The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Yale lacrosse advances to NCAA tourney quarterfinals
Bulldogs advance to NCAA quarterfinals for first time since 2013
NEW HAVEN — In the moments after Yale’s NCAA tournament victory over UMass on Saturday, snapping a streak of three straight opening-round losses for the Bulldogs, a reporter asked how it felt to finally get over the hump.
Senior defender Jerry O’Connor tapped classmate Ben Reeves on the elbow and asked if he’d handle the query.
“It feels good,” Reeves said. Yale coach Andy Shay, seated next to his players in an interview room, smirked. It’s a topic broached often by media the past few seasons.
“We don’t talk about that,” Shay said. “It’s the past.”
Indeed, the Bulldogs won’t need to address their recent tournament struggles any longer. By virtue of their 15-13 victory over the Minutemen on a soggy and gray Reese Stadium, Yale is on to the national quarterfinals for the first time since 2013.
The Bulldogs face the winner of Saturday’s Virginia-Loyola (Md.) game next Saturday at Hofstra for a spot in the semifinals the following weekend at Gillette Stadium.
Yale’s senior class had been part of difficult losses each of the past three seasons. As freshmen they dropped a one-goal game at Maryland. In 2016, their first NCAA tournament home game in 26 years, they were upset by Navy. And last season it was another one-goal loss at Syracuse.
As the third overall seed in the tournament, Yale was considered a heavy favorite. But UMass (12-5) entered on a national-best 11-game win streak. The Bulldogs were coming off their worst performance of the season in a loss to Cornell in the Ivy League final last Sunday.
Part of the issue last weekend was a lack of scoring depth. Reeves, who’ll soon earn AllAmerica honors for the third time, scored five goals against the Big Red. The rest of the team had three.
The need for proven offensive weapons to step up was addressed last week at practice. Sophomore Jackson Morrill heeded the call with seven goals against UMass. Reeves added two goals and four assists to raise his season point total to 96. Others rose to the occasion, too.
“Ben challenged me personally,” Morrill said. “He wanted more out of me personally. And
the coaches definitely wanted more out of the other guys. We have a lot of good, talented players. When they’re at their best, we’re tough to stop. That’s what we needed. Guys like Lucas Cotler, Matt Gaudet, Brendan Rooney coming in and scoring a goal. That’s the kind of stuff we need that we were missing last week. It was up to us as a whole offense to look at each other and say we need to do more. We can’t just let this season pass by as it has the past couple of years.”
UMass kept things tight in the first half with a physical, aggressive style. It trailed 4-3 after the first quarter and 6-5 at halftime.
Yale came to life in the third quarter, scoring six of the first seven goals to open a 12-6 advantage. Morrill, the team’s second-leading scorer, had three goals in the first half and three more in the third to pass his career high of five in a single game. His seventh came early in the fourth quarter to make the score 14-7.
But the Minutemen made a late charge, rolling off six of the game’s final seven goals to keep it close. Yale was able to effectively kill time, including a pair of late penalties, to keep UMass at bay.
“I was proud of my guys for grinding out a win,” Shay said. “We had a good lead. UMass didn’t go away. I knew they wouldn’t. Our guys were tight with details and fought through adversity.”