By Jodie Ng, News Correspondent
The Northeastern men’s club lacrosse team enters its upcoming season with one ultimate goal in mind: winning nationals.
“A trade about the team is that we need to win,” junior co-captain Christopher Tecca said. “It’s not a ‘we want to win every game.’ We need to win which is something that goes all the way from the top to the bottom.”
Northeastern opens its season with a three-day tournament in Atlanta, Ga. on Feb. 21. The team will go head-to-head with Clemson University, the University of Florida and Georgia Institute of Technology.
Head coach Ben Severance said he believes the players’ championship mentality is crucial in order to be triumphant.
“I think that’ll be the thing that carries us over the top,” Severance said. “We got the players, they’ve all got the skills to do it. I think if we can be mentally ready, mentally prepared, that’ll separate us from being 0-3 and 3-0.”
Defensive assistant and goalie coach Jeff Natter described the tournament as a business trip — the players are there to have fun but need to get a job done.
Last season, a title at the Men’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association (MCLA) eluded them when they fell to the University of Connecticut. Now coming back stronger with fresh additions to the team, Northeastern is ready to fight its way back to the top.
“It’ll be a good test to see where we’re at, what’s going on and definitely a chance to go back to the drawing board,” Natter said. “With our schedule being so short, we need every game we got. It’s just a matter of willing to work.”
This will be especially true for the seniors who are entering their final season. Many of the veterans are returning stronger, more passionate and more driven, Severance has reminded them of their finally opportunity to “leave their stamp on Northeastern lacrosse” by seasons end.
“We know this is the last time we’re going to play,” Tecca said, “and we’re going to leave it all out there.”
For other seniors like defenseman Steve Ripley, it’s about seizing an opportunity to be a leader. Ripley says he aims to set “examples to the younger guys that are starting out.”
On the other end of the spectrum are the new additions. Although the incoming talents may not be as experienced as the seniors, it does not change the Huskies’ hunger to be at the top.
“We definitely have gained some good players from mid-year transfers coming in,” Natter said. “We got Garrett Painter. He came these past two weeks and he’s definitely had an impact on the team.”
Tecca said he has enforced the mindset that someone’s action on the field will “affect the person next to you and behind you and you’re accountable for that.”
That’s all on the field. In terms of off the field, all the seniors agreed the best part of being on the team is the friendships that came with it.
“Going to California with your team and driving down Route 1 with everyone on the bus, that’s incredible,” Tecca said. “Those are priceless memories I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”
Underhill echoed his captain. “It’s almost like a brotherhood,” he said.
Painter, who plays attack and mid field, and freshman goalie Ian Sevy were impressed by not only the team’s skill and level of intensity but also the leadership of co-captains Mike Lehmann and Tecca.
“[Tecca] is a very good leader, very vocal,” Painter said. “I look up to him as a player because he’s what I want to be in a couple of years.”
Sevy added, “Lehmann is the best face-off man in the country. If you could put work ethic into human form, that would be Mike. He’s an inspiration.”
With that level of experience and the team’s new additions, this could be the year for the Huskies to win it all.
“If there’s going to be a year we can do it,” Ripley said, “this is it.”
