Making Sense: How to Handle the Upset

by Jac Coyne | Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff | Coyne Archive | Twitter

Tyler Magann played a huge role in Dickinson's upset of No. 3 Roanoke by making 11 saves, but he, like the rest of the Red Devils, was composed at the end of the game. © James Rasp

How should a team handle its emotions when pulling an upset?

Should the players throw their sticks in the air, toss the helmets, and jump up and down in unison at midfield? Or should it jog out, tap their goalie on the helmet, and promptly line up for the postgame handshake?

There’s no code of conduct for dealing with the excitement of beating a higher-ranked opponent – nor should there be – but we got a glimpse of two different interpretations this weekend.

With a couple of seconds left in Dickinson’s stunning victory over No. 3 Roanoke in Salem, Va., Red Devils coach Dave Webster called a timeout. With his team about to pull off the biggest upset of this young season, Webster had to make the decision about whether to let the celebration happen organically or put the brakes on it.

“We talked about that right then and there,” said Webster. “We felt we were going to finish it off, but we wanted to keep things in perspective. We had some fun in the locker room, but we got real focused on the next thing at hand.”

For a team like Dickinson, which just improved to 6-0 and will likely jump into the Top 15 this week, there are higher aspirations. As such, you don’t want to pretend like you just won the lottery. The expression “Act like you’ve been there before,” is usually bandied about in that type situation.

Some teams that have been there before prefer to operate with a more exuberant outlook.

Colorado State’s upset of Arizona State wasn’t close to unranked Dickinson’s feat – the Rams were ranked No. 4, the Sun Devils No. 3 – but its reaction to the win is in stark contrast to Webster’s bunch. Even though CSU has four national championships (the most in the MCLA) and three runners-up finishes in the 13-year history of the association’s tournament, they aren’t afraid to bask in the glow of a big win.

“Business-like is a not a word we need to use at CSU for us to be successful,” said Alex Smith, the Rams first-year head coach. “We need to have some fun and treat every game like a championship game. When you’re playing a team like Arizona State, you should react like that. Whenever you get on top of team in the fourth quarter and put a team away in a game that was really emotional and hard-fought, there is definitely excitement. And I’m glad our players were excited.”

The contrast between the two team’s reactions can be understood through the differences of the men who lead them. Webster, 40, is a long-time member of the Centennial Conference, both as a player and coach. It’s a league of staid coaches who trend toward the understated and, perhaps, boring. They see themselves, first and foremost, as builders of men’s character, with Gettysburg's Hank Janczyk as the dean of the faculty.

Smith, 29, is the product of his mentor and long-time CSU skipper Flip Naumburg (who is now in the role of ‘co-coach’ with the Rams). I’ve witnessed firsthand Smith’s in-game editorializing to opposing players while he was an assistant with the Rams and that behavior is consistent with the brashness for which the CSU program has come to be known. Don’t be fooled: both Smith and Naumburg are proponents of teaching young men fundamental lessons, but they do it through an insular, team-first mentality that lends itself to an occasional rubbing of an opponent the wrong way.

“We can’t worry a lot about who we’re playing or what they’ve gone through,” said Smith. “We went through a lot, too. This team is starting to mature and really become a family.”

Webster’s version: “We’re certainly pleased and excited about the progress we’re making.”

Is there a ‘right’ way to handle a celebration in the wake of an upset? Yes, there is, and it is totally subjective.

If the Dickinsons of the world had their players whooping it up, partaking in flying chest-bumps and awkward boasts of greatness, it would seem forced. Likewise, if Colorado State reacted to a stunner with lawyerly handshakes and quiet meditation, it would be unnerving.

The bottom line is you have to be comfortable with how you celebrate, because once you a pull an upset it’s a pretty good bet that some team, somewhere is waiting to upset you.

So enjoy it while you can.

Game Balls
Sean Aaron, Goalie, Union
Oneonta made a big push late in the game to knock off Union, but it was Aaron who made the difference with 23 total saves. With the Dutchmen clinging to a 6-4 lead heading into the final frame, Aaron made six stops and blanked the Devils, allowing Union to snag the 8-4 triumph. After backing up for most of last year (20 saves total), Aaron is 3-1 this year.

Ethan Farrell, Middie, Lynchburg
Lynchburg’s contest with Stevens was a swing game in the Hornets’ season. They were either going to win and start a tournament push, or they were going to lose and likely play out the string. Farrell made sure it was the former with three goals and three assists to lead LC to the 16-10 win over the Ducks. The senior scored his three goals on just four shots.

