NESCAC Women: Greatest Show in Division III
by Jac Coyne |
Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff | Coyne Archive
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| Rachel Romanowsky (above) and the rest of the Trinity
women's team must meet two more huge challenges if they want to
claim the NESCAC championship. © Jonathan Lester |
The NESCAC is more of a Saturday Night Live skit than a
women’s lacrosse conference.
When you see the conference boasting seven ranked teams for much of
the season, often with three in the Top 10, and wins over other top
drawer programs from other conferences, all you can do is shake
your head and laugh.
It’s becoming an annual ritual for the conference to have as
many as eight representatives in the national Top 20, but what is
often lost to those on the outside of the conference is just how
narrow the margin is between the conference champion and a squad
that may finish below .500 in league play.
It was on display from the start, with unranked Bates jumping up
and biting then-No. 6 Middlebury, 11-9, in the season
opener for both teams. It continued throughout the spring,
highlighted by trios of scores that made no linear sense.
Colby 11, Middlebury 10 (ot).
Middlebury 18, Bowdoin 7.
Bowdoin 14, Colby 7.
That triumvirate was just one of many. Even the seedings for the
conference tournament that commenced last weekend seem
counterintuitive. On Sunday, fourth-seeded Amherst hosted
fifth-seeded Tufts even though the Lady Jeffs were ranked No. 18 in
the country and the Jumbos were No. 9. And Amherst won.
Any coach in the NESCAC will bring up the word parity to describe
the league. It’s something that has been bandied about for
quite a while, mostly because it has evolved as a league-wide
talking point, but it’s only in the last couple of years that
balance has really been evident. It is a development that coincides
with the league catching up with the flagship program,
Middlebury.
Whereas the Panthers were earning bids to the NCAA tournaments
since the NESCAC became eligible in 1994, it took several years for
two of the other teams – Amherst and Williams – to
catch up to Middlebury’s national success. Now, Bowdoin,
Colby, Tufts and Trinity have joined the group and the remaining
three teams (Bates, Conn. College and Wesleyan) are nipping at the
rest of the conference’s heels.
“Some of the schools that weren’t recruiting are
recruiting, and some of the schools that weren’t coached
necessarily very well in all of the areas now are,” said
Middlebury coach Missy Foote. “Once you have seven or eight
teams who are competitive, then you’ve got a battle. Then you
throw in your fluke loss and you really say,
‘Whoa!’”
The league has matured to the point where Middlebury, once a team
that imposed its will, has had to change its style just to keep
up.
“Our strategy used to be run like hell and put the ball in
the goal,” said Foote. “Fast break and zone defense:
that’s what we worked on all the time. Run, run, pass, catch,
shoot like crazy. That was our practice. We can’t play that
style of lacrosse and still win games. My strategy for 30 years has
always been we’re going to do our thing and let everyone
adjust to us. We have to adjust to what other teams have
now.”
With the bulk of NESCAC teams operating at nearly the same level,
the small nuances of the game that once determined the goal
differential now directly impacts whether a team finishes with a
win or a loss.
Perhaps the biggest variable is how specific teams match up and how
quickly they can adapt to any wrinkles.
“Some teams don’t change anything for anyone. If their
game matches up better that day, great,” said Amherst coach
Chris Paradis. “But other teams do a lot of adjusting to what
they’re going to see; changing their offense and defense to
what they think they need for that particular match-up. The teams
that can do that certainly are going to be better off.”
“Teams have an identity,” added Trinity coach Kate
Livesay. “Some teams are explosive and can gain a lot of
momentum, so can you stop the momentum? Some teams are methodical
and want to slow down the pace, so are you patient enough?
It’s part of the game.”
For Colby coach Karen Henning, you can prepare a team as much as
you want tactically for a NESCAC opponent, but if there is
something missing emotionally or mentally, there’s not a
whole lot you can do on a given day.
“If you’re not ready to come out and play at the
highest level, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing
because the rivalries are that big,” said Henning. “If
you break your focus for a little bit, then another team is going
to sneak past. It’s a high-quality student-athlete across the
board in all sports. They want to be successful in the classroom,
on the field and in life, so they’re going to go out and give
100 percent and always think they have a chance. You have to be
ready to compete.”
There certainly is a non-physical aspect that explains a lot of the
results one sees in the conference.
“Sometimes psychology plays into it,” said Paradis.
“There is history and the players have some preconceived
notions, which you need to clear them of so they take each season
and game for what it is. The team that can maintain that sense of
innocence, if you will, can also play into it. Not, ‘Oh, we
haven’t beaten this team for so many years; these things have
happened in the past and, Oh, no, it’s happening
again.’”
Trinity, which has been the highest ranked team in the conference
for much of the season, was upended by Tufts for its first loss
midway through the spring. Livesay said being undefeated was a huge
burden that made her team tighten up when the Jumbos kept the
contest close.
“We have talked a lot this year about playing fearless and
not worrying about the score or the consequences,” said
Livesay. “Why wouldn’t you go after that ball? I
don’t know if I’d want to call a time out and say,
‘You guys are playing not to lose!’ That’s not
me, but I think that is hard. With our program being relatively new
to that situation of winning every game, it may be just a
psychology of our team.”
Foote believes part of avoiding the emotional pitfalls that can
arise during a game is to mimic those situations in practice.
Basically, it comes down to preparation, but even that isn't
always enough.
“In the long run, they’re 18 to 21-year-olds and you
think you’ve got them figured out and they’ve got it,
and then your captain gets face-guarded and she forgets she can
speak,” said Foote. “It’s a life-lesson, and
it’s hard.”
“That’s the whole thing: you have to have a Plan
B,” added Paradis. “If this is how an opponent is
against a team, say a low pressure defense, you have to be ready
for the quick double here or the face-guard there. Some players
aren’t fazed by that pressure and some are wet
noodles.”
There is undoubtedly going to be pressure, as well as life lessons,
on display when the NESCAC semifinals – featuring No. 5
Trinity, No. 9 Colby, No. 13 Amherst and No. 15 Williams –
and finals are held in Hartford, Conn., on Saturday and Sunday.
While the conference will send at least two other teams, possibly
three, to the NCAA tournament, coming out on top in the NESCAC will
be a spectacular achievement. It could potentially be considered a
far more grueling feat than winning five games in May.
And, frighteningly enough, the NESCAC women’s lacrosse league
will soon move from a Saturday Night Live skit to a horror
flick. Hamilton, currently No. 1 in the country, joins the league
in 2012.
Grab some popcorn.
