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| Photo by BEN RUEHLMANN Freshman Scott Gauthier races down the field dodging Wesley College opponents. |
The men's lacrosse team has had its highs and lows for this season. After starting the season 2-2 the Marlins dropped several close games to either nationally ranked foes or against conference rivals during the middle portion of the season going 0-5. In the final portion of the regular season the Marlins won three of their final four games but narrowly missed the cut for the final seed in the ODAC tournament. The Marlins finished with an overall record of 5-8 and 2-4 in the ODAC.
"We're disappointed we didn't make the tournament. Our record was a little bit better" said assistant coach Jason Archbell. "We had some tough overtime losses. But the guys played really hard and we had some big wins." On April 14th the Marlins traveled to Randolph-Macon for what is always a competitive conference game. The Marlins trailed 5-2 at the end of the first quarter. The Marlins turned the game around in the second quarter, outscoring Randolph-Macon 4-2, including the final three goals of the half, but the score was 7-6 in favor of Randolph-Macon. The Marlins continued their unanswered scoring streak by scoring the only two goals in the third period and taking their first lead in the game. The Marlins opened the final quarter with a goal from junior Cameron McKay to bring the total of unanswered goals to six. The Marlins won the game by a combined score of 10-8. Senior Ryan Bush led the team with 3 goals and 1 assist. Rookie goalie Tyler Sothoron had 21 saves, which was a new program record for rookie goaltenders.
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| Photo by BEN RUEHLMANN Junior attackman Cameron McKay battles a Wesley College defender for possession of a ground ball. |
“It was my best day this whole season,” said Sothoron. “It wasn’t a regular day.” Coming off a big win against Randolph-Macon, the Marlins looked to continue their winning streak as they traveled to face nationally ranked number eight Washington and Lee. The Marlins played hard and went back and forth in scoring with Washington and Lee in the first quarter, trailing 3-2 going into the second. That was about as close as the Marlins would get to the lead. The Marlins were shutout in the second and third quarters while Washington and Lee scored 12 goals. Sophomore Colin Kelly finally broke Washington and Lee’s scoring streak in the fourth quarter, but the lead was too large. Wesleyan lost 16-3. The Marlins were outshot 51-24, but led by sophomore Dan Hofmeister with two goals.
Coming home from a tough loss to Washington and Lee, the Marlins faced Wesley College in their final game of the season. The Marlins started the game slow and fell behind 3-2 at the end of the first period. In the second quarter, senior Ryan Naftzinger began the Marlins’ six-goal streak. Going into halftime the Marlins were leading 8-4 over Wesley, dominating Wesley throughout the rest of the game. The third quarter action started with a goal from McKay. Wesley answered with two goals to make the score 9-6. However, Wesleyan dominated the last two and a half minutes. Naftzinger, junior Brendan Rooney and Kelly each had a goal to give the Marlins a 12-6 advantage. A four-goal scoring spree in the fourth quarter sealed the win. Kelly, junior John Snevely, Hofmeister and Rooney each had a goal to end the game 16-7. The Marlins outshot Wesley 61-18. The 61 shots were a new school record. Bush and Rooney led the game with three goals. “The whole team put forth a great effort to make sure we sent the seniors out on top for their last game in a Marlin uniform,” said Rooney. “The seniors deserved the win.”
Look to see a new look, new coach, and same tradition for two Virginia Wesleyan sports teams. The athletic department added Mat Littleton and Anna Tool to an already outstanding coaching staff. Littleton takes over the head coaching position that was vacated by Jackie Tugman, who resigned earlier this season. Littleton, a native of Quincy, Ill. will direct both the women's and men's cross country teams. Littleton attended North Central College in Naperville, Ill. While at North Central, he participated on the cross country and track teams. During the 1999 cross country and the 2000 outdoor track & field season, North Central College won the NCAA Division III Championships. Littleton was a member of both teams.
After a successful collegiate career, Littleton coached at Liberty High School in Liberty, Ill. While at under Littleton's leadership, Liberty High School won a regional championship in cross-country in 2002 and placed 17th at the state championship meet. Littleton has been involved with cross country and track for 13 years. An advertisement on NCAA's The Market is what made his dream to coach at the collegiate level come true. Despite just being hired in February, Littleton has already started taking enormous strides to develop further the cross country program, which was re-established in 1998. He has already managed to get some recruiting in for next year.
"My goal is not to just build a cross country program, but to build a cross country family," he said. "Once we develop that nucleus, we can start bringing more people into our family and help it grow. I want to help guide our returning runners into positions of leadership so that they can help nurture the new runners that we bring in the following year as we continue to build." Tool is the other new addition to the Marlin coaching staff. Tool replaces Jenn Strauss, who left after her husband was transferred to Washington, D.C. Tool, a native of Esko, Minn. has been involved with volleyball for 15 years. She attended the University of Minnesota-Morris, where she played volleyball and basketball all four years. Among her athletic accomplishments, Tool was named to the 1997 and 1998 Upper Midwest Athletic Conference All-Conference volleyball teams and to the 1998 and 1999 All-Conference basketball teams.
Tool has spent the past two years as an assistant at North Carolina State University. Prior to N.C. State, Tool was a graduate assistant at South Dakota State University where she earned her master's in sports pedagogy with emphasis in athletic administration. Tool’s task now is to rebuild and add depth to an already young and promising group of girls. "My goals are to add depth to next year's roster,” said Tool. "Currently we have one middle hitter returning and need at least one if not two freshmen middle hitters for the fall. I am also working to bring in three other players to add depth throughout the program."
As for next year, Tool wants to be competitive in every match. "I would like us to walk away from every match saying we outworked our opponents," said Tool. "I'm not saying we will win every match doing that because I am not familiar with the other teams in the conference/region yet. I think outworking opponents is a great place to start and the wins will come with that hard work." From what Tool has seen from spring practices, that goal can easily be accomplished. The Lady Marlins are adjusting well to the new coaching style, despite the lack of practice-time during the spring. When August comes, she plans on sitting down to establish more specific team goals for the season. Littleton and Tool will bring an abundance of experience, leadership, motivation and determination to their appointed programs. Welcome to Virginia Wesleyan, Coach Littleton and Coach Tool.
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