Connecticut State University ended the Western Connecticut State University softball team's season with a 7-2 victory over the Colonials in the second day of the Little East Conference Softball Tournament at Howard Spector Field Friday afternoon.

   After racing out to a 1-0 lead, WestConn gave up seven unanswered runs before scoring a harmless run in the top of the seventh inning.

   Kristen Lugovich led the Colonials offense by going 3-for-4 and had the third seed's only run batted in. Loren Angiolillo and Megan Brunell each had two hits in the loss.

   Courtney Romyns took the loss after going two and two thirds and giving up five runs on three hits. She had one strike out and walked four. Romyns ends her final season with a 6-3 record.  She yielded to senior Shelby Slie who allowed two runs on seven hits and struck out one.

   Kim Church led the Warriors by going 3-for-4 with two runs batted in and a pair of doubles.  Her first double produced two runs in the second inning as Eastern Connecticut built a 3-1 advantage. Courtney Caswell had a double and two RBI in one official at bat.

   Katie Pensiero earned the win and is now 13-4.  She allowed two runs, one of them earned, eight hits, struck out two and walked two in six innings. Caitlin Cravens pitched a scoreless seventh inning for the winners.

   The Colonials, which have decided not to defend their ECAC New England title next week, ends their season at 28-13.  Eastern Connecticut improves to 26-10 on the year.

The Greatness of Mike Bibby

Justin Mazzarese
Sports Editor

As this column is written, the Hawks await a game seven with the number one team in the Eastern Conference with the Boston Celtics playing host.

   After the Celtics started out with 2-0 series lead, everyone who is an NBA fan was “boldly” predicting the Celtics in an easy sweep. This was the newly designed Celtics with the most important thing about them, although often overshadowed with an offense that has Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Peirce on their defensive play. And this was the Atlanta Hawks, let’s be real here.

   I will admit that I was one of those who believed that a sweep was imminent as for the exact reasons stated before, but when I saw Mike Bibby, whom I did not know was an Atlanta Hawk until their first win of the series, I thought things would get interesting. Not game seven interesting, maybe game six, but not game seven interesting.

I thought interesting because anybody can remember Mike Bibby’s magnificent performance where he averaged 20 points a game against the Los Angeles Lakers in 2002 Western Conference Finals and contributed numerous big shots towards the end of the games to keep each game within reach. Bibby and the Kings should have won that series, as they were seconds away from taking a 3-1 series lead; a lot easier psychologically than a 2-2 series tie, but Vlade Divac cleared the ball out of the Shaq zone, which was the right to do, into Big Shot Rob’s hand to which he hit a three to win the game at the buzzer. The Lakers took the series at home and then went on to sweep the Nets in the Finals. If Robert Horry does not hit that shot, the Kings have three chances to take the series.

   With Bibby being a playoff veteran with 53 games under his belt, he plays an important role on the Hawks because he is also the oldest starter at 29. Although Bibby is not having a stellar series against the Celtics, he threw a jab at Celtics fans, calling them band-wagon-hoppers. A playoff veteran knows he has to get under the skin somehow. And that certainly has some truth about it as I am from Rhode Island and see what he is saying when I visit.

   As for Bibby’s performance on the court, the Celtics, as mentioned before, are one of the best defensive teams in the NBA with Defensive Player of the Year Kevin Garnett. They have an idea how to stop a point guard. Although frustrating, great players have bad series too. If the Hawks make it out of this series, Bibby will run rampant as the Cavilers defense; but that’s getting ahead, so game seven first.

   When dealing with any type of playoffs that deal with a seven game series, a good rule of thumb for the lower seeded team to live by is that you are not in trouble until you lose on your home court. That is because worst case scenario, you lose the first two games away, then the much needed push that a crowd gives in game three is usually what a team needs to get that first win.

   However, neither team has lost at home in this series, which puts the pressure clearly on Boston as the Hawks have nothing to lose and everything to gain: the scariest combination in sports. Everything that the Celtics have worked toward this year could be gone if they lose this game. This is starting to sound like the Super Bowl.

WestConn Sports This Week

MLAX:  Wednesda 5/7      
NCAA or ECAC Tournament              TBA