Stevenson's 17-10 loss to No. 2 Rochester Institute of Technology in the season opener for both teams on Feb. 23 was the program's worst defeat since a 13-5 rout handed out by Salisbury on April 19, 2009. The seven-goal margin was greater than the team's combined margin of losses in 2011, 2013 and 2014.
But since then, the Mustangs have won three consecutive games and moved up to No. 3 in the latest United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association poll. Coach Paul Cantabene said the team's improvement can be traced to the loss to the Tigers.
"I think we learned a lot about ourselves in the RIT game and what we had to do," he said Thursday morning. "We didn't play very mentally tough and made some really bad mistakes, but I think we've corrected a lot of those mistakes. That was pretty much our scrimmage. RIT had scrimmages against Mercyhurst and The Hill School, and we didn't have any scrimmages going into that. So we kind of had to learn on the fly. Now that we've made some changes and are starting to play a little bit better in different areas, I think we've gotten better. I think the guys understand what to do. It was tough to start out with a loss, but I definitely think we're playing better in a lot of different areas, and hopefully, that's going to keep going."
Since the loss to the Tigers, the offense has scored 41 goals on 162 shots, compiled 25 assists, and won 38 of 63 faceoffs.
The defense has shown similar progress. In the three victories, the unit has surrendered 13 total goals on 92 shots, killed 19 of 23 man-down opportunities, and gotten 34 saves from junior goalkeeper Ben Richards.
"I think we can play great defense," Cantabene said. "We've got two of the better defensemen in the country [in senior Callum Robinson and junior Chad Williams] and one of the better D-middies in the country [in senior Connor Curro]. So we can play really good, lockdown defense, which we've proven we can do. If we can keep that high level of play and our offense helps our defense, we've got a chance against whoever we play."