The Idaho Lacrosse club started its fall season with a bang last weekend, finishing undefeated at the Missoula tournament.
Idaho lacrosse won all five games Saturday, including an 8-4 victory against Washington State, and won the first tournament in the club’s history. Lacrosse club coach, John Andrysiak, said all the pieces finally fell into place.
“We were able to put a team together this fall that has a lot of good, solid lacrosse players,” Andrysiak said. “We have had talent in the past, and have always been missing pieces and it’s nice to see that we could come out of Missoula with a win.”
Andrysiak said the victory had a lot to do with the dedication of team members and he could not ask for a better start.
He was pleased with play on both sides of the ball, but knows there are some things they have to work on.
“On the offensive side of the ball, we need to stick to what we know, we tend to vary from our game plan and that can get us in a bind,” Andrysiak said. “Defensively, we need to clean up the little things, ball watching, playing fundamental defense and over-extending to where we get beat regularly will kill us if we don’t clean it up.”
Andrysiak said one thing he believed was going to be imperative coming into the season was the team’s relative youth. But he said the team will be able to do things this year that it hasn’t in the past.
The tournament win was about the players, Andrysiak said, and they deserve their due.
“Players like Patrick Tunison, Colton Raichl and Deric Wilson on the offensive end who have cannons for shots and have a high IQ for lacrosse help our offense run smoothly,” Andrysiak said. “Defensively players like Austin Volking, Evan Ward, and Nick Otter really solidify our strong defense.”
He named Mike Vaccaro the team’s MVP for the tournament, calling him “a beast on the face-offs.”
The lacrosse club next travels to the Gem State Tournament in Boise to competed at 2 p.m. Saturday against Utah State and at 5 p.m. against Boise State.
“It would be nice to start the fall season off two for two,” Andrysiak said. “But we have a bigger goal in mind and that is team chemistry and team unity.”