Bear Lax Trax Fax by John Nichols through the NCAA Quarterfinals

BLTF 052013

Joe Paoletta ’10                                                                                       Will Joyce ‘10

Josh Offit ’09                                                                                  Harrison Archer ‘10

There will be four Landon Bears traveling to Philadelphia for the 2013 NCAA Division I Lacrosse Championships this coming weekend. This represents the largest number of Landon Alums in the final four since 2009’s total of 6.   Cornell (Joe Paoletta ’10, Will Joyce ’10) will face Duke (Josh Offit ’09) in the first semi-final game.  This game will be the third Bears vs. Bears game of the NCAA tournament.  Saturday’s second game will feature perennial power Syracuse against Denver (Harrison Archer ’10).  This will be the first time at the final four for Joe and Will while Harrison gets his second trip and Josh his fourth straight appearance in the final four (including Duke’s 2010 Championship win over Notre Dame).

Here’s how they got there:

Cornell (Joe Paoletta ’10, Will Joyce ’10) faced #3 seed Ohio State (Luke Howard ’11, Charlie Schnider ’12) at Byrd Field in College Park in the weekend’s first quarter final game.   Cornell continued their surge in the NCAA tournament, downing the Buckeyes 16-6.  So far the unseeded Big Red have dispatched the tournament’s #6 and #3 seed by a combined score of 32-14.   Charlie Schneider had 3 ground balls for the Buckeyes.

On Sunday, #4 seed Denver (Harrison Archer ’10) faced #5 seed North Carolina in what was widely expected to be a shootout.  The game started off as a one-way shoot out with the Tar Heels scoring 6 unanswered goals in the first 9:27 of the game.   During the 2013 season, both Jamie Faus and Ryan LaPlante have seen extensive time in goal, often with each playing half of the game.  While this strategy puzzled many, that in-game experience proved valuable as Ryan LaPlante gave up 6 goals (albeit the 6^th coming in the midst of the goalie substitution) on seven shots on goal before being pulled.  Jamie Faus stepped in to stop the bleeding making 11 saves of Carolina’s next 16 shots on goal.   At the same time, Denver’s offense got back on track, closing the gap and overtaking the Tar Heels  with a run which culminated with the game tying goal with 1:31 left and the winning goal with a mere 0:13 remaining off of a rebound from a blocked shot.

In the weekend’s final game, #7 seed Duke (Josh Offit ’09) faced #2 seed Notre Dame.  Duke came away with its second straight 12-11 victory; games which also saw the Blue Devils beat two of last year’s final four teams.  Josh took 5 shots in the game and gathered up 3 ground balls. (bragging rights in the Offit household fell to Josh this year as his sister’s Florida Gators women’s lacrosse team fell to Syracuse in the women’s D-I lacrosse tournament).

D-III

Dickinson’s (Marek Laco ’09) run for a perfect season came to an end at the hands of Salisbury and the Red Devils fell to the Seagulls 11-9.  Marek took one shot in the game, a game which marks the end of Marek’s collegiate lacrosse career.

These recaps were based almost exclusively on box score data as I was unable to see any of this weekend’s games.  Here’s what I was able to see:

Paige (Nichols) Anderson receives her Juris Doctorate degree at UVA’s final exercises

By Paul Adkins

St. Stephen’s St. Agnes 7 Landon 5

On a sweltering 80+ degree day at Landon, the IAC Tournament Championship game brought together two hungry squads for a co-share of the IAC title with GP. SSSA has never won an IAC title and Landon looked to build on its strong tradition with #29.

The Saints were playing their 5th game in 7 days having run the table in the VISL, outlasted the Little Hoyas in OT and now faced a determined Landon squad.

A large, spirited crowd from both schools turned out to witness a game of momentum swings only to witness the Saints forge ahead in a late surge to put the game away.

LSM Marshall Peters started off the scoring in the game quickly by going uncovered straight to the goal @ 10:32. A series of possessions yielded only a few shots by both teams and some excellent point blank saves by Goalie Hunter Sells. Landon’s offense controlled the time of possession with Robby Dunigan, Sam Lynch firing shots just wide of the target. Both teams had trouble executing their offense against stingy defenses with wild scrambles for groundballs. With 12 seconds to go in the quarter, SSSA came up with all-in ground ball and found its star Sean Miller with an open snipe in the goal.

