Chris Hasbrouck knows that some people are pointing to injuries as a reason for why St. Mary's followed up a Capital Athletic Conference tournament win and NCAA tournament berth in 2013 with a first-round exit from the league tournament in 2014.
And it's true that the Seahawks lost three starters for several games. Freshman defenseman Mike Freiji missed the last six games because of a broken arm, senior midfielder Matt Tarrant sat out the final four games because of an undisclosed injury, and junior attackman Conor Jordan was sidelined for two games with a concussion.
But Hasbrouck said the team must do a better job of not letting injuries affect the players' action on the field.
"We lost three major guys that hurt us, and we allowed that to affect us," he said. "What are we going to do now that Matt Tarrant is out for the season? We needed somebody to step up, and some guys did toward the end. … It was the same thing defensively. When Mike Freiji went down, Mike was only a freshman last year, and we were playing very, very well. That kind of left a little void. … I think we just kind of let those things affect and dictate how we played. You are what your record says you are. We were disappointed in that."
St. Mary's became the first team in Capital Athletic Conference history to lose its opening game in the league tournament after winning the championship the previous year. Hasbrouck said the players are determined to make amends, but he said he doesn't want them to stew about it.
"I don't think they should dwell on the negative aspects of it," he said. "For us, we had two interesting years back to back. In 2013, we played our best lacrosse at the end of the year, which is what you always want to do. We had great leadership and stayed relatively healthy the whole year and really had guys stepping up.
"When we had 2014 where we didn't meet those expectations. Those two years back-to-back are what we are going to use as our learning tool. I think we feel that the 2013 season is much more indicative of our program than the 2014 season."