Fort Collins, Colorado. The Colorado State University men’s lacrosse team continues to prepare for the 2009 spring season as they opened with a solid 10-9 victory over the Colorado College Tigers of NCAA Division III during a scrimmage in Colorado Springs. They will face Genesis, a men’s club team in Loveland, Colorado, for one last scrimmage before they head off to San Luis Obispo, California for the first two games of the season against UC Santa Barbara Gauchos and Cal Poly Mustangs.
The Colorado State men’s lacrosse team has looked strong to start off the season, but they are a young team so there is still room for improvement. According to head coach Flip Naumburg the Rams are not “star-studded,” so it will take each one of the players playing as a team to be successful. He went on to add that “(he likes) the chemistry of the players” which means it should be easier for them to play well together. It will not be an easy road for the 7th place Rams as they face 13 of the top 23 teams of the MCLA Division I, according to a preseason poll. Perhaps their toughest game and most anticipated will be against the teams’ biggest rival and 4th ranked team in the MCLA, Brigham Young University, which will be played Friday, March 20 in Provo, Utah. Somewhat disappointingly, the annual CSU-CU Showdown at Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium will now be played at Folsom Field in Boulder, Colorado. The CSU-CU showdown will be replaced as the CSU showcase game by an exciting face-off between CSU and 15th ranked Lindenwood out of Missouri, which is to be played at Invesco Field. To help the 4-time national champion CSU lacrosse team make a push for the MCLA championship game to be played in Denver in mid-May will be senior captains #31 M Kyle Rosa, #26 A Will Cantwell and #9 M Joel Tromburg, and junior captain #10 D Andrew Stein. Each should be a large part of the Ram’s successes this season. Kyle, Will, Joel and Andrew are all leaders on the team and are highly regarded by their teammates given that they were voted as captains by the entire team. Other players to watch on the CSU roster this season are sophomore attackers #3 Cooper Kehoe and #8 Paul Larson, who both had a strong showing in the opening scrimmage scoring two and three goals, respectively. At ever-important face-off midfielder is senior #33 Pat Miller, with junior #13 Kevin Wolff playing opposite him at face-off wing as well as offensive midfield. Other offensive midfielders to pay attention to are freshman #2 Matt Jui, sophomore #17 Lukas Cantwell, and junior #12 Luke Miller, who scored the game winning goal in the scrimmage against CC. The defensive players helping junior #27 Alex Jacques protect the goal are sophomore #21 Sean Albert, junior #43 John Gaines, and sophomore long-stick midfielder #35 Mark Moskovics. They came up big against CC in the scrimmage as they stopped CC on two key man-down situations late in the game to help keep CSU in the game, while Alex came up big all game racking up 14 saves on the day. For more information on the CSU men’s lacrosse team, including the complete season schedule and player roster, as well as an interesting blog written by head coach Flip Naumburg, check out the website at www.csulacrosse.com.