Lacrosse gears up for distant spring

---

by Grant Flowers

---

After three practices, the incoming freshmen have already indicated that they have enough ability to offset the potentially crippling loss of experience.

"We lost a ton of seniors," said senior midfielder Kent Campbell. "Last year's team was made up of a lot of fifth-year students that had four years of experience behind them."

"That's a big loss. But the freshmen have potential and are hard workers," he continued. "They also bring change to the club, which will help."

Senior Eric Klineberg, one of the club's three captains, believes that the team can expect to do well.

"I've seen enthusiasm and a winning attitude on the field," he said. "I think that the desire to win is the end-all-be-all in lacrosse. From what I've seen, we have it."

Klineberg acknowledged that graduation hurt the overall experience of the team.

"We lost a lot of [midfielders] and the best goalie in the league," he said. "We still have Harry Moren, the backup goalie from last year, and a freshman with experience.

"So far in practice we've been working on conditioning and the fundamentals and nuances of the game," he added. "Because of all the players we lost, we have depth problems at every position."

Having lost only two attackmen, the offense remains relatively unchanged from last season.

"It's hard to tell how the offense will do because it's very early in the season," said senior Jason Richardson, a returning attackman.

None of the defensemen were lost to graduation.

The main competition in the Southwest Conference Lacrosse Association will be defending league champion Texas A&M University.

Rice and Texas A&M play in the Southern division of the association along with the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Houston, Trinity University, Southwest Texas State University and Sam Houston State University.

"A&M graduated a lot of players," said Klineberg, "but they're still going to be a good team."

There's a disparity between the top two teams [Rice and Texas A&M] and the rest of the league," he added. "The other teams don't give much competition."

Rice split two head-to-head matches with the Aggies last season. The defeat was the Owls' only loss during the year.

Texas A&M went on to win the league title.

Richardson has some ideas on how to defeat the Aggies.

"A&M is a real up-and-down team. They win and lose on fast breaks," he said. "The key is to slow them down by controlling the ball and playing solid defense. If we do that, then we can beat them."

The league season schedule does not begin until spring. During the fall semester, the Owls will play in several tournaments, one hosted by Texas A&M.

This item appeared in the Sports section of the September 10, 1993 issue.

Copyright © 1996 The Rice Thresher. All Rights Reserved.
This document may be distributed electronically, provided that it is distributed in its entirety and includes this notice. However, it cannot be reprinted without the express written permission of:
The Rice Thresher, Rice University, 6100 Main, Houston, TX 77005-1892, USA.