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Laxcats miss out on national championships

Key loss to Virginia Tech earlier in season comes back to haunt Laxcats

The Arizona Laxcats season ended in disappointment yesterday as the team did not receive an invitation to play in the U.S. Lacrosse Intercollegiate Associates National Championships in St. Louis.

Laxcat head coach Mickey-Miles Felton said the reason the Laxcats did not receive one of the four at-large bids for entry in the tournament was due to an April 2 loss to Virginia Tech at the Michigan Invitational in Ann Arbor, Mich.

The Hokies were awarded with the last bid.

"The game came back to bite us in the ass," Felton said. "There is no way if we would have beaten Virginia Tech that we would not be the team going to the national championships."

Prior to the game versus Virginia Tech, four Laxcats were suspended for breaking teams rules. Three players did not play in the first half, and one player was not able to participate in the game.

"It took us out of the game emotionally and gave us a flat start," Felton said. "It absolutely cost us from winning that game."

Though it later came back to haunt him, Felton said his decision to suspend the four players was the right decision.

Last weekend, the Laxcats were given another opportunity to try to get a berth in the national championships but lost two close games to California and the University of California-Santa Barbara.

Friday night in San Diego, the Laxcats took on Cal in the semifinals of the Western Collegiate Lacrosse League.

The Laxcats trailed early, going down 2-0 in the first quarter but fought back to bring the Golden Bears lead to only one goal, 4-3, at halftime.

"At halftime, I felt it was still anyone's game," Felton said.

Cal outscored the Laxcats 4-1 in the third quarter, which kept the lead big enough to hold off a fourth quarter by the Laxcats.

Cal won the game by a score of 12-7 and eventually went on to win the WCLL.

"To tell you the truth, they just had a better game than us," junior defenseman Tom Christian said. "They had more depth than us, and they had more individual guys who were producing. We played our hearts out, and the score could have been different on any given day."

Junior midfielder Bryan Moore led the Laxcats with five goals.

On Saturday, the WCLL third-place game took place, and the Laxcats with a victory might have gotten a berth in the national championships.

With less than seven minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, sophomore attack Eric Renner threw a behind the back pass to sophomore attack Matt Martini to put the Laxcats up by one goal, 8-7.

Only one minute later, UCSB tied the game at eight, forcing an overtime period.

Less than two minutes into overtime, Laxcat freshman goalie Kevin Burgess saved three straight shots in a 20-second span, but a UCSB player put the fourth shot past the goalie for the sudden-death win.

"We played UCSB to an even game, and we had a couple of chances to win, but it just did not happen," senior defenseman Laurence Bass said.

The game was Bass' and senior midfielder Lon Packer's final game in a Laxcat uniform.

The Laxcats finished with a final record of 10-7 and were ranked No. 11 in the USLIA.