Trevor Howard, Middie, Texas
The frosh scored three goals and dished out two assists, helping the No. 15 Longhorns rout No. 6 Florida State, 20-11. Howard’s play allowed Texas to explode for 13 goals in the second half against the ‘Noles, which had a previous game-high of goals allowed of 13 against No. 2 Chapman.

Cooper Kehoe, Attack, Colorado State
Kehoe makes one of the rare moves from the Weekend Watch’s Pressure Zone to Making Sense’s Game Balls. The Rams needed Kehoe to be effective as well as not triggering the deadly ASU transition game with bad turnovers and poor shot selection. The junior delivered, scoring four goals and setting up three others, helping No. 4 CSU pull the mild upset over the No. 3 Sun Devils on the road.

Tyler Magann, Goalie, Dickinson
I asked Red Devil head coach Dave Webster who he thought his player of the game was and he fingered Magann. Getting his first opportunity to start for Dickinson in his senior year, Magann made 11 saves to spur the upset of No. 3 Roanoke, 7-6. For the season, Magann is now 6-0 with a 63.8 save percentage and 5.91 GAA. We’ll see how the season plays out, but those are All-American numbers.

Will McCormick, Attack, Dayton
In one of the more impressive team performances, No. 4 Dayton defeated No. 2 Davenport and No. 5 St. John’s on back-to-back days, helped by the freshman’s six markers. McCormick scored a pair of goals in the Flyers one-goal win over Davenport and followed that up with four scores against the Johnnies in a 14-8 triumph.

Kaileen Spadaro, Attack, Mount St. Mary
The rookie could be in for quite a career. In the first game in the Blue Knight’s history, Spadaro scored 10 goals and assisted on three others to help Mt. St. Mary (the D-III school in New York) outlast Cazenovia, 17-15. Spadaro scored six of MSM’s final eight goals, helping to rally from a 10-9 deficit.

Adam Tracy, Attack, Bowdoin
With the Polar Bears looking for their first win at Wesleyan since 2000 (seven total games), Tracy scored a goal and assisted on six others, helping No. 19 Bowdoin knock off No. 11 Wesleyan. The Cardinals raced out to a 3-0 advantage to start the game, but Tracy set up three consecutive goals to tie the game and then potted his own, giving the Polar Bears a 4-3 lead it would never relinquish. The senior had 12 total assists in 16 games in 2009.

Kelly Trapp, Attack, Amherst
Trapp assisted on the first five goals of the game for Amherst and then scored the sixth and seventh, helping the Lady Jeffs bump No. 9 Tufts in the season opener for both teams. Trapp dished out an assist later in the game to complete the eight-point performance.

Games on Tap
No. 17 WNEC (2-2) vs. No. 19 Bowdoin (1-0), 8 p.m. CT (at Dallas, Texas), Monday
No. 19 Bowdoin (1-0) at No. 16 Nazareth (2-1), 2 p.m., (at Dallas, Texas), Wednesday
When Bowdoin coach Tom McCabe contemplated playing No. 11 Wesleyan on Saturday, No. 17 WNEC on Monday and No. 16 Nazareth on Wednesday – three ranked games in five days – he was pretty honest. “I’m not sure how smart a scheduling job I did,” he said, laughing softly. On the bright side, if he can split in Texas after beating Wesleyan on the road, the Polar Bears will be a team to be feared.

No. 5 Minnesota-Duluth (5-0) at No. 3 Arizona State (3-2), 7 p.m. MT, Monday
The Sun Devils have been exposed in their last two games, but this is a chance to regain a little momentum by knocking off a Top 5 team. Duluth has played only one ranked opponent so far – a 13-6 win over No. 24 Lindenwood – and haven’t played a game in 16 days. And, according to their Twitter account, the Bulldogs had a hellish plane flight, arriving in Phoenix at 1 a.m. on Sunday. If Arizona State doesn’t win this game, losing it’s third-straight game at home, we’ll have to evaluate whether the Sun Devils are contenders or just potential spoilers.

W: Buffalo State (1-0) at Niagara (0-2), 4 p.m., Monday
The Bengals beat Division I Niagara last year and they’ll be favorites to accomplish the feat, again. Sophomore Karen Shaddock had two goals and six assists in 2009 against Niagara and has already started this season with a hat trick against RIT over the weekend. The Purple Eagles are 0-2 after losing to Albany, 24-2 and St. Francis, 13-10.

