Hours before Towson picked itself out of the ranks of the winless with a 10-9 decision against No. 17 Navy Tuesday night, Mount St. Mary's also secured its first victory of the season by shocking previously unbeaten Robert Morris, 19-13.
The Mountaineers had opened the season back-to-back losses to then-No. 3 Virginia (15-7) and Jacksonville (14-7). So Tuesday afternoon's outcome was enormously pleasing to coach Tom Gravante.
"Outside of the fact that it's the first time the program beat a ranked team, it's an opportunity for the kids to get a taste of winning and learn how to win," Gravante said Wednesday morning. "It was a little bit of a see-saw battle."
Mount St. Mary's actually trailed, 6-2, just 106 seconds into the second quarter, forcing Gravante to burn the team's second and final time-out of the half.
"It wasn't that Robert Morris was playing that much better than us," he said. "They were just making plays, and that's what we have to do. We knew we were capable of playing better lacrosse, and they hadn't done that. Then they re-organized themselves and peeled off eight straight. People were complimenting me on that timeout and asking me, 'What did you tell them?' Sometimes you don't need to tell them what they need to do. You've got to tell them what they haven't done. In our case, we hadn't started playing yet, and they knew it. I was just very pleased that they fought back."
Gravante acknowledged catching a good amount of heat for his comments after the loss to Jacksonville, a program spending its first season on the Division I level. Gravante blistered his players for their attitude and promised to make changes in the lineup.
Among the starters, sophomore midfielder Kyle Yates played in place of sophomore attackman Christian Kellett, but Gravante said he expected a different team based on the tenor of last week's practices.
"I think some of them thought that they were better than they were, and we needed to make sure that they checked that attitude at the gate before they stepped onto the practice field because we're going to do things differently now," he said. "Practice was at a higher pace, it was more emotional. Kids were keeping kids accountable for their mistakes."
The victory over Robert Morris was the school's first against a ranked opponent as the Colonels were ranked 19th in the latest USILA poll. Previously, the Mountaineers had gone 0-39 against ranked opponents.
Additionally, the 19 goals scored are the most in a game by Mount St. Mary's since a 21-5 rout of Siena on April 22, 2001. The Mountaineers' seven-goal second and fourth quarters are the most goals in a quarter since posting eight in the first quarter of a 18-5 thumping of Robert Morris on March 23, 2005.