Danes feeling sunny after win

ALBANY — The temperature was 33 degrees combined with a wintry mix for Saturday’s opening faceoff at Casey Stadium.

Try telling that to the University at Albany men’s lacrosse team, which had warm thoughts during a 13-11 victory over America East Conference rival Vermont before a crowd of 1,126 diehards.

“In our minds, it was 70 and sunny,” UAlbany coach Scott Marr said. “That’s the mentality we had to have, and our guys did a great job responding.”

“It wasn’t too bad,” graduate long-stick midfielder Jake Piseno said. “The only thing that was bad was our gloves felt like they were 10 pounds each. But other than that, I think it was 70 and sunny in our heads.”

UAlbany (3-5 overall, 2-0 league) put Vermont in a deep freeze after the Catamounts pulled within 12-11 with 11:37 remaining.

After that, Vermont committed four turnovers and was scoreless on four shots, one that was high and the other three saved by freshman goalie Landon Whitney, who finished with nine saves.

“I think it was just picking up our effort,” said Piseno, who had seven ground balls. “We were doing everything right the whole game. It was just us coming down to outhustling them and really trusting what we were doing on the D-end and throughout the whole week of practice.”

The Great Danes used their ride to fluster the Catamounts (3-6, 1-1), who committed 20 turnovers.

Vermont goalie George Egan (16 saves) threw the ball out of bounds against UAlbany’s ride with 6:34 to play. That turnover led to UAlbany sophomore Silas Richmond’s insurance goal just four seconds later off Piseno’s assist for a 13-11 advantage.

“I thought our ride was excellent,” Marr said. “We forced them into probably four or five turnovers. They threw it out of bounds a couple of times, long. We just forced them into tough situations. … We make teams work to clear the ball, work to get the ball to the other end. That just chews up time and it’s exhausting for teams