By Jocelyn Sterling
UP's newest club sports addition, the men's club lacrosse team, beat Willamette University 14-13 Saturday, Feb. 7 at the Owens Sports Complex in Delta Park in north Portland. This victory marked not only the first official game of the season, but the first official game for the new team.
"We're a new team but in a league with all the other older big teams," said Mark Meckler, lacrosse coach and UP business professor. "No one thought we'd win, to them we should've gone winless."
The team was started by juniors Ken Ankrom and Adam Ramirez two years ago. Ankrom played lacrosse all through high school and was offered a spot on Villa Julie College's team in Stevenson, Md. but chose to attend UP instead.
Once arriving on UP's campus as a student back in 2006, Ankrom knew he wanted to play lacrosse on campus and decided to "go for it" and start a team. The team is like the ultimate accomplishment for Ankrom.
Ankrom's freshman year was all about getting the club team started and dealing with the logistics. Last year the team had more players while practices and scrimmages started occurring.
"We scrimmaged a lot of local teams like Portland State, Willamette University and Lewis and Clark and we were able to get a lot of exposure to them for the future when we would play them in official games," Ankrom said.
Last September the UP team officially became part of the Pacific Northwest Collegiate Lacrosse League in Division II. Currently the team comprises both experienced and first time lacrosse players. The experienced players help out the first timers and guide them through the practices, Ankrom said.
As a defensive player, Ankrom is often the unofficial mentor and coach to the new defenders.
However, Ankrom put the credit on others, and said everyone on the team helps each other out and lifts each other's spirits. The team practices four days a week and usually has games on the weekends.
"They work hard, and showed a lot of spirit, and played well," Meckler said of the first game. "I'm proud."
UP led the first half of the game, 10-7 with six assists. In the second half the team lost some of its momentum and missed a lot of its passes.
"We were decent but we're a far cry from our full potential," junior Jon Lamb said. "There are still a lot of problems with running our plays."
The team also had problems with penalties, accruing a total of 14 throughout the entire game, compared to Willamette's three. Two instances occurred of two men down on the field, Lamb said, which contributed to a lot of UP's problems.
Sophomore Aaron O'Connell led the scoring with seven goals, followed by sophomore Rob Church with five, and junior Dillon Paul and freshman Sean Spaulding each with one. Ankrom, sophomore Brendan Garlinghouse and freshman Anthony Robertson led the defensive with the most ground balls.
"It was a good first game of the season but we still have a lot of work to do," Church said. "Everyone played well and worked well together, I think we're only going to get better."
The team even played with several injuries. Paul, Ankrom, Church and Ramirez played in the game although injured, while Spaulding injured his ankle in the second quarter but returned in the third after icing it at half.
Ankrom said UP is a wildcard and in terms of projection are expected to lose most games.
"The team is better than a lot of people think. We can compete with these other teams, and I'm not saying we're going to win every game but no one is just going to walk through us," Ankrom said.
Church added, "We have a real chance to go to the playoffs if we do well this season. Hopefully we can step up."
One thing that would help the team is if more fans came to the games, Ankrom said. Only a handful of supporters from UP attended Saturday's game, and if more people came out and cheered then it would bring energy to the field and make the team move faster and stronger, Ankrom added.
On Sunday UP played its second game against Western Oregon and lost 22-2. Western Oregon was last year's PNCLL Division II champions and were 11th in the nation for club lacrosse.
Next weekend UP has a double header, both games away, against Pacific Lutheran University and University of Puget Sound. The next home game at Delta Park is Sunday, Feb. 22, against College of Idaho at noon.
For more information and to give your support to the lacrosse team you can join the Facebook group "University of Portland Men's Club Lacrosse Team," Ankrom said.
