March 5, 2015
By Maria Canales, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Penn State men's lacrosse is set for three road matches against Harvard, Marist and UMass during the academic spring break.
Although their luck on the road hasn't been ideal, the Nittany Lions hope their fortunes will change over their spring break campaign. Historically under head coach Jeff Tambroni the Nittany Lions' record has been superb on the road, and Penn State looks to continue this tradition and notch its first road win against Harvard this Saturday.
"It has always been a part of this program that we find more success on the road than we do at home," said Tambroni. "So finding that formula is going to be kind of what we're gonna set out to achieve this week."
The team will leave Happy Valley on Friday and head to Boston for their first of three games over the course of a week. The long bus ride will give the team and coaches time to further build relationships amongst one another.
After their game Saturday against Harvard, the Nittany Lions face Marist on Tuesday, then travel to Amherst to take on UMass the following Saturday, but despite their full schedule, the Nittany Lions do have a small amount of downtime. The team plans to use this time to take in the sights and sounds of all that Boston has to offer.
"We have extremely generous and gracious parents throughout the course of the entire year, they go way above and beyond caring for this team when we go on the road," said Tambroni. "Connor Darcey's parents are local, they're from Wellesley, Massachusetts, so they have scheduled a number of things including a tour of Fenway Park, we're going to go to a Boston Celtics game and we got a day of bowling. This will give the guys the chance to see each other in a different light."
Small adventures like these are nice ways for the team to further bond with one other, but also get some much-needed downtime during such a busy week. Coach Tambroni joked that, being a diehard New York Yankees fan, he'll have to wear his pinstripes on the Fenway Park tour.
Coach Tambroni hopes that Penn State's successful run at home will translate into wins on the road now that the team knows what needs to happen to notch wins. Communication is key on the field and the Nittany Lions have focused on being more vocal during practices to lay the groundwork for their spring break games.
"We had a great week of preparation before Penn, I think we learned a lot, grew a lot as a team," said Tambroni. "I'm hopeful that we'll travel a lot better going into Harvard and start stringing together some wins."
Junior faceoff specialist Drake Kreinz knows the team needs to get its first win on the road and emphasized the hard work the team has put in during this week of practices. Kreinz believes the team is well prepared, but it all comes down to the mentality of the team during game time.
"I know we've got our hands full," said Kreinz. "Harvard's a very good team, we got a short weekend and then on to Marist and UMass, all great physical teams. Being on the road I know there will be a lot going on but the biggest thing is just staying mentally prepared and, especially with the cold and the snow in Boston, we just gotta play our game and stay focused."
On these road games, the one element that will impact the team the most is the weather. Having played both home games in Holuba Hall, the Nittany Lions have only battled the elements on the road, including blizzard like conditions at Villanova. Overcoming the inevitable cold and possible snow in Massachusetts will be the biggest challenge the team faces, but Penn State is prepared.
The Nittany Lions have studied film, practiced hard, and have conditioned themselves in order to be as well prepared as possible for the week ahead. Winning three games in a row would be the perfect spring break for the Nittany Lions, but Tambroni emphasized that wins aren't the only thing that decide a successful bout of road games.
"At the end of the day I hope we come back a more united team and a much closer team when we head back from Amherst," said Tambroni.
The Nittany Lions will start their spring break campaign at Harvard on Saturday at noon.