Nick Jeremiah/SPPS
This past season did a lot to boost the programs credibility as the team finished at 14-4 and made it to the conference tournament as well as the national tournament against some pretty tough competition.
"Our first expectation was to make it to the conference tournament, and it is never a guarantee that we will make it to the conference tournament. That it always one of our seasonal goals," said lacrosse club officer and recent Tech grad Matt McGinnis. "We did fall short though because we lost to Georgia by one so that was where we fell short for our initial seasonal expectations."
The team may have fallen just shy of one of its goals but it was able to fulfill another by qualifying for the national tournament.
"We did get a bid to the national tournament, and this was also one of our goals but we also fell short in the national tournament by losing in the first round," McGinnis said.
McGinnis also made it clear that a big reason for the team's success was its leadership and the ability of the upperclassmen to step it up when it counted. He attributed a large part of the team's achievements this past season to goalie Andrew Jaffke.
"He had been playing behind another great goalie for his freshman and sophomore years but within the last couple years, he has really stepped it up," McGinnis said regarding the senior goalkeeper.
Another large part of the team's success was the play of some its offensive players, most notably, Timothy Tyrell.
"He was our leading scorer and led the nation in points per game at one point so he was a huge offensive threat for our team," McGinnis said.
There may be questions in some people's minds about which players will most likely lead the team next year, but McGinnis made it clear who he thinks would be the best candidates to lead the team into next season.
"David Gouldey is a great defender and he was a captain of our team as a junior this past year so he will be captain again as a senior next year," McGinnis said.
Another candidate who McGinnis thought had a great chance to lead the team into next season is junior Patrick O'Keefe.
"He is a defensive player who initially was a transfer from the University of Delaware but he came in and stepped it up real big and received a lot of honors this past season," McGinnis said.
The team will need those players to step up and take over a leadership position as leading scorer Timothy Tyrell and standout goalie Andrew Jaffke have both moved on. Those two were integral parts to the team's success and it will take a lot of maturity and leadership to fill the void left by the departure of those two seniors, but McGinnis said that with players such as Patrick O' Keefe and David Gouldey, the program will be just fine.
As for the future process of the program, McGinnis said that it has definitely matured in more ways than one and that the level of competition within the program seems to get stronger every year.
"I feel as though the program has grown as far as the number of people that come out each year," McGinnis said. "It seems as if a lot more people are interested in making the commitment to come out and earn a spot on the team."
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