There were a couple of conditions outside of Mount St. Mary's control, but the most important priority for the team was making sure to beat Hobart on Saturday. The Mountaineers did their part with a 10-8 win before watching St. Joseph's defeat Sacred Heart and Robert Morris upend Wagner to capture the fourth and final spot in the Northeast Conference tournament.
Mount coach Tom Gravante, who was a standout attackman at Hobart, said the players understood the gravity of their must-win situation.
"It wasn't like it was a secret," he said this afternoon. "They knew what they were up against for the last two weeks. That's the difference between moving on in tournaments and taking a seat and watching. You have to handle the pressure, and this is the kind of pressure that I lived for as a player. So I'm very pleased. Our guys responded. … They knew. It was no secret. This is what needed to happen, and that was it."
Mount St. Mary's (5-9) now gets the unenviable task of playing Thursday's first conference semifinal against top-seeded St. Joseph's (10-5), which cruised to a 16-4 whipping in the teams' regular-season meeting on April 11. No. 2 seed Hobart (7-6) will tangle with No. 3 seed Bryant (6-9) in the nightcap.
"Any of these teams are very capable of winning the NEC tournament, and I think the coaches realize that," Gravante said. "St. Joe's played a great game against Mount St. Mary's, but I know as well as my staff that we're better than a 16-4 loss. Unfortunately, it was just one of those days for our lacrosse team. Nothing went right for us, and everything went right for St. Joseph's. Looking at this conference and how teams matched up and the scores, it's still very much open, and I think our guys are really happy about the opportunity to run back the clock and play this game again against St. Joe's. So I'm excited about the opportunity."
Gravante said his players aren't intimidated about facing a St. Joseph's team that ran through the league undefeated.
"I think they realize that was not who we are that day," he said. "We're better than that, and we know it and I think these young men know it. That was very confusing to my staff and I about what happened. Not discrediting St. Joe's because they played very well, but that wasn't the same team that had defeated Bucknell [12-11 on April 14].
"So I don't know if the big win factor set in where a team has a big win one week and then plummets the next. Our guys were just not the same team. So we've got a fresh start. We're in the playoffs and anything can happen. Anything is possible. … This is a great battle for us, and our guys haven't forgotten what happened. I expect three very strong days of practice out of them and a very different game on Thursday."