March 16, 2015
By Maria Canales, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State men's lacrosse team returns home to Happy Valley after its spring break campaign in Massachusetts with one win and a pair of losses.
The first leg of the trip was spent in Boston taking on the Harvard Crimson. Penn State would fall to Harvard 12-9. Despite this loss, the Nittany Lions bounced back and picked up a win against Marist on neutral ground three days later. The 9-8 win was the Nittany Lions' building block during the week.
"We had some strong playing from start to finish [against Marist]," said head coach Jeff Tambroni. "The guys really put in the effort to get the win. I thought we shot the ball well, I thought we took advantage of the opportunities the offense created."
Working off of momentum provided by Penn State's starting faceoff man, junior Drake Kreinz, the Nittany Lions were able to create opportunities in front of the net and capitalize on them. Several Nittany Lions propelled Penn State to the win, notably Dan Craig, Mike Sutton and Drake Kreinz, each scoring two goals. The strong scoring energy would be just enough to keep the Nittany Lions ahead and come out with a much-needed win following a tough loss.
With only a few days between the Marist and UMass games, the Nittany Lions used this quick turnaround as an opportunity to work on communication in front of the net in the offensive zone, as well as creating better scoring opportunities. The Nittany Lions' efforts would be noticed in the first minutes of their matchup against UMass.
In its final matchup of the week against UMass in Amherst, Penn State got off to a fast start, thanks to Kreinz scoring three seconds after the opening faceoff, only to be followed by three more goals from fellow Nittany Lions. Despite this quick start, the power shifted in the second half in favor of the Minutemen.
"We got off to a great start," said Tambroni. "Drake [Kreinz] and Billy [Lombardi] winning faceoffs, getting the team quick opportunities. But our downfall was possession time and us not being able to take advantage of some of the possession time we did have."
Despite their late efforts, and two first career goals for Billy Lombardi and Tanner Peck, the Nittany Lions were unable to come back from a four-goal deficit.
Although the primary purpose of this spring break trip was to play several Massachusetts teams, a side benefit of the trip was that the Nittany Lions were able to further bond with one another, having spent the whole week in hotel rooms and on long bus rides. The team enjoyed their visit to Fenway Park and many memories were made off the field when the team took in a Boston Celtics game.
"I thought this was a productive spring break," said Tambroni. "We learned a lot. The team worked extremely hard at our practices during the week and had some fun during their downtime. The guys got to learn a lot about each other."
Spending a whole week on the road is tough, both mentally and physically, and the Nittany Lions battled these challenges head-on. Despite not coming home with more wins, the Nittany Lions learned a lot during this trip, both about their playing strengths and weaknesses, as well as about fellow teammates.
Penn State returns home to work out minor kinks and get back into their on-field prowess that dominated early in the season and prepare for Denver this coming weekend.