MAC Bites - #3

Senior captain Jason McDonald will part of a number of collegiate laxers to blog all season for LacrossePlayground.com. Here is his third blog.


Jason McDonald - Sr. - #33 - Defense

Lacrosse Blog #3

Sunday’s game was quite the experience. A lot of hard work behind the scenes was put into it and I would like to thank coach Kolon for his contributions. It was quite the turn around after a tough loss to Ohio State, having to play one of the most hyped games of our season two days later.

The first Division I game of our program’s career was extremely nerve racking and to play the “rival” team in your state adds to it tenfold. We appeared a bit sluggish at first coming off a tough week and really were not clicking, but began to pick it up as the game progressed. We began to take over scoring throughout the second half. It was the biggest crowd we’ve played in front of yet, announced as a sell out with 1,800 fans in the building.

Most of us got the chills as we waited and listened to the start of our warm up as the smoke rolled in, which was quite the experience and I recommend all teams try it at least once. We continue however to search for an identity on offense trying new players in different spots and continuously working on both our man up and man down.

Defensively, we are focusing this week on playing sound team defense as one unit. Our slides must improve as well as our positioning. Saturday begins our five-week road trip starting with 4th ranked University of North Carolina and ending with our first conference game in Buffalo, NY, vs. Canisius.

We were off on Monday, but were right back it on Tuesday and had a promising practice today as we finish up the week at our practice facility. Today pitted the offense against the defense, where we battled for points at the end of the practice. For each goal, the offense received one point as each successful clear provided the defense one as well. Healthy competition seems to bring out the best in our players and everyone left the field feeling good. Our scout meeting has been moved to Thursday evening where we will meet and receive any last minute adjustments to prepare for UNC. It is much nicer playing one game a week and not having to cram and switch gears to adjust for different teams.

Friday we will be leaving in the morning and it will be a pretty significant ride. I always enjoyed the bus rides though, and considering I’m a senior, I won’t have many more. The bus rides seem to help bring the team closer and on this trip we’ll have plenty of time for that. You can feel the excitement at practice as everyone waits for their shot against one of the top 10 teams in the country. “If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best”, which is exactly what we will try to do come Saturday.