Lax team looks for redemption
The Castleton men’s lacrosse program will try to avenge its NAC title loss by making a run to return for another opportunity to claim the crown. The Spartans look to make it to an unprecedented 12th straight NAC title appearance in the 2015 season.
The team is led by offensive machine Zach Davidson who looks to finish off his historic career on a high note.
“He’s very balanced when he takes it himself and when he dishes it off to teammates,” Coach Bo McDougall said about Davidson. “It makes it easy to build an offense around him.”
Returning for his fourth season as the Spartan head coach, McDougall is especially excited for this season. “The seniors now were the freshman during my first year coaching here,” said McDougall. “It’s nice that we’re all on the same page and there’s a common mindset, common philosophy that we all share from our senior class right on down to our freshman class.”
McDougall added that this year the players really understand and have that one-day-at-a-time mentality. Being unselfish is the biggest part to team success, McDougall said. He also added that the freshman this year will play big roles this upcoming season.
“They’re a hardworking unselfish group of guys that realize it’s going to take all 35 of them to accomplish the things we want to accomplish,” said McDougall
The Spartans head into the season with a chip on their shoulder to prove they’re the best in their conference as they’re ranked No. 2 in the NAC preseason poll. This chip was chiseled after the loss to New England College in last year’s championship game.
“We had an edge long before this poll came out and we’ll have an edge with us throughout the season,” McDougall said
The most important thing, he said, is not to look ahead and “not try and force a square peg into a round hole”
McDougall did emphasize the importance of returning to the NAC title game.
“Come May, we want to be playing for that championship,” said McDougall. “There’s a foundation and culture in place that that’s the absolute destination that we want to be at.”
Castleton opens the season against St. Lawrence on Feb. 28 at 2 pm. The game will be played at St. Michael’s College.