END OF 1ST PERIOD BEARS 1 SAINTS 1

The Saints momentum continued as star Sean Miller showed his offense prowess with back-to-back goals at 9:32 and 8:48 quieting the Landon faithful. The Saints had taken control of the game with a hot goalie and its quick strike offense. Landon’s Philip Pena fired several shots on goal but the Saints netminder stopped all attempts. After several turnovers by both squads, the Saints struck again off a pipe rebound to make it 4-1. With 44 seconds to go in the half, Senior Marshall Peters once again used his speed and guile to cruise straight to goal unchecked to score for the Bears.

HALFTIME SAINTS 4 BEARS 2

The Saints re-established momentum temporarily on a defensive mix up by Landon which allowed an SSSA longpole to go uncovered to point blank range and score. The Saints now led 5-2 and Landon had yet to get a goal from anyone with a short stick. Just as things were getting edgy for the Bears, at 7:41 Senior Garrett Fellows broke free with some shifty moves for an unassisted goal. SSSA 5 Landon 3. The rest of period consisted of some fine goalie play on both ends during which neither team was able to get any high quality close looks.

END OF 3RD PERIOD SAINTS 5 LANDON 3

The Bears Sophomore faceoff specialist Jarett Witzal quickly took control and dished off to Senior Captain Peter Laco who fed a cutting Riley McTague for a score at 11:00. On the very next faceoff, Witzal once again possessed cleanly, passed to Laco who hit Fellows for a game tying goal at 10:48 to play. Tie Game 5-5. Momentum and confidence had swung back to the Bears. Over the next 4 minutes, Landon’s offense controlled the ball but was unable to convert on 5 consecutive shots – none of which were on goal. The Saints were finally able to wrestle control of the ball and capitalized on a very quick middie finding an alley and scored at 5:22. Saints up 1. Landon’s offense mounted a few final shots but weren’t able to tie it up. With 1:38 to play, the Saints found a wide-open man to seal the victory and to cap off the best week ever in Saints lacrosse history.

FINAL SCORE SAINTS 7 LANDON 5

IAC TOURNAMENT FINAL SCORE

St. Stephens St. Agnes School 7
Landon 5

Many Bears on College Diamonds- by Jim Colgain

End of the Season updates:

Jack Falvey – 2011 Amherst made it to the Regional finals this year after winning the NESCAC tournament. Jack was hurt much of the season and looks to bounce back healthy this summer playing for the Alexandria Aces in the Cal Ripken Summer league

Keegan Dolan – 2010 Keegan had a monster year for the W and L Generals, collecting 24 extra base hits and 26 stolen bases on his way to a 0.331 season batting average. The Generals finished their season after losing in the conference tournament

Max Kra – 2012 Max made 18 appearances, out of the bullpen for the Bucknell Bison this year. He started the season, in his first five appearances not allowing one run to cross the plate and ended the season with a 3.52 ERA, in 23 innings of work. A great start as a freshman for the Bison. Max will be playing in the Maryland Collegiate baseball league this summer.

Kyle Colgain – 2011 Kyle made 14 appearances as a pitcher for the Denison Big Red on the way to a 4-3 record, in 70 innings of work. His ERA of 2.86 and 46 Ks, helped him to be recognized as a second team All-conference honoree. The Big Red concluded their regular season as conference champions but fell in the conference tournament so did not advance to the post season. Kyle will be playing in the Cal Ripken summer league this summer.

Jay Graham – 2011 Jay contributed a 0.286 Batting average to the Dartmouth Big Green Baseball Team. Dartmouth had one of their best W-L records in recent history, but unfortunately lost to Columbia in the Ivy League tournament so did not advance to the post season. Jay will be playing in the Cal Ripken Summer league this summer.

Ian Kelso – 2011 Ian contributed on the mound and with the bat for the Washington University Bears this season but the Bears failed to make it to the post season for the first time in the last few years.

Thanks, Jim for all of this news!

please, can you cover the SSSA game for me?

Sure,be glad to do it.

please, can you cover the SSSA game for me?

Thanks, Dan.

Paul, if you could, I’d appreciate a short piece on the game.

My list serve only sends out whatever is in the in box @ 7pm. That’s a tight deadline; so a score would be great more spectacular!

If the score is all that you can do by 7pm and if you’d like to write more, it could be excellent.

You can send to me or to directly.