McDaniel (2-3) at Colorado College (2-0), 3 p.m. MT, Tuesday
This isn’t a real sexy game, but I’m intrigued by this Colorado College team. The Tigers obliterated two D-II teams to start the season, but the only notable victory was the win over MCLA No. 4 Colorado State, 12-7. It’s actually a pretty impressive result, regardless of your bias. So here comes McDaniel, the only team from an AQ conference Colorado College will face this season. The Green Terror lost to Salisbury, 12-6, so in theory they should be a good indicator about what Guy Van Arsdale is up to.

Endicott (1-2) at Colby (0-1), 7 p.m., Tuesday
The Gulls offense has been anemic in the last two games – six goals against Stevens, three against Springfield – and it won’t get any easier playing against Colby. Endicott can kiss any at-large chances good bye if they lose this one, so Jamie Quirk’s charges should be amped up. Colby lost in its opener to Williams, 7-6, and this will be another indicator of how good the White Mule attack will be this year.

No. 1 Gettysburg (6-0) at No. 18 Cabrini (3-2), 3:30 p.m., Wednesday
I wasn’t going to include this one originally, but since Haverford managed to stay within a goal of Gettysburg and Cabrini only lost by a goal to the Black Squirrels, we’ll put this one on the docket. Yes, I know there is no transitive property in lacrosse, but let’s keep our fingers crossed for a good game. Plus, I want to see how Casey Grugan handles the Bullet treatment. These are the kinds of games that Players of the Year can be won, regardless of the outcome.

No. 13 Stevens (4-1) at No. 2 Stevenson (5-0), 4 p.m., Wednesday
The shine came off this game when Lynchburg beat up the Ducks over the weekend, but this will still be a test for the No. 2 Mustangs because Stevens goalie Dave Decker has the potential to change a game. It’s a good bet that Stevens will try to slow this thing down to a crawl, testing the discipline of this Stevenson squad.

W: No. 15 Cortland (0-0) at No. 16 Washington & Lee (4-2), 4:30 p.m., Wednesday
This is a tasty interregional game. I consider the Red Dragons and Generals at about the same level – just off the top tier, kind of like a I-AA – so this one will be worth the stop in Lex Vegas if you’re the neighborhood. This game will be more of a referendum on Cortland than W&L, as this will be the season opener for the Red Dragons while the Gennies have been playing for the better part of a month. A Cortland win would be very impressive.

W: Endicott (2-0) at No. 13 Trinity (1-0), 5 p.m., Wednesday
On the strength of their win over soon-to-be former No. 8 Babson, Endicott will be in the rankings this week and the Bantams would do well not to take the Gulls lightly. The temptation is to chalk up the win over Babson as a fluke and treat Endicott as a Commonwealth Coast charlatan, but this team can play with anybody.

The Power Fives
Men's Division III
1. Gettysburg (6-0) – Two weeks until Bullets versus Sea Gulls.
2. Stevenson (5-0) – It’s too bad Roanoke tanked, ruining the March 27 game.
3. Salisbury (6-0) – The Gulls dispatch Cortland from Power Five land for now.
4. Geneseo (3-0) – NESCACs don’t have enough results, so Blue Knights sneak in.
5. Dickinson (6-0) – That’s right. If Salisbury had the Devils’ schedule, they’d be Top 5.

Women's Division III
1. Franklin & Marshall (3-0) – Saturday, 1 p.m.: F&M at Salisbury. That is all.
2. Salisbury (7-0) – See above.
3. Gettysburg (5-0) – Bullets barely beat Kate Robinson-less Catholic in overtime.
4. TCNJ (1-0) – Win over St. Mary’s was as expected.
5. Hamilton (0-0) – Continentals open up with Oneonta and Bowdoin back-to-back.

MCLA Division I
1. Michigan (5-0) – Watch out! Wolverines are 1-0 in the CCLA.
2. Chapman (7-0) – Chapman-Michigan III is looking more and more inevitable.
3. Colorado State (6-0) – Will finally play an unranked team on Tuesday.
4. Minnesota-Duluth (5-0) – The 16-day hiatus could hurt them in the desert.
5. Michigan State (3-1) – We’ll see if Sparty can ride UM’s coattails against Oregon.

