Weekend Watch: UCSD’s Full Circle
Opinion
| California
| Chapman
| Clemson
| Concordia
| Dayton
| Georgia
| Minn-Duluth
| Montana State
| MSUD
| NDSU
| Oregon State
| San Diego
| South Carolina
| UC San Diego
| Utah State
| Washington
by Jac Coyne | MCLA.us
LA CROSSE, Wis. – Albert Man walked up to his team president at the beginning of practice, grabbed him by the shoulders, looked him in the eye and gave him the news.
It was Thursday, March 12, 2020, and Man had just received the call he kind of knew was coming, but was still a gut punch.
For UC San Diego, sitting at 5-0 and ranked No. 14 in the country, the season was over. The game the following evening, Friday night, against crosstown rival San Diego was scrubbed.
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“I remember the pain on his face like I had just told him that a member of his family had died,” said Man of his conversation with Matteo Leibman. “Fittingly, it was raining at that last practice.”
The rest of the players were brought into a huddle and the news was passed along to the entire team. There were a range of emotions among the group, and certainly tears.
Since they had this one last practice, they switched up the pennies and played an intrasquad scrimmage.
“After the practice, I remember giving hugs to player after player, something that seems foreign now after years of social distance,” Man said. “And my last image of the night was my seniors, arm-in-arm on the faceoff X as the lights shut off.
“It was a tough night.”
This Thursday, when the Tritons – ranked No. 21 in the country – meet up at practice, they will be on the cusp of closing the loop on these last two years.
“We’ve come full circle,” said Man. “We were supposed to play USD on Friday night when that 2020 season got cancelled. We open up with a Friday night game against USD to start this season.”
The last two years haven’t been a complete wash for UCSD. They practiced three days a week all last spring and elected captains.
Man and most of the players knew it was probably a futile approach, but they just wanted to make sure they were ready if normality returned.
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“I told my captains – Cole Barden and Grant Barclay – that they have perhaps the most challenging job of any captains I have ever had,” Man said. “They needed to keep the team together and keep the momentum of our program going without the promise of any games.
“The university kept dangling that carrot of game-approval all year, but the season came and went without approval.”
As it turned out, the Tritons finally got the green light to play in 2021.
A week after the MCLA Invitational concluded.
Alas, the lacrosse brotherhood found a way to give UCSD that brief taste of normalcy.
“In one of those great sportsmanship gestures – that I was not allowed to make known – one team in our conference kept their players one week past graduation and past their university end date. They came and gave us a game off the books.
“I'll remember that gesture of lacrosse goodwill forever.”
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As the team preps for the revival game against San Diego on Friday, the makeup of the squad looks considerably different.
The senior captains were freshmen when the Tritons went to Salt Lake City in 2019. The juniors only have those five games in ’20 under their belts. And there are a bunch of first-year players who were robbed of their high school senior seasons.
All they want to do is play lacrosse and compete. They want to finally complete the circle.
“The team is just itching to get the season started,” said Man. “It has been too long.”
GAMES I’M FOLLOWING
Utah State at Minn.-Duluth, Friday – 4:30 p.m.
Let’s be honest: the wins over NDSU and St. John’s have pretty much locked the Aggies into the field of 16. With St. Thomas tonight and this game against the Bulldogs, their strength of schedule will be tough to match. And the back half of their schedule is loaded, too. This easily could have been an 0-4 week, but now they’re guaranteed a split. I’d like to see them swing for the fences.
Clemson at Georgia, Friday – 6:30 p.m.
The Clemson-Georgia Tech game on Saturday might pique the interest of the layman MCLA fan, but this game is where the action is. UGA is riding high after taking down Florida State and Colorado and now has another chance to bolster the resume. Clemson has been dominant, but against five teams outside the Top 25. If the Bulldogs can steal some of the ALC street cred, it could resonate in May.
South Carolina at Chapman, Friday – 7 p.m.
It’s great to see these cross-country matchups again. South Carolina sits at 1-2, but got jumped by a good BC team in the opener and then responded with a nice comeback win against Virginia Tech. They then took Liberty to the wire. We’ve seen Chapman go the distance with a stacked Cal squad, so this will be a dynamite game. The Gamecocks will get credit for the trip, regardless of the outcome.
Oregon State at Washington, Saturday – 1 p.m.
Now that the PNCLL teams can breathe a little easier knowing they have an AQ despite Simon Fraser’s status, the magnitude of conference games gets ramped up tenfold. With just the top four D-I teams advancing to the playoffs and a shot at the AQ, the intensity will be fantastic. Winning the opener is huge.
North Dakota State vs. Dayton, Saturday – 1 p.m.
NDSU is licking its wounds after getting handled by Utah State on Monday and Dayton is typically not a pushover. I say ‘typically’ because we have no idea about the Flyers. They've been out of commission for quite a while and nobody knows what they’ll look like. Dayton has a good coaching staff and usually a quality roster, but who knows? Not a make-or-break game by any means, but still one to monitor.
Concordia-Irvine at California, Saturday – 7 p.m.
Another Top 10 team takes a swing at the Bears. The Eagles are good and heading to Round Rock, but they’ll have to be nearly perfect in Berkeley.
Montana State at MSU Denver, Sunday – 10 a.m.
What does Dave Leach have cooking in the pot at MSU Denver? We’ll find out on Sunday as the degree of difficulty jumps considerably from their trip to Nebraska. The winner is essentially locked into the RMLC tourney.