The number seven was not lucky for St. Mary's and Chris Hasbrouck.
In Hasbrouck's seventh year as the program's head coach, the Seahawks won just five games, matching their worst win total since the 2002 squad went 5-10. They squeaked into the Capital Athletic Conference tournament with a 4-4 record as the No. 6 seed and bowed out with an 8-6 loss at York in the first round.
"From Day One coming in, I thought we had the necessary ingredients here with the recruiting, the academic side of the school, the location to have a winning program. So I take it to heart tremendously," Hasbrouck said. "These are guys that I've brought in. We recruited these players, we've worked with them, they've done everything we've asked.
"So, I do take it personally and I believe that with the players on this team, we should win games, and I believe that we can compete at a top level. That's something that I evaluate every day. You look back at that film, and you say, 'We have to make sure that we clean that up,' and you evaluate and you put those things into practice and you hope that those things work."
What is particularly vexing to Hasbrouck is his belief that the team just couldn't tap into a wealth of potential that he saw in fall workouts.
"From my perspective, I thought we were a heck of a lot better than we played, and as the head coach, you've got to take responsibility for that," he said. "We had a little lack of preparation. I thought we had a lot of the right pieces to compete at a very high level, and at times, we did. The second half against Denison [in a 14-12 loss on March 18], we showed what we could do offensively. But this year, if you go down five or six goals to anybody, it's tough to win.
"We came out of the gate very, very slow on a few occasions. I thought we had a ton of potential, and I think we have a ton of potential coming back. But the fact of the matter is for this year, we just didn't click at the right time for 60 minutes, and a lot of that has to do with our opponents. We play a great schedule, and everyone's good. It's also a very fine line – not only in our league but with the teams we play – between winning and losing, and if you don't come out to play for 60 minutes, anybody we play can beat us."