Liberty lacrosse host four team tournament
Liberty men’s lacrosse goes 2-1 against the the competition of this past weekend
Liberty hosted a men’s lacrosse tournament against Virginia Military Institute (VMI), George Washington (GW) and Southern Virginia University (SVU) on Nov. 5. Liberty kicked things off with an 8-3 win over VMI and finished the day with a 12-8 win against SVU, losing only to GW with an 11-3 loss.
“We’ve spent the past few weeks working on a lot of different offensive and defensive sets and trying to get the team together over the fall,” senior Michael Zumpano said.
Junior Mike Strappelli emphasized the fact that fall is used as a time for working on fitness and preparation for the spring season.
“Staying healthy and in shape is of most importance to me personally because lacrosse asks a lot of you,” Strappelli said. “We’ve got a very diverse team and everyone is putting forth a lot of work.”
“Our biggest challenge is having unity because we have a lot of talented athletes,” head lacrosse Coach Kyle McQuillan said. “Practice only tells a coach so much about a team. You have to put them in game situations to know how they’ll perform.”
In its second game of the tournament, Liberty went up against George Washington. The Colonials pushed out to a quick 4-0 lead. However, the Flames answered back with a goal by sophomore Andrew Walters, bringing the lead to 4-1 in the first period.
With momentum shifting the Flames made an effort to keep up with the Colonials. But a much bigger and faster Colonials squad pulled away outscoring the Flames 7-2 in the final three periods.
The game against SVU got off to a quick start. Junior Derek Haywood put the first points on the board for Liberty. SVU answered quickly to put them on the board.
After a one minute penalty against Liberty, sophomore Jimmy Spearman began what was a scoring streak for Liberty.
Freshman Will Perkins added to the scoreboard followed by sophomore Skyler Sipe, putting the score at 4-1 after the first period.
Just as the second period began, Perkins put another point on the board for Liberty, followed quickly by a point scored for SVU.
Sipe returned the favor for Liberty as he added to the scoreboard.
The third period began with an assist from Walters to Perkins who scored yet again, but SVU answered by scoring two consecutive goals.
A final goal by Spearman ended any threat of a comeback by SVU.