Triple Threat: Meeting for a Third Time
by Jac Coyne | Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff | Coyne Archive
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| Russ Follansbee (above) and Wesleyan have already
defeated Middlebury twice this season. What is the key for the
Cardinals to make a clean sweep in the NCAA quarterfinals? It will
be forgetting about the previous two contests, according to
Wesleyan coach John Raba. © Tony Pratt |
After he graduated from St. Lawrence in 1982, Jim Berkman spent
some time playing indoor lacrosse in Canada. Unlike the playoffs we
see in college, or even the NLL, which features a one-game format,
Berkman remembers his box team having to play a best-of-seven
series to advance.
It was a taxing journey, with each side knowing exactly what the
other wanted to do, and each player building a contempt for his
opponent with the repetitive familiarity.
While he has never played a team three times in a season during his
21 years as the head coach at Salisbury, he's guessing his Canadian
box experience is what it will be like when the Sea Gulls and their
Capital Athletic Conference rival Stevenson match-up for the third
time on Wednesday in an NCAA Division III quarterfinal.
"You have to be mentally and physically tough," said Berkman. "And
there are a lot of things that aren't forgotten that are brought to
the table, making for a real physical kind of arena."
Paul Cantabene, who will be standing on the other end of the
sidelines when Salisbury and the Stevenson square off, has never
faced a team three times during his tenure at Stevenson either, or
at any of his coaching stops at Maryland, Towson and Johns
Hopkins.
Cantabene has, however, met an opponent three times as a player in
both the indoor and outdoor professional leagues. His judgment?
"Three times is tough to do."
While Berkman and Cantabene are getting their first taste of the
trifecta, two teams are gearing up for a third meeting in a series
that is becoming almost customary. Middlebury and Wesleyan, both
members of the NESCAC, are not only hitting the triple on Wednesday
in another NCAA quarterfinal, they are ratcheting it up a
notch.
They are doing it for the third time in five years.
For Wesleyan coach John Raba, who has been involved in all three of
those three-spots, the key is compartmentalization.
"The approach for us is separation; not thinking about the last two
games," he said. "It's a new game, and it's just one game."
Raba's first series was against former Middlebury coach - and
current athletic director - Erin Quinn, but the last meeting of
three came against Dave Campbell in 2007, when the two teams split
the first two match-ups before Wesleyan took the decisive contest
in the NCAA second round.
It's a Panther loss that still lingers.
"Losing to that team, having them end our season in that fashion,
was hard on that senior class," said Campbell. "This senior class,
which were sophomores then, will be ready this time around."
The key ingredient, and the one that makes losing a third contest
so memorable, is the relationship between the schools that
participate in them.
This doesn't happen to a couple of random teams.
It only occurs with league foes who meet in the regular
season, their conference tournament and then
the NCAA tournament. The battle for supremacy within a
conference creates an instant rivalry - one that is already
established in the NESCAC and one that is being inaugurated in the
CAC this year. With each meeting, the importance of the contest is
heightened and, not suprisingly, it causes massive spikes in
every single emotion a player, a coach and a fan can feel.
With all of the excitement hovering around a third game, it's only
natural to ask if there is any way to determine who has the upper
hand? The four coaches involved react to three possible
indicators.
Previous Results
When Middlebury and Wesleyan first did their three-part
dance in 2005, the Panthers entered the third installment in the
NCAA quarterfinals with triumphs in the previous two meetings. They
won the final meeting, as well, albeit by a smaller margin than the
previous two.
In '07, the two teams split, with Wesleyan winning in the regular
season in overtime and Middlebury winning the conference tournament
match-up by five goals. As mentioned above, the Cardinals won the
pivotal third game.
With such a small sample size, it's tough to draw any conclusions,
but Campbell and his team are cherishing another chance at
Wesleyan. It's not surprising, considering the two Cardinal losses
are also Middlebury's only defeats of the season.
"I think our mindset going in is there isn't a team that we'd
rather see than these guys," said Campbell of Wesleyan. "We want to
be able to show we can beat these guys, and if we're going to do
anything past that, it wouldn't feel right without a chance to show
we are a better team than Wesleyan. We think this is the perfect
match-up and we're pretty thrilled about it."
Continuing his theme of looking at each game in a vacuum and not as
part of a series, Raba doesn't believe previous results are an
indicator of anything other than the game was played.
"I certainly don't think that we have a huge advantage because we
won two games, and I don't think we're at a disadvantage because we
won the first two," said Raba. "It's just the next game - the next
important game - for us. That will be how we look at this
thing."