MCLA Division II
1. St. Thomas (1-0) – Don’t worry about the Tommies peaking early. They don’t play early.
2. Dayton (4-0) – The Flyers rewarded me for keeping faith in them at No. 2.
3. Davenport (6-1) – Panthers actually move up a spot with UVU’s fall from grace.
4. Westminster (5-2) – The Griffins have lost in double overtime and to BYU. Not bad.
5. Utah Valley (3-2) – The Wolverines hold on by a hair. A Grove City win and UVU is gone.

Slides & Rides
MD3 Notes
What did Dave Webster say to his Dickinson players in between the third and fourth quarters with the Red Devils trailing 5-1, to Roanoke? “In each of the first five games we had quarters when we’ve been pretty explosive and we hadn’t had one of those quarters, so we talked about how now was the time,” said Webster. “We wanted to get on a roll and start playing with a little more urgency. Attacking the goal more aggressively and getting the good shots. No panic, a lot of poise and the guys just executed.” Sounds good to me. Dickinson outscored the Maroons, 6-1, in the final frame.

- One nugget I left out of my story on Bowdoin goalie Jake McCampbell in Friday’s Weekend Watch was that he suffered a torn tendon in his left thumb on Wednesday. When I spoke with him on Thursday, he had just returned from the hospital, where a large cast had been put on his left hand. He had to cut up a glove to make the cast fit. “If it was on my right hand, I probably wouldn’t be able to play,” said McCampbell. “But since it’s on my bottom hand, I can go.” Go he did, making 13 saves and helping the Polar Bears post their first victory at Wesleyan since 2000.

- Something for the NESCACers to chew on: “The Centennial is deepest conference, top to bottom, in the country,” said Dickinson coach Dave Webster. After the Red Devils knocked off No. 3 Roanoke and Franklin & Marshall bounced No. 8 Washington & Lee, combined with Gettysburg and Haverford, it’s tough to argue with him right now.

- It’s probably a vestige of my time working in the ODAC, but I like having a competitive Hampden-Sydney in my world. Fortunately, the Tigers have shown some signs of life this spring. They are currently 4-2 after downing Elizabethtown, running their win streak to three games. Sydney is still a second tier program, but it beats last year when it was completely off the grid with an 8-9 record. Ray Rostan’s next test is a doozy: they host a humbled Roanoke this Saturday.

- You probably think you can’t take much from Tufts’ 18-8 beat-down of Amherst on Saturday, and you’d be wrong. The fact that D.J. Hessler, a Player of the Year candidate, finished with a two points (1g, 1a) and the Jumbos still wiped of the Lord Jeffs should concern the rest of the league. Six different players scored two goals and the 18 goals were scored by 12 different players. Is Amherst good? Not really, but Tufts was clinical in its victory, which is always the hallmark of a dangerous team.

- St. Lawrence upsets Haverford to start the season, needs two overtimes to beat Whittier, and then loses in overtime to Drew in California. This is reason No. 437 why I wouldn’t want to be a coach. I couldn’t handle those kinds of emotional swings…keep Jamie Steele on your coach of the year radar. He took over as the interim head coach last year when Ursinus was a mess and has led the Bears to a 4-0 start to the season. Not to put the jinx on, but Ursinus could realistically be 9-0 heading into the April 7 game against Haverford…the Cardinals are in the win column. Otterbein posted the first win in the history of the program by bouncing Hendrix (Ark.) on Sunday, 11-5.

WD3 Notes
- In the first six years of the NCAA Division III women’s tournament – from 1985 to 1990 – TCNJ won three championship and appeared in two other title games. During that same period, there was another school that had three crowns and two runners-up finishes. Do you know what that school was? Time’s up. It was Ursinus. The Bears made one last appearance in the championship game in 1991 (another loss to…you guessed it…TCNJ), but it has been relatively quiet times for Ursinus since then. Don’t look now, but the Bears are 3-1 this year after knocking off Roanoke on Friday, 13-12. Ursinus trailed by three with three minutes remaining, but managed to rally for the win. If the Bears can beat Cabrini in their next game, it will set up a clash with…wait for it…TCNJ.

