Men's lacrosse campaign in review

An all-around increase in productivity and the instillation of a national championship-winning coach resulted in the Marist men's lacrosse team earning a 4-4 record in the MAAC. Finishing tied for fifth in the MAAC overall, the Red Foxes fell one place shy of their first postseason appearance since 2006. "I think the increase in production comes mostly from the change in attitude and atmosphere surrounding the team," junior Matt Teichmann said. "Everybody was a lot more excited and happy to be playing this year. This was the hardest we've worked as a team since I've been here."

Among MAAC teams, Marist finished in the top four in 14 statistical categories. Most notably, Marist topped the conference in saves per game (12) and faceoff percentage (.573) - both categories due in large part to the contributions made by senior Ryan Penner in goal and junior Matt Francis on face-offs.

For all Division I schools, Penner finished eighth in save percentage (.598) and Francis finished fifth in ground balls per game (6.46). In addition, the Red Foxes finished fourth in the nation in face-off win percentage, winning 141 of 246 face-offs - led by Francis' 136 wins in 236 attempts.

On offense, one Red Fox, Corey Zindel, broke into the top-10 national ranking as the sophomore attackman finished his season ranked eighth in assists per game (1.85). In 13 games, Zindel recorded 14 goals and 24 assists - good for second and first among Red Foxes.

Evan Guarini, another underclassman, contributed significantly to Marist's increased production. The freshman connected for 21 goals and assisted on three others. After a slow start in his first five collegiate games - recording four goals and one assist - Guarini provided 17 goals and two assists over the final eight matches.

"On offense, we worked on cutting down on our turnovers," Nelson said. "I believe Zindel and Guarini both cut down on their turnovers and played cleaner lacrosse. It's positive for the future, with those two and [Ryan] Sharkey returning we can stop worrying about the little things and work more on advanced offensive material."

For the season, the Red Foxes averaged 7.75 goals per game - a 1.43 goal improvement over their 2008 performance of 6.32. The Red Foxes also made considerable improvements in clearing percentage, the number of shots put on goal in each contest and their conversion of man-up opportunities.

Slight decreases were seen in a few statistics though. Marist's total number of shots per contest decreased by more than three over last season's total while the Red Foxes won 57.3 percent of their face-offs as compared to the 62.8% mark put up in 2008, the majority of which were secured by current assistant Dan Needle.

With the presence of Needle, Francis has the opportunity to improve on his already stellar face-off numbers and Nelson sees the decrease in shots in a positive manner and Marist has subsequently reduced its errant shots.

"We worked very hard this year to take good shots and reduce our turnovers on bad shots," Nelson said. "We did not have many of those and we had less and less in each game."

Coaches and players alike expect improvements to continue as the new atmosphere and attitude adopted over the course of 2009 becomes old habit.

"We will definitely be working for the playoffs," Teichmann said. "We just missed it this year and we know that we can beat some of the teams we failed to this year. I think everyone will come back with a bitter taste in their mouth and be ready to work hard for another run at a MAAC championship.