Conditioning Key to LAX Success

With nine seniors on this year's Men's Lacrosse team, expectations are much higher for this season than last.

The Hornets Lacrosse team struggled to get wins last year, as they had a record of 2-9.  The Hornets did managed to make it into the playoffs, but ended up losing 22-3.

Senior captain Caleb Noble, a midfielder, says that last season was a really tough one for all of the guys involved.

"As a team last year, it was very disappointing," Noble said.  "We've never really meshed well together."

With the addition of a few new freshman, and a lot of experienced gained by a large group of returning players, Noble says that he sees this team fairing a lot better than they did the year before.

"Our goal is to be a 500 team," said Noble.  "We have the ability and the talent on this team, we just need to put it all together and play better as a team."

The team runs a lot of free-range offensive plays, with the hope that ball movement and teamwork can help generate confusion on defense for opponents, and goals on offense for the Hornets.

This year, the team has been focusing on their cardio and conditioning, which Noble says will improve the team's play during games.

"We're trying to be more conditioned this year," Noble said.  "Last year, we were able to keep up with teams in the first half.  In the second half, we gave up a lot of stupid penalties and let teams back in the game, and that was because we were tired and not conditioned as well as we would like to be this year."

When asked what the team could improve upon, Noble gave a pretty straightforward answer.  "Everything," he said.  "No team is perfect, and there is a lot of stuff we could work on.  I know we can be a good team, it's just going to come down to communication as a team, and if we communicate well, we're going to play well and win games."

"The difference between this year and last year is that we are going to be a more disciplined team, and that comes from conditioning.  We are going to play smarter, harder, and much better than we did last year."

The team will begin their season two weeks from this Saturday, as they have their first game against Green Mountain College.