Danes drop their 6th straight against Vermont
UAlbany can’t stay close despite the Danes holding a 13-8 margin on faceoffs
The University at Albany men’s lacrosse team talked a big game about wanting to get back at the University of Vermont for five consecutive losses to the Catamounts.
Then the match began Saturday and it was more of the same for the Great Danes, who lost 14-6 on another rainy day in front of 1,682 fans at Casey Stadium.
“Full moon, man,” UAlbany coach Scott Marr said. “I don’t know what happened to our energy today. We were so excited to play this game and I don’t know if we got ourselves too overexcited or what. But like I said, we just didn’t have it early in the game and it cost us.”
The Great Danes fell behind 6-1 in the first period and 10-4 at halftime on its way to a sixth straight defeat to the first-place Catamounts, who beat UAlbany in last year’s America East championship game and the 2019 conference semifinals.
“Got our number,” Marr said. “Just can’t figure these guys out. Six in a row.”
UAlbany fell to 4-7 overall, 2-3 in the America East. The Great Danes play at winless NJIT (0-10) on Friday in their final regular-season league game with a chance to lock up one of
the four berths in the America East Tournament, held on May 5 and May 7.
“Have to win,” Marr said. “It’s a must-win. If we don’t win, we’re not in.”
Even if the Great Danes qualify for the conference tournament, they’ll likely face three teams — Vermont, Binghamton, and Maryland-Baltimore County — which have beaten UAlbany by a combined margin of 25 goals this season.
“The UMBC game was just a throwaway, within two days of (beating) Syracuse,” Marr said. “And Binghamton was before we made a switch defensively to what we’re doing. So we’ve been playing really well defensively over the last three or four
games, aside from the UMBC game … Just disappointed we didn’t show up today.”
Vermont scored repeatedly with players cutting to the goal for point-blank shots on UAlbany goalkeeper Will Ramos, who made seven saves.
“Absolutely, we did not communicate well early in the game defensively,” Marr said. “We did not execute our game plan and it cost us. We did not play solidly on the defensive end and it’s disappointing. I thought we played better in the second half. I thought the zone helped us, too, in the fourth quarter, but you can’t give up layups to a team that has the ability to score from anywhere on the field but certainly right in front of the goal.”
UAlbany didn’t make defenseman and co-captain Tanner Hay, who was
requested, available for a postgame interview.
Thomas McConvey had four goals to lead Vermont (7-6, 4-0) and goalie Ryan Cornell made 13 saves.
One bright spot for UAlbany was faceoff specialist Regan Endres, who won 13-of-21 faceoffs against Vermont’s Tommy Burke, one of the country’s best at his position.
“We’ve been studying them,” Marr said. “I thought our wings did a great job of helping. Regan won some outright. I mean, (13-of-21), if you’d told me that before the game, I would have said we’re in good position to win this game.”
UAlbany’s Teioshonta McComber had two goals and an assist.