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The Rice Thresher
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by Jake Robson thresher staff The men's lacrosse team came into Saturday morning's playoff match against No. 8 Texas A&M University in San Marcos with aspirations of a huge upset. It became evident all too quickly for the Owls, however, that it wasn't going to happen. The Aggies jumped out to a 6-0 lead after the first period. It was 10-0 before senior attackman Brian Nash got the Owls on the board, and the final score was a lopsided 27-2. With Rice unable to control the ball on offense, the quick, skilled Aggie midfielders were able to run their transition game, scoring early and often on quick sets and motion plays. Rice's defense was much more formidable when A&M was forced to run set plays, with sophomore Dave Allahand playing strong denial defense and sophomore goalie Adam Gottlieb coming up with several nice saves. Injuries affected Rice again in this contest, with sophomore George McGuirk, who scored Rice's other goal, not playing at full strength. Sophomore defenseman Andrew Swinick was forced to leave after the first period with a respiratory infection. However, it seemed that even a healthy Rice squad would have had a lot of trouble with A&M. "These guys are one of the top clubs in the nation," junior captain Ben Amis said. "They are solid in just about every part of their game. We expect them to do really well in the playoffs. This loss is nothing to be ashamed of." After beating Rice Saturday, A&M went on to defeat the University of Texas 14-7 Sunday to advance to the national playoffs in St. Louis. The Owls end the year with a 4-5 record, but they say there are still many positives to take away from the season, including qualifying for the playoffs and losing only a few key seniors to graduation. "This year, our goal was to get past the first round of the playoffs and to develop some young talent," coach Joey Olivier said. "I think we can say we accomplished one of those goals. "Hopefully, next year the guys that got a lot of experience this year will be able to step up and lead us to that other goal, the second round of the playoffs."
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