Lacrosse nets close victory over Trojans
By Daily Bruin Staff
March 9, 2003 9:00 p.m.
The men’s lacrosse team secured bragging rights against
USC with an exciting 5-4 victory in a game that went down to the
wire Saturday.
The win was highlighted by a three-goal performance by
co-captain Tillman Endsley, who single handedly kept UCLA in the
game after it fell behind 2-0 in the first quarter.
While Endsley provided the Bruins with their two first-half
goals, he credits his team for his success.
“It all comes out of everyone working hard and executing
the plays our coach gives us,” Endsley said. “It was
really a team effort, not an individual one.”
Endsley’s third goal tied the game at three early in the
second half. Soon after, a technical foul on a USC defender gave
UCLA a man advantage and the Bruins quickly capitalized on the
opportunity with a goal from Andrew So.
The lead proved to be short-lived as USC tied the game 4-4
heading into the fourth quarter.
Before sending them out for one last quarter, UCLA head coach
Mike Allen gathered his players for a pep talk.
“I reminded the team that our backs were against the wall
and that we needed the win to stay in the playoff hunt,”
Allen said. “I basically told them that we have 15 minutes to
play hard for each other and they responded well.”
Most notable was the response from the Bruin defense.
After co-captain Andrew Lusardi scored with 5:01 left to play,
the Bruins shut down the Trojans the rest of the way, denying a
last minute surge to secure the victory.
With the win the Bruins improve to 3-4. Although the team is
still below .500, Allen is pleased with the team’s effort
thus far.
“At this point I’m very confident in the
team,” he said. “We have a young team and we are where
we expected. Our guys don’t have much time to learn how to
step up but we are still in playoff contention with a couple of big
games coming up and that’s where we want to be.”
As far as national standing, a disappointing overtime loss to
unranked UC San Diego recently pushed UCLA out of the top 25 club
teams. But with half a season remaining, Allen hopes the team can
stay on track for the playoffs and perhaps jump back into the top
25.
“If we stick with it I think we’ll get a few big
wins especially because we have some highly ranked opponents in our
upcoming schedule,” Allen said. “If we can knock some
of them off we can get back in it. Hopefully that will
happen.”
