March 30, 2018
By Erin Neri, GoPSUsports.com student staff writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Following a dominant win against Cleveland State, Penn State men's lacrosse will face perhaps its biggest test of the season so far, opening up conference play on the road at Ohio State.
Although Penn State head coach Jeff Tambroni and his staff are preparing for the Buckeyes like they would for any other team, he noted it's hard to ignore the fact that something is different when it comes to the team's mentality heading into the game.
"You'd like to think every week the focus of your preparation is exactly the same but there is definitely a sharper focus this week," Tambroni said. "When you go to school at a place like Penn State, or any school in the Big Ten and you see a school like Ohio State or Michigan it is an institutional rival, not just in football or basketball, it's an institutional rival. Everyone at [Penn State], whether you play a sport or not, in some way shape or form has a beef with [other Big Ten schools] but you also share a certain respect."
The goal of practice this week is simple. Stay hungry. While it has been easy for the Nittany Lions to lose focus after winning a few games, Penn State wants to make sure it can stay consistent moving forward.
Coming off two commanding wins, Tambroni hopes Penn State can stretch the momentum right into Saturday's game in Columbus.
"At this point in the season, having gone through the nonconference schedule, I am hopeful that as our guys reflect back, they've learned [from those games] and that momentum built from the last two wins against Fairfield and Cleveland State will push us and put us in a position to work harder to achieve more success," Tambroni said. "Versus earlier in the year, we'd win games and the following week at practice instead of remaining hungry and humble in our approach, I felt we became a little complacent at times."
Fixing the issue of complacency is a team affair, involving everyone from coaches to individuals and staff members. This week, the coaching staff took several opinions from around the team into consideration and decided to change up practice. Although the changes were nothing major, Tambroni hopes the shakeup will establish a new mental outlook throughout the week.
The other part of the solution is execution. If this hard-working group continues to have the right perspective and focus, the coaching staff is confident that success is imminent.
"These kinds of decisions can't just be lectures from our coaches to our players and it can't just be our players talking to one another. There has to be a plan and there has to be an action item," Tambroni said. "I think we've taken a little bit of this responsibility for what has happened in the past, but now it's the onus and accountability for the way we would like to be in the future. Part of it is planning, part of it is execution but I think our guys are doing a really good job with it."
In addition to working out some internal kinks, the Nittany Lions will also have to prepare for a tough, veteran Buckeye defensive unit.
While the Blue and White offense has been finding the back of the net fairly easily over the past couple games, scoring 33 goals in the last two games, finding opportunities against Ohio State will be a challenge. The Nittany Lions are confident though, that if they stick to their game plan and their own identity, their shots will find a way to the back of the cage.
"[Ohio State] is tough on both ends, but in the defensive end they're an extremely stout team," Tambroni said. "They play very well together so I think it's just a matter of making sure our guys believe in us and believe in what they can do."
While watching film and studying the opponent is critical, Tambroni wants to make sure the Nittany Lions don't get lost in concentrating too much on what the Buckeyes are doing.
After Saturday's win, Tambroni noted postgame the team only ran one set play throughout four quarters and felt the offensive play more less predictable and more fluent as a result. This week, the Nittany Lions will be going in with that same strategy, letting chances come organically instead of trying to force them.
"You don't want to paralyze your offense or any player in the offensive end by over-analyzing what [Ohio State does]," Tambroni said. "If you over-analyze what they do, now you're thinking a little too much instead of playing instinctively and that's one of the best things our guys do best. When they can play with great instincts and just read and react to what's going on in front of them, in real time, they're going to make some mistakes but they make a lot more plays."
Penn State and Ohio State get underway at 3 p.m. Saturday, March 31st in Ohio Stadium.