In its series with Bucknell, Mount St. Mary's had dropped the first 13 meetings before ending the drought with a 12-11 win on Feb. 17, 2013. After suffering a 16-6 setback on April 5, 2014, the Mountaineers earned their second victory of the series on Saturday, nipping the Bison, 12-11.
The outcome won't mean much for the team's objective of capturing the Northeast Conference tournament and the accompanying automatic qualifier to the NCAA postseason. But coach Tom Gravante said the win can fuel Mount St. Mary's (4-6 overall and 1-1 league) as the program prepares for the rest of the conference schedule, which begins Wednesday at Robert Morris.
"We wanted to gain some momentum, move forward," Gravante said Monday afternoon. "Don't want to look past these guys to Robert Morris. We wanted to play these guys straight-up and be in a position to win the game and gain some momentum. … It was a significant win for the program."
The Mountaineers have won two games in a row for the first time since 2013, and Gravante said he hopes the team can continue to ride the wave.
"How good can we be? I hope we haven't peaked yet," he said. "I hope we're going to continue to gain momentum because these last four conference games are very crucial. A loss to any conference team could be a fatal loss in terms of our hopes of making the conference playoffs, and that's our goal. We set that goal at the end of last season.
"I still think this conference is wide open. Even though Hobart is sitting at 3-0 and St. Joseph's is 2-0 [in the league], it's wide open. If we don't battle and get that W on Wednesday, then the significance of that Bucknell win is lost. It really doesn't matter. The whole idea was to play that game straight up and give our team momentum and confidence."
Mount St. Mary's will get a favorable matchup against the Colonials, who have dropped their last five games en route to a 1-9 overall record and an 0-3 conference mark. But Gravante said Robert Morris' record is irrelevant.
"That means nothing because on paper, I think Bucknell was stronger than us," he said. "This is not going to be a team that has already thrown in the towel. They're going to be very agitated, and we're going into hostile territory on Wednesday. So we've got to be ready to play."