No. 4 BYU lacrosse sweeps California road trip

This article was published in The Daily Universe on the 23rd of February, 2011. 

Three road wins in four days, including two over top-20 opponents in California, brought the lacrosse team back to Provo with a perfect 4-0 record.

On Friday, the Cougars handled No. 15 Loyola Marymount University 16-10. The next day BYU ran over the No. 19 Cal Bears, 15-6, then finished the weekend trip with a 15-1 win against Claremont on Monday.

According to captain Ted Ferrin, this is the first time the Cougars have come back undefeated from California since he’s been at BYU.

For Ferrin, the highlight of the weekend was the win against California on Saturday. The field was wet and sloppy and the rain kept coming but the Cougar defense led a staunch team effort to fuel the victory.

“Cal was the best game,” Ferrin said. “That was the game that defensively [the team] just played awesome.”

Coach Matt Schneck agreed.

“[The Bears] were definitely the toughest team of the three teams we played, and we executed extremely well,” Schneck said. “It was a rainy, muddy, sloppy field and we still did what we needed to do to execute.”

BYU has scored at least 15 points in every game this season, showcasing its offensive prowess. The offense for the Cougars has improved this season under the leadership of Ferrin, who scored 10 goals over the weekend and added 12 assists. Ferrin leads the MCLA in assists-per-game with four.

However, Ferrin insists the key to the offense isn’t him, it’s unselfish play from the whole team.

“Last year we had just as much talent as we have this year, but this year the one thing that really stands out is unselfishness,” Ferrin said. “When we pass it around like crazy it’s really hard for the defense to communicate enough to guard us. Everyone on the team decided that they didn’t care about their statistics. We had so many times this weekend where a player made the extra pass.”

Another top-10 match will take place this week as No. 4 BYU takes on No. 10 Simon Fraser Saturday at 5 p.m. on the intermural north field.

Photos courtesy of William Nixon

BYU hands it to LMU; wins 16-10

BYU (No. 6) beat Loyola Marymount (No. 15) 16-10 yesterday in a rainy and wet match in Los Angeles.


The weather might have been sloppy but the Cougars definitely were not. They showed their strength and came out on top of a tough LMU team. 


"LMU is definitely a good team with good coaching and some talented players. I think they're going to have a good season. I think that we just had a really good game yesterday. It's the type of game that you hope you can have every time you play," Schneck said. 

The Cougars didn't wait to jump ahead with a 5-1 first quarter. They added two more scores in the second as LMU adjusted their defense. It was just too hard to stop all of BYU's scoring threats with seven of eight first half goals coming from different players. 


In the third BYU scored seven goals (almost matching their first half total) and took a 15-4 lead to put LMU away before heading into the fourth with their second team. 


The second team allowed a six goal run in the fourth and scored once to move the final score to 16-10. 


"Going into the fourth quarter we had a 15-4 lead. [The first team] had done everything we asked them to do. Offense was doing great, defense was doing great and face-offs were great. As a coaching staff we took that opportunity to get some of the younger guys an opportunity to play in the 4th," Schneck said. 


He said it wasn't fair to the younger players to have to go in cold and wet after sitting on the sidelines for three quarters, but that is the nature of the game. He was glad to have them tested in a realistic game-time situation. 


"We have to get to the point where we can feel confident playing that younger group of guys so that we can use them in important and critical times of games," Schneck said. 


11 different players scored for the Cougars. The stats have yet to be released for the game. 


They play Cal today in what promises to be a very difficult game in another rainy and wet situation. 


"We expect that the game against Cal is going to be an even tougher game than yesterday, based on what Cal has done against other teams," Schneck said. 


Cal beat a strong Oregon team earlier in the season (Oregon was No. 7) and has proved that they are a legitimate contender in the MCLA this year. 

"We are fully expecting that this is going to be a fight today, it's going to be a very tough game," Schneck said. 

Rugby men sweep weekend trip in southern California

This article was published in the BYU Daily Universe on January 24th, 2011

The BYU men’s rugby team began the season 3-0 with a convincing sweep of three Southern California opponents this weekend.

The Cougars rolled to two victories, beating Division II champion Claremont Colleges 86-0 and league rival San Diego State University 69-0.

The second team also got a chance to represent BYU in a 25-10 win against the University of San Diego, leaving the record a perfect 3-0 to start the season.
With impressive showings from veteran players and freshmen, team captain Ryan Roundy said the team came together this weekend.

“Everyone’s buying into the program,” Roundy said. “Everyone’s buying into the system.”

The four-day trip allowed the team to integrate its new freshmen into the mix.
Freshman twins Josh Whippey and Jared Whippey, from Fiji, combined for nine of BYU’s 30 trys over the weekend. At one point in the victory against SDSU on Saturday, Jared scored three trys in a row in 11 minutes. Josh had a similar showing against Claremont Colleges on Thursday with four first half trys.

When asked about his big trys against rival SDSU, Jared responded humbly.

“It was a good team effort,” Jared said. “I didn’t think too much about it. As long as we were getting points, I was happy.”

BYU has played SDSU tight in its past few meetings, with a come-from-behind victory in the final four of their 2009 championship run and a 36-22 hard-fought battle last year in Provo. This year, the Cougars had their number in a much more convincing fashion.

Vice captain Dylan Lubbe had nothing but positive things to say about the win.
“We are very proud of the weekend; we wanted to win three games,” Lubbe said. “I think the boys have got a confidence boost from the weekend. We want to prepare for each game as it comes and keep the wins coming.”

BYU will take a few weeks off to prepare for its next test, which will be a road trip to Las Vegas on Feb. 11 and 12 to battle two more league opponents, Cal Poly and Penn State.

Men’s rugby begins season today in Southern California

This article was published in the BYU Daily Universe on January 18th, 2011

The BYU men’s rugby team begins its season today with a series of tough games in southern California.

The team looks to make it to the national championship game this year for the sixth season in a row. But this year they will have to do it with a different cast of players.

The team returns all four of its first-team All-Americans this season, including captain Ryan Roundy, a junior from Holladay, and vice-captain Dylan Lubbe, a junior from South Africa. But the real question this year concerns the 10 new recruits.

Roundy said the recruits seem to be fitting in quite nicely.

“We’ve been very impressed by all of the good recruits,” he said. “They’re already on-the-field leaders, they’re not normal freshmen. ”

This weekend, the team is hoping to find out where they are and how far they have to go this season to reach their goals, Lubbe said. The team has trained hard during the fall semester and after winter break put in even more hours.

David Smyth, head coach of BYU rugby for 20 years, echoed Lubbe’s sentiments and said he looks “to build a good solid foundation to springboard to the rest of the season.”

Even with the talented recruits and returning All-Americans, Lubbe said the the team is taking a humble approach into the season.

“We’re not predicting anything, but we obviously have some high expectations for the team,” Lubbe said. “We just want to stay on track and do our best.”

Today BYU’s first team will take on Claremont College in Claremont, Calif., for its first game of the season, and the first match ever between the two programs. Claremont boasts a strong team after winning the Division II national championship last year against Temple, and will be looking to start its season with a win. The game will start at 5 p.m.

On Saturday the Cougars will travel to San Diego for a 3 p.m. game against San Diego State, whom BYU beat in 2009 in the semifinals and last year in Provo.

BYU’s second team will also get a chance to play the University of San Diego on Friday and the San Diego State second team on Saturday.