- Last March, I mentioned in a story how Middlebury head coach Missy Foote is a match-maker for her former players. "The joke is: if you need a spouse, come work for me," laughed Foote at the time. That joke isn’t quite as funny now. One of the couples Foote set up was her former player Heidi Howard – who was an assistant for the Panthers last year – and Bates women’s head coach Brett Allen. Since they married last December, Heidi has joined the Bobcats staff. Using some of the knowledge she gained from working with Missy, Bates upended No. 6 Middlebury on Saturday, 11-9, in Vermont. The Allens shouldn’t hold their breath for an anniversary card from Foote now.

- Leigh Mitchell, the TCNJ player who regained her sophomore year after blowing out her knee last year, didn’t show much rust in her first game back with the Lions. She scored a goal 36 seconds into the TCNJ’s 16-6 victory over St. Mary’s, finishing with a hat trick and four assists. Mitchell’s seven-point debut was overshadowed by the eight-goal, three-assist performance by classmate Ali Jaeger.

- Congrats to Occidental and head coach Michele Uhlfelder for picking up the program’s first victory against Carthage…break up the Dutchwomen. Lebanon Valley has started its inaugural season with a 2-1 record…Union finally picked up its first win of the season by dropping St. John Fisher to 0-3. It’s going to be tough for Fisher to grab an at-large at this point. They better concentrate on snagging that Empire 8 AQ…Claremont is out to a 5-0 start to the season, but faces a 5-1 Stevenson team in West Palm Beach on Monday. A game against Babson follows three days later.

MCLA Notes
- I asked Alex Smith, the Colorado State coach, what was the difference between last year and the 2010 campaign. “We’re not making as many stupid mistakes,” said Smith. “We were really young and reliant on a few players to do a lot of stuff for us. Those players are still here, but we aren’t making the mistakes that caused us to lose. The games against Chapman and Michigan last year when we weren’t even competitive we were throwing the ball away and weren’t able to clear. The team has really taken a lot of pride in the little things.”

- In the three-way weekend series between Dayton, Davenport and St. John’s, I thought Dayton had the toughest road to follow. As it turns out, it didn’t matter. The Flyers completed a tournament-quality back-to-back sweep that leaves them as the unquestioned No. 2 in the country. The win over Davenport came with 0.7 seconds left in the contest, but a win is a win. The 14-8 triumph over St. John’s was far more convincing. I think Davenport is a solid No. 3, and the Top 3 are a likely bet to fill out three of the four semifinals spots in Denver. Who will be the fourth? After Utah Valley’s loss to Westminster, there are all sorts of contenders, including St. John’s, Grand Valley and Western Washington.

- Florida State can spin it any way they want, but Saturday’s loss to Texas should be extremely troubling to the ‘Noles. It’s one thing to post solid wins here and there during the season, but if a team can’t defeat a Top 10-15 squad the day after a relatively tough game you might want to check with the Denver Chamber of Commerce for weekend activities. I don’t want to be the bring-down for Texas after a nice win, but no one really considers the Longhorns title contenders (or at least anyone I know). The same can’t be said for FSU. I’m starting to wonder if maybe Florida isn’t the better team.

- I won’t beat this horse much more because it’s not really that fun, but Simon Fraser was swept again this weekend, dropping them to 0-4 against MCLA D-I opponents. They probably won’t be out of the rankings, however; they'll likely be in the 18-25 range. I like the Fraser staff – I officiated high school games with SFU’s current equipment manager Nate Hoskins, younger brother of co-head coach Brent Hoskins, when I lived in Idaho and he was a student at Boise State – and I'd like to see them do well. But, unfortunately, the Clan stink. So I’m not going to talk about them again in hopes they’ll break out of their funk. Starting….now.

- Pittsburgh has to be uneasy about playing Davenport this Saturday. If the Panthers lose to the, um, Panthers, that will make Pitt 1-2 against D-II opponents this year…Buffalo put together a nice start to the season, even managing to crack into the poll with its 6-0 record. Unfortunately, the Bulls have to take a month off until their next game. Buffalo beat West Virginia on Sunday, but won’t face Boston College until April 10…I’m an unabashed University of Iowa supporter – both my wife and I picked up our graduate degrees in Iowa City. As such, it’s nice to see the Hawkeyes out to an undefeated season with the leading scorer in the country. The schedule? Awful. But 5-0 is 5-0, right?...want to know the biggest upset in MCLA Division I this year? It’s two PCLL teams in the Top 25…kind of a tumble for Tennessee Wesleyan after the story I wrote. Both Clemson and SCAD smoked the Bulldogs this past week. TWC is still sitting pretty for a solid seed in the SELC tourney.