The Ohio State men’s lacrosse team will head into a marquee matchup with Hobart College this weekend in Geneva, N.Y. Both teams are competing for a spot in the Eastern College Athletic Conference Tournament at the end of the season.
The tournament begins May 5 in Denver.
With an 4-6 record overall, and 2-1 in the conference, the Buckeyes need to win out to have the best chances of being selected in the ECAC post-season.
The ECAC bases its selection process on a team’s overall divisional winning percentage, head-to-head results against other declared teams, results against common opponents, and strength of schedule.
The Buckeyes find themselves on the outside looking in with four games left in the season.
The ECAC will make their tournament selections May 7.
Leading goal-scorer Logan Schuss, junior in the attack position, was confident his team will be competing come tournament time.
“Well, when we make it,” said Schuss. “I feel like we match up great with everyone, it’s going to be a tight race until the end.”
Schuss has recorded either a goal or an assist in 40 consecutive games this season, making him a threat from the attack position.
“Hopefully we can see that keep coming,” said Schuss. “It shows how we move our offense and guys are looking for me, and I’ll just have to keep working on finding guys myself, but it’s an overall team effort right now.”
The Buckeyes started the season with three straight wins, which included an early conference victory over No. 5 University of Denver, 10-9.
Things are different at this point in the season. Due to a midseason slump which consisted of five straight losses, the Buckeyes now find themselves with an “every-game-matters” mentality.
Coach Nick Myers was not hesitant to show that he was not happy with the overall record, but knows his team has what it takes to enter the tournament.
“We feel like we haven’t played our best yet,” Myers said. “We’ve obviously played some quality teams, we’re battle-tested, and we’re in a very competitive conference. We’ve got everything to play for in front of us. We understand that.”
The team has been able to find positives in some of their losses.
On the defensive side of the ball the squad is ranked No. 7 in team defense in the NCAA, holding opponents to only 7.5 goals a game.
The team is planning on playing more disciplined lacrosse and understands that every week is going to be a grind, said senior defensemen Matt Kawamoto.
Kawamoto was named a finalist for the Lowe’s Senior CLASS award on April 4. The award acknowledges seniors who have notable achievements in community, classroom, character and competition.
“It’s definitely been a good season. We’ve had our ups and downs,” Kawamoto said. “We’ve been playing every team very tough this year. It’s been tough to lose a bunch of close games. The team is still very hungry to go get it.”
The Buckeyes will travel to Ann Arbor to face the Wolverines on April 14 and then finish their regular season with matchups against Air Force on April 21 and Fairfield University on April 28.