Salisbury and Stevenson split their first two match-ups: Stevenson
cruising to a 12-8 win during the regular season and Salisbury
breezing in the CAC finals, 13-5. Because neither have experience
with a third game, it's tough for Berkman and Cantabene to gauge
who has an advantage, but both believe the contest they lost could
have gone the other way.
"We weren't really into it mentally," said Cantabene. "We were
mentally soft and we made some poor decisions. We didn't finish
some shots that we usually finish and we got a little tight as the
game closer. That affected us."
"There's a lot of deception because if you weren't at that game and
didn't see the film, Stevenson played a great game, but the score
was tied 6-6 in the third quarter," said Berkman of Salisbury's
loss, pinpointing a couple of incorrect moving screen calls as
being critical. "We didn't make the goalie make any saves in the
first game and we self-destructed in the third quarter."
Mental Make-up
It's safe to say whichever team can handle the pressure of
the situation will be the one advancing to the semifinals.
"Guys are going to be juiced up to play this game, so it's going to
be about staying focused and staying composed when a team makes a
run," said Raba. "At some point, there will be a three or four-goal
run and the team that has the composure to answer back, or to play
with poise and not get too excited if you were fortunate to have
the run, will be the team that comes out on top."
Raba was no doubt taking a page out of the last meeting between
Wesleyan and Middlebury during the NESCAC tournament when the
Panthers raced out to an 8-3 halftime lead, only to see the
Cardinals answer with a couple of runs before grinding out a 15-14
overtime win.
The Middlebury coach understands his team gave away that chance,
but he doesn't think his team will be hindered by an overwhelming
sense of revenge.
"I don't worry about us being too emotional," said Campbell. "We
have such a veteran group that it is going to be a good thing for
us. There will be some highs and lows in the game, and that's
something we've been focusing on, just playing through those.
Wesleyan's a good team and they are going to make some plays. We're
just going to ride out the emotions and play our game no matter
what is going on."
Remaining cool when the pressure builds will be particularly
important to Stevenson.
While the Mustangs are making their first appearance in the NCAA
quarterfinals, this part of the bracket has been a speed bump for
recent Gulls teams. Salisbury has made a cottage industry of taking
advantage of its opponent's lack of composure, but Cantabene
believes his squad has the perfect demeanor.
"I think our guys are pretty laid back," he said. "We've never been
a big rah-rah group here. We've played in big games and we've been
in every situation now, so I think our guys will take it in stride.
I don't think they're going to kill themselves mentally and be done
before the game."
Game Plan
Or, in the case of these two games, the lack of a game
plan.
When teams meet for the third time with a short timeframe to
prepare, there are no secrets. Just roll the ball out and play.
"You don't have to reinvent the wheel," said Berkman. "It's not
like we're playing Roanoke for the first time and all of a sudden
we're scrambling to get some film because we haven't seen them in
person. We're not worried about match-ups because we know who is
going to guard who on that team, and they know who they'll have
guarding players on our team. We know some tendencies from playing
them the time before, although that's not to say that someone isn't
going to put a new wrinkle in."
"Both teams have each other scouted so well that it will come down
to the ground balls, face-offs and goaltending that are going to
make the difference," said Campbell. "I think each team will have a
wrinkle ready, but you only have two days to prepare, so there is
nothing drastic. It is definitely fine-tuning what you do, and a
lot of times these games are determined by who executes their game
plan better and what they're able to do better."
"At this time of year, you just keep on doing what you do," added
Cantabene. "It's how you tweak what you do. The little nuances you
change: who you initiate with, do you go early or do you not go
early? Those are the little things you can change at this time of
year. You don't change your whole system because you don't have
enough preparation time."
The temptation for coaches at this point in the season is to be a
puppeteer for the players, micromanaging every clear, ride and
offensive set. Raba has tried that and it just doesn't work. As
much as he'll be helping his kids adjust to situations during the
game, the players are ultimately the ones who will determine the
game's outcome. That's true in the first meeting or the third.
"The game of lacrosse has to be flowing with the kids taking care
of it on the field," said Raba. "We'll help them with some of the
adjustments that we see from the sideline, but it will be the kids
who are going to be managing the game and making plays when the
opportunities present themselves.
"That's the game. At some point when they breakdown, they'll have
to identify things. When the kids become robotic, they struggle. If
something doesn't work, they freak out. If you let them play and
stick to some basic principles, that's when we have our most
success."
It's easier said than done, though.
You have to take advantage of your third chance at an opponent.
There is never a fourth.