Thanks
Go Bears.
Sandy

BSN Sunday Edition 5/19

Lots of interesting news about the Bears in a variety of sports (for those who have a Landon account, some of these may be repeats.) Rugby, hoops, tennis, golf and BLTF — Club team play:

 

Rugby’s Successful 5-2 season ends on a downer

 

The Bears lost 3-12 to TC Williams in the MAVRC Division II Championships.

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News Alert: Webster ’09 Featured in Harvard Newspaper

Landon Graduate Prepares for Seminal Trip to Cuba

Christian Webster ’09, who scored 1,000 points during his Harvard basketball playing career, was recently profiled in The Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper. Webster is only the third player in school history to achieve that milestone, joining Jeremy Lin ’10 (who plays for the NBA’s Houston Rockets) and Keith Wright ’12 (who plays professionally in Sweden).

Webster will be traveling this summer with Full Court Peace, an organization that aims to “unit[e], strengthen and educat[e] local and global communities through the creation of youth basketball teams,” according to its founder, former Harvard basketball graduate assistant Mike Evans.

Webster will be building a basketball court in Alamar, Cuba, and then will participate in a basketball tournament between American and Cuban teams.

Read the profile now.

 

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Tennis notebook, May 8

By Nick Cammarota Staff Writer

Tom Fedor/The Gazette

Landon School tennis player Alex Reinke plays a singles match earlier this year. The Bears are preparing for the playoffs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For Landon School tennis coach Adam Atwell and his team, this 2013 regular season went about as well as he could have hoped.

The team finished 11-1 (4-1 against Interstate Athletic Conference competition) and ended up tied for first in the league with Georgetown Prep. That would appear to indicate that Landon, which won the IAC title in 2012, simply cruised to a number of victories, but plenty of 4-3 decisions would say otherwise.

“This has been kind of a crazy season,” Atwell said. “That St. Albans match we lost was the first match after spring break and it was cold and on clay. When that happened, I was worried, but since then it seems like in every match we’ve pulled it out. Something has just fallen our way.

“It’s not always the same guys doing it, but things are falling into place. We keep getting these 4-3 wins. It’s not predictable at all how we win. I guess we’re a pretty deep team and we can get four points because we have pretty solid players all the way around.”

Led by No. 1 singles player Alex Reinke — who recently beat Potomac School’s top player Josh Hublitz in three sets to clinch a win for the Bears — Landon certainly enters the IAC tournament with momentum. But as has been the case all season for Atwell, it’s anyone’s guess as to where he’ll be getting points during this week’s tournament, which begins today and concludes Saturday at Episcopal.

“The league is really close,” Atwell said. “I guess we do have momentum, but because all the wins we’ve had have been non-blowout wins. Any one of the top four teams could win it.

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News Alert: Landon Tennis’ Past, Present Converges

Bears Celebrate 2013 I.A.C. Title, Jacoby Cup

2010 Jacoby Cup participants

The Landon varsity tennis team captured the I.A.C. regular season title, the school’s 46th conference title and second in a row. The Bears finished 11-1. Landon finished tied for third with Georgetown Prep in the Ben Johns I.A.C. Tennis Tournament. St. Albans won the tournament title.

The team’s final event of the season is the Jacoby Cup Alumni Tennis Tournament held on Saturday, May 18 at 9:00 a.m. It is named for Mac Jacoby, who has coached the Landon varsity tennis team for more than 50 years and currently serves as an assistant coach.

The Jacoby Cup will feature a doubles round-robin with the top four teams advancing to playoff rounds. The goal is for each alumnus or faculty member to be teamed with a current varsity player. The event is free.

Jacoby led Landon Tennis to 31 I.A.C. championships and eight national championships. He was inducted into the Mid-Atlantic Tennis Hall of Fame in 1997.

“The tournament is great because it brings together alumni, current students, faculty, and parents around the rich tradition of Landon, Landon tennis, and Mac Jacoby,” says Patrick Guarnieri ’00, the event’s organizer and assistant coach on the varsity tennis team. “Along with a few other events such as the holiday luncheon and homecoming/reunions, Jacoby Cup is one of my favorite Landon events of the year.”

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Jimmy Sloan’s Virginia Club lacrosse team lost to Penn State 13-12 in double overtime.   Penn State went on to crush 2 more teams and win the championship, leaving Virginia #2 in the final Division 1 computer rankings. The former Bear, due to social and academic demands, didn’t really start playing this spring until early April. Jimmy had a goal in the UVa 10-8 win v. James Madison in Charlottesville that put them in the quarterfinals.   He had to step up and play mostly defense v. Penn State since the D bench was so short of players.

