Spring Break
High hopes for No. 18 men's lacrosse team
Brett Fischer and Mike Mazzeo
Issue date: 2/15/08 Section: Sports
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With eight starters returning from a team that went 11-5, No. 18 Drexel, last year's CAA regular season co-champion, hopes to make enough positive strides to get over that hump and make the NCAA Tournament.
Despite having a national ranking, men's lacrosse head coach Chris Bates is not giving into the pressure of living up to the preseason hype.
"Talk is cheap," Bates said. "The attention is nice, but at the end of the day what we do takes place on the [field] and that happens everyday in practice and the report card is on game day. I don't really feel like we feel a lot of pressure. We're just anxious to go out and play."\
Scoring shouldn't be a problem for men's lacrosse, seeing that it returns its two best scorers from a team that had its best season since finishing 12-2 in 1998. Andrew Chapman, who led the CAA with 53 points while notching 42 goals and 11 assists and Colin Ambler, the reigning CAA Rookie of the Year (22 goals and 13 assists), lead the offensive juggernaut.
Bates said Chapman and Ambler will be a tremendous threat on offense.
"Colin [Ambler] is growing up and becoming more of a quarterback," Bates said. "He has worked as hard as anyone we've had in this program. He loves the game, he prepares hard."
"Andrew Chapman is no longer a surprise. He's a big scoring threat for us."
Losing All-American and CAA Defensive Player of the Year Adam Crystal will have a major impact on the team, but Coach Bates said it will force new leaders to emerge.
"Losing Adam Crystal is a big loss," Bates said. "He was our glue down there. We've got new guys down there. It's a work in progress. I don't think we're strong down there yet. We've got to fill leadership voids and that comes with game experience."
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