Towson coach Tony Seaman still is searching for answers for his men?s lacrosse team?s struggles.
“It?s so frustrating,” he said. “When you are losing you can?t give things away. If they earn them fine, but boy, when they don?t earn them and you give them to them, it just can?t happen.”
Seaman has to find a way to get his team back on track today at noon when the Tigers host defending Colonial Athletic Association champion Delaware in front of a national television audience on ESPNU.
The Tigers (2-6, 1-1) started the season with high expectations, ranked as high as 14th in some polls. But the Tigers stumbled out of the gate with a 13-8 loss to 20th-ranked Loyola and lost four of their next five. Towson appeared to turn things around with a 9-8 league win at Robert Morris last week, but played its worst game of the season against UMBC on Tuesday.
The 12th-ranked Retrievers forced the Tigers into countless mistakes, including 19 turnovers, eight missed clears, a scoreless streak lasting more than 31 minutes and a season-low six goals in a game not nearly as close as the score indicated.
But as hard as it was to take positives away from the defeat, there were several bright spots.
Senior attacker Jonathan Engelke and senior midfielder Brian Vetter each had a goal and an assist and senior goalie Billy Sadtler made a career-high 13 saves.
Sadtler appears to have secured the goaltending job full-time from classmate Matt Antol, playing all 60 minutes against UMBC, despite posting a 46.9 save percentage and an 11.75 goals-against average.
“I am feeling pretty good and feel like I have seen the ball as well as I have been since I got here,” Sadtler said. “The first couple games I was putting a lot of pressure on myself, but I am feeling a lot more relaxed, a lot more confident now.”
The Tigers must play one of their best games of the season if they are going to come away with a win over Delaware (7-3, 1-0), which advanced to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament last spring. Delaware split a pair of games with Towson last year, but beat the Tigers when it mattered, coming away with a 10-7 win at Unitas Stadium in the CAA championship game.
The Blue Hens are led by sophomore attacker Curtis Dickinson who leads the conference with 41 points on 31 goals and 10 assists. Senior attacker Cam Howard leads the league with 18 assists and freshman midfielder Anthony Ruiz leads the CAA in ground balls per game (5.2) and has won 56.6 percent of his faceoffs.
“It?s frustrating to keep losing,” Sadtler said. “It?s tough playing this sport against good competition every week, you have to stay mentally sharp and physically sharp for 60 minutes straight. It?s not like we aren?t working hard ? we are working our butts off.”
