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.