Jimmy’s example and the experiences of my two sons, who played club hockey at Duke, indicate that college club sports may be a GREAT athletic endeavor at the next level. Teams are typically coached by one of the players, players drive vans to away games and the seasons are replete with life lessons. There are no sacroscant recruit/stars; everyone is an equal,Though the crowds may not be as large, the memories last the same periods of time

 

 

Landon SSSA game

The Varsity Lacrosse Championship Game is as follows:

Monday, May 20th St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes v. Landon @ Landon @ 5:00pm

LANDON 6 BULLIS 3

Unlike the last game against the Bulldogs in Potomac, this match did not involve last second severe nerves about the score. Today the Bears shut out the visitors for all but five minutes of the game. Hardly a “cruise” over the last minutes, the Bears earned a 6-3 win and trip to the IAC Finals against Saint Stephen’s/Saint Agnes on an as-of-yet unknown date and time @ Landon.

 

The defensive pace of the game was established in the first period. The only goal was a Phil Peña unassisted effort @10:14. He blasted his shot from about 8 yards to the right of the Bulldog goal.

 

The Bear D was stingy with superb sliding, negating the Bullis picks and surgical stick checks resulting in many Caused Turnovers. The close D was primarily (in numerical order) Michael Rhoads, Andrew Mitchell and Connor Lynch; the LSM’s (Marshall Peters, Trey Lundelius) added to the Bullis’ middies; and the SSDMs (Jack Falk and Brandon Johnson) used their speed and athleticism to contain their opposite numbers. As usual the two way midfielders contributed to the defense. The last line of the Bear D was the goal line where Hunter Sells was virtually impregnable stopping 11 of the Bulldogs shots on goals.

 

END OF 1^ST PERIOD BEARS 1 BULLDOGS 0

 

Mr. Peña again scored the first goal of this period @ 7:25 with a shot from a very hard angle that beat the Bullis goalie. About a minute later (@6:26) Peter Laco inverted and found a cutting Sean O’Brien for a brilliant quick stick goal. Over the next 5 minutes the visitors did all of their scoring: Kyle Nemeroff from Joseph Stein (6:20), Drew Petkevich unassisted (2:32) and Steven Shollenberger (1:09).

 

HALFTIME BEARS 3 BULLDOGS 3

 

The Bears’ coaching staff must have made good adjustments during the intermission; for the Bulldogs did not score for the remainder of the game and the Bears increased their offensive output (10 shots in the 3^rd period as opposed to 9 in the 1^st half).

The results were two Bear goals. The first saw Robby Dunigan invert and pass to Colton Rupp, who exhibited his hockey skills by scoring from the crease (as a Bullis long pole buried him) @ 9:41. As time expired the Landon team took a time out and Sean O’Brien assisted on Garrett Fellows’ goal @0:01.

 

END OF 3^RD PERIOD BEARS 5 BULLDOGS 3

 

The last 12 minutes featured the referees. At the initial face-off they flagged the Bears for concurrently run technical (0:30) and personal (1:00) fouls. The Bear D was stout and was able to turnover the ball once resulting in a clear and a shot. The Bulldog EMO did not score. Later in the game, the referees called two personal fouls on the same Bear player. The two minute EMD of the Bears was brilliant again getting possession of the ball. The visitors swarmed Hunter trying to regain the ball; instead the sophomore goalie made a long pass. Though being down a man, the home team controlled the ball in their O zone. Robby Dunigan passed to fellow senior Peter Laco who beat the goalie @ 2:02 to crush the Bulldogs’ hope to recreate their almost comeback of the April 12 game.

 

FINAL SCORE BEARS 6 BULLDOGS 3

 

Thanks to social media, the crowd was following the RP- SSSA game at Rockville Pike. The underdog Saints beat the little Hoyas in overtime. SSSA has a VISL game on Friday and potentially that league’s finals on Saturday. Consequently fans need to watch http://www.landon.net/page.cfm?p=1437&teamID=78 or http://wiki.allmetsports.com/all-met/schools/montgomery/landon/boys-lacrosse/ for the date and time of the IAC championship.

KHARI BATEN “THAT’S A BEAR AWARD”   Connor Lynch 1   GB and 1 CT Hunter Sells 11 saves, 4 GBs and one “hockey   assist” on the EMD goal Marshall Peters 5GBs,   3 CTs

 

Landon Lax 6 Bullis 3