Towson men?s lacrosse coach Tony Seaman and women?s coach Missy Doherty guided their teams to their biggest victories of the season just when it appeared their chances of making the postseason were diminishing.
Doherty?s squad defeated Hofstra, 13-12, on Friday afternoon at Unitas Stadium before traveling to Drexel on Sunday and picking up an 11-10 victory. In between the women?s Colonial Athletic Association wins, Seaman?s team upset 18th-ranked Delaware, 10-7, to salvage its season and put it firmly back into the league?s race for an automatic berth in the 16-team NCAA Tournament.
“Those are great games for us and good lessons in both games,” Doherty said. “The first game we were trailing and rallied back to win, and the second game we had a lead and had to fight off a rallying team. We know that we can win in any situation.”
The women?s team is ranked 16th in the Inside Lacrosse Media Poll and is 9-3 on the season and 3-0 in the highly competitive CAA. The Tigers, led by All-American candidate Hillary Fratzke (37 goals, 20 assists), next play 12th-ranked George Mason (8-2, 1-1) on Friday night at 6 at Unitas Stadium.
Seaman?s squad seemed ready to collapse under the weight of a brutal that included losses to six ranked teams.
But on Saturday afternoon at Unitas Stadium, the Tigers (3-6, 2-1) served notice they were far from done. Towson rallied from a three-goal halftime deficit to stun defending conference champion Delaware (7-4, 1-1). The Blue Hens won the league title with the same score in the conference championship game at Towson last April en route to reaching the Final Four for the first time.
Towson was led by senior attacker Jonathan Engelke, who had three goals and four assists, and junior attacker Bill McCutcheon, who added four goals and an assist.
“When you have suffered through what we suffered through over the last five weeks, there is no medicine like a win,” Seaman said. “It was against a good team that was ranked and our rival and that made it even sweeter.”
Towson will try to maintain its momentum at Sacred Heart (6-3, 1-2) on Wednesday afternoon at 2.
“First lets win two games in a row, that would be huge,” he said. “So far this season our streak has been the wrong end of the stick.”
