Top-ranked Penn State men’s lacrosse learns lessons about itself in defeat to No. 3 Yale
Yale’s bench ran onto the field in celebration Saturday, the moment the clock hit zero at Panzer Stadium.
No. 3 Yale edged out No. 1 Penn State 12-10 in a defensive battle, and the Bulldogs’ excitement spilled onto the field once the score became official. It was a bit of deja vu; the same celebration happened in the previous five meetings between the two schools.
Yale now leads the all-time series 5-1. The Nittany Lions’ last three losses, spanning back to last season, have all come against the Bulldogs — although this wasn’t nearly the same as the loss to Yale in the NCAA semifinals.
Still, Penn State coach Jeff Tambroni is looking at the positives.
“I thought No. 1 that our guys cared. They competed so hard today through the course of the entire game,” Tambroni said. “It didn’t matter if we were down 6-1 or we were nipping at their heels down a goal, our guys competed across the board. Some guys probably feel like they didn’t play their best game today but I don’t think there was any guy who went out there in a Penn State uniform and didn’t compete or work hard; so I was really proud of that. You win with a team like that.”
And while Tambroni saw some positives, especially in how his team competed mentally, the play on the field just wasn’t sharp enough to take down one of the top teams in the country.
Penn State struggled throughout the game on the offensive end of the field and was held to just 10 goals, well under its season average of 18.
In fact, the last time that Penn State was held to 10 or less goals was the conclusion of the 2018 season against Michigan, which was also the last time a team not named Yale beat the Nittany Lions.
“Our shooting wasn’t great today,” Tambroni said. “We’ve really done a good job of that over the past year and a half and couple years of just being precise on our shot selection and doing a good job, but maybe credit Yale’s goalie or their defense but I just don’t think we shot the ball all that well today. So we’ll go back to work on the offensive end.”
But while Penn State didn’t have its most productive day on offense, its effort on the defensive side of the field was impressive.
Yale had 23 turnovers, 11 of which were forced by the Nittany Lions as the game quickly turned into a defensive battle, something that was far different from the two meetings of the teams last year.
“I don’t think that we were the sharpest but I think we really hustled on the rod and we got a lot of balls back and that was part of our game plan,” Penn State attacker Grant Ament said. “Turnovers will happen the biggest thing we need to do is live with them and move on to the next play, which I think we did pretty well today.”
Penn State also struggled with turnovers, however, totaling 25. But according to Tambroni, it was more of what Yale was doing, not that his team wasn’t playing well.
“I thought Yale did a really great job with our offense today,” Tambroni said. “I don’t know if it surprised me because both teams are capable but it was more of a slug fest than we imagined coming into this one. It was an adjustment to our game plan because of how sluggish it was.”
And when Penn State did have a defensive lapse, it was goaltender Colby Kneese who made up for the error with a fantastic 16-save performance, oftentimes keeping Penn State in the game.
“I thought he was outstanding from start to finish. I thought he was every bit of the guy we expected him to be,” Tambroni said. “He kept the game within reach even though we gave up that 6-1 lead, he was still seeing the ball really well.
“He gave us everything he had and a chance to win this one today.”
But despite the big individual performance and flashes of being a dominant team, Penn State was unable to take down the familiar opponent.
But since the beginning of the week, Tambroni has been emphasizing that this would be a learning process for Penn State, a chance for the Nittany Lions to learn about themselves and see where they stand.
And that is exactly is how Ament is taking the loss.
“The reason I’m upset right now is that I don’t think a team should hold us to 10 goals ever, so we have to go back to the drawing board but that’s a good thing,” Ament said. “We are the fourth game in. This doesn’t define our season in any way, shape or form. I want to make sure that is pretty clear.
“This opponent challenged us to be better for the next one, so that is our mentality moving forward.”
This story was originally published February 22, 2020 at 4:38 PM.
