Maybe the extra week off will be an added benefit to the University of Maryland-Baltimore County men?s lacrosse team.
With its scheduled game against Butler canceled last week after the school eliminated its program, UMBC had to wait until today to play against actual competition. With the warmer weather melting the ice and snow around UMBC Stadium, Retrievers coach Don Zimmerman feels his team is ready to open its season against Brown.
Butler?s announcement, Zimmerman said, came too late for UMBC, the defending America East Conference champion, to schedule another game or scrimmage, something he would have liked to do with 21 new players on a 46-man roster.
“The Butler game was scheduled at a time when we normally would have had a scrimmage, so it didn?t hurt our preparation too much,” Zimmerman said. “But it would have been nice to have some of our younger players get the chance to play against another team and get some different looks out on the field.”
While UMBC is going after its second straight NCAA tournament bid, Brown is just trying to become a competitive program once again. The Ivy League school went 2-11 last year, including 0-6 in conference play, leading to the hiring of new coach Lars Tiffany, a 1990 Brown graduate who spent the last two seasons at Stony Brook.
Tiffany said he looks forward to the challenge of rebuilding his alma mater, but he knows it won?t be an easy task. He is also very familiar with the Retrievers since Stony Brook is also a member of the America East.
“The more I have competed against UMBC, the more respect I have for the program and for the coaching abilities of Don Zimmerman,” Tiffany said. “Bringing Brown lacrosse back to the position it once held, and one I was a part of, is something I?m very excited about. But it?s a long process, and it is going to take some time and major overhauling to our recruiting.”
Tiffany plans to lean heavily on his senior tri-captains ? attack David Maderia, midfielder Alex Buckley and defenseman Bobby Shields ? in his initial season with the Bears. Maderia has played in 39 straight games and scored a team-high 21 goals last year, while Buckley netted 11 goals and had four assists.
