Today's game against Loyola Marymount is not only the Cougars' first road game but it is their first real test of the season.
Loyola Marymount is ranked 15th in the nation (MCLA) and will give the Cougars a run for their money. You know a No. 6 v. No. 15 match-up in basketball would warrant the game prime time on ESPN, but because it is Lacrosse the hype isn't quite the same.
The ranking might be a good basis for us as fans to go off of, but we have to remember that these are just preseason rankings for the most part. Loyola's only win has come against San Diego State which was an expected win, just as the Cougars win over Boise St. was not a surprise. So neither of these teams have faced top competition this season which means the pollsters don't really know where they fit in.
While interviewing coach Schneck he was kind enough to discuss with me the flaws related to pre-season rankings. I mean take Oregon for example. They were no. 7 pre-season, right behind BYU. After their loss against Cal (who BYU plays on Saturday) they dropped completely out of the rankings from 7th to unranked in a week.
"I think that the preseason polls are just that, preseason. You never know who actually is going to be coming out onto the field," Schneck said.
Coach and I talked a lot about home field advantage in Lacrosse and how it will effect this team.
"I think the advantage to home field in lacrosse is two different things. Number one, typically home field advantage allows you to have practice on your playing field. What you practice on becomes an advantage for you. The second thing is understanding how to travel with your team. When you are waking up and you are playing at your home field you have a schedule that you follow [and] that you're used to. There is certainly an advantage because the home team doesn't have to worry about those things."
But he is confident that the team is a good travel team and they always have been. There are many reasons why the team travels.
"We want to play the best competition and traveling does that," Schneck said.
I am excited to see how attackman Ted Ferrin does this weekend. He lit up Boise St. with four goals and four assists and seems to be taking control of the Cougar offense as a junior. I talked with him on the phone in preparing my article for the Daily Universe so I thought I'd share a little about what he's thinking going into today.
"Both of them [LMU and Cal] have a good defensive unit. All three of the attackmen are prepared for them and regardless of who guards them we'll be prepared for it," Ferrin said.
When asked about the competition and what the team wanted to get out of the week this is how Ferrin responded.
"First and foremost we wanna come out with three good wins. Cal is coming off a really big win and has proven to be one of the better teams in our league this year. We'd like to come out and make a statement. BYU has always been good and we're going to continue to fight for that tradition and come out strong," Ferrin said.
Check out the match-up info on the MCLA website here at http://mcla.us/scores/games/9526/.
I am going to be posting a recap of the game as soon as I find out how it went down, so make sure to check back here frequently for updates on all your BYU Lacrosse needs. If you want something more from this blog just let me know!
No comments:
Post a Comment