No. 7 Stevenson (12-4 overall and 7-0 in the Commonwealth Conference) has already sewed up the top seed and homefield advantage in the upcoming league tournament.
That might seem to take the air out of Saturday's regular-season finale at conference rival Widener (6-8, 5-2), but coach Paul Cantabene said he does not intend to keep the starters on the bench in favor of reserves who haven't gotten much playing time this season.
"We're going to play our guys," he said Thursday morning. "We're going to do what we need to do. I don't think you can start resting guys unless it helps them. We're going to continue to play. If we get a lead, then we can play more guys, but we're going to play to win the game."
The Mustangs have gotten to a point where they can afford considering taking it easy against the Eagles because of their domination in the Commonwealth. They have outscored their conference foes by an average of 17.3 goals, scoring at least 18 goals and giving up no more than seven goals in each game.
Cantabene said the margin of victory is a testament to the team's ability to execute.
"It does make life easier when you're winning by the scores that you are," he said. "That's always good to do that, but we're playing much better, which I think is leading to that. I think we're definitely playing at a higher level, making more of our opportunities, shooting the ball extremely well, and getting better goalie play out of [junior] Connor Skeen. I think that's really helping us."
There's a school of thought that easy victories are not good preparation for the NCAA Division III tournament where many opponents are national championship contenders. But Cantabene pointed out that Stevenson has already played six teams that are still ranked by the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association.
"We're always trying to get ready for the NCAA tournament, and close games always help you do that," he said. "But I think we've played a pretty good schedule to help us do that. For us, it's not about having close games. It's about how well we're playing. I think we're doing a good job of setting our standards high with regards to our level of play, and I think we're doing a good job of maintaining that high standard. We've got one more regular-season game to go and the playoffs, but I like where we're at, and we still have to execute."