By Julie Shiroma
Arizona Daily Wildcat
The UA men's club lacrosse team will travel to California to take on the Poets of Whittier College tomorrow night in the first round of the Western Collegiate Lacrosse League quarterfinals.
The two teams last met April 1 in Whittier in a game the Poets won 18-9.
Laxcat coach Mickey-Miles Felton is hoping that his team can maintain the style of play that it exhibited in its win against UCLA last week.
"During that game, we did what we wanted and so we're not looking to make many adjustments," Felton said.
An adjustment that the Laxcats would like to have made is to have their goalie Bill Steelman back, who cannot play due to eligibility reasons.
However, that will not happen, as the appeal of Steelman's ineligibility was turned down by the league.
Tom Hatfield, who has played the position for the past two games, will play goalie in the game in Whittier.
In the games that Hatfield has played, the team has shown that it has the confidence to play with him.
Felton feels that his team has a chance to win this game even though the Laxcats are going in as the underdog.
"We need to protect the ball in the offensive part of the field," Felton said. "We also need to come out aggressively. The game will come down to self control."
The Laxcats are most concerned with the Whittier offense, which is armed with good shooters.
In practice, the Laxcats have been working on their own offensive attack. The UA plans to step up its offense by going to the cage more.
The coaching staff is taking an optimistic approach to the game.