The San Diego State lacrosse team begins its inaugural season Saturday with a game against No. 18/20 Ohio State on the campus of Stanford in Palo Alto, Calif. The Aztecs and Buckeyes are scheduled to play at noon PT.
SDSU, which announced its four captains on Tuesday, is coming off a 17-4 win over the San Diego Lacrosse Club in an exhibition game on Feb. 4.
San Diego State, which was picked seventh in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) poll released on Jan. 24, has 28 players on its first-ever squad, including one junior, three sophomores and 24 freshmen. Only two players – Katelyn Luker (Virginia Tech) and Meris Walsh (Maryland) – have Division I experience, while six – Lauren Maack (Coronado HS), Jackie Mills (La Costa Canyon HS), Brittany Parrish (Scripps Ranch HS), Christina Ricciardulli (Poway HS) and Sammy Slattery(Carlsbad HS) – are from San Diego County.
OSU, meanwhile, is coming off a 10-7 season last year, where it finished 14th of 91 teams in the final edition of the RPI. In the preseason polls, Ohio State is ranked 18th by IWLCA and 20th by the deBeer Media. The Buckeyes returns five starters, including attack Alayna Markwordt (52 goals, 27 assists), midfielders Gabby Capuzzi (30 goals, 7 assists, 51 draw controls) and Kirsten Donahue (21 goals, 40 ground balls, 20 caused turnovers), and defenders Olivia Cora and Tayler Kuzma (22 ground balls).
Saturday’s game will be the first of 15 for the Aztecs. The following Friday (Feb. 17), SDSU welcomes Cincinnati in the program’s first-ever home game, beginning at 7 p.m. PT. San Diego State will play seven consecutive matches at home from Feb. 17-March 20. Included in the schedule are MPSF games at home against UC Davis (Feb. 19), California (March 10), Oregon (March 18) and Fresno State (March 20), and road league contests at Denver (April 9), Saint Mary’s (April 13) and Stanford (April 15).
The Ohio State men’s lacrosse team opened its 2012 campaign with an 11-6 victory over Detroit Thursday night in the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.
The Buckeyes led 3-1 after the first quarter and 8-3 at halftime en route to the victory. Detroit scored the first three goals of the second half to draw within two, but the Buckeyes shut out the Titans the rest of the way and scored the game’s final three goals for the victory.
Junior Logan Schuss led the Buckeyes with four goals and six points, with freshman Jesse King scoring three goals and adding an assist for four points. Senior Brock Sorensen had his first career hat trick and junior Nick Liddil chipped in a career-best three assists. Sophomore goalie Greg Dutton had nine saves and junior Kevin Mack had a team-high seven groundballs in the victory.
The Buckeyes will be right back in action, heading to Macon, Ga., for a game vs. Mercer at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Ohio State led 3-1 after the opening quarter. King scored 3:20 into the contest, assisted by Liddil, for the Buckeyes’ first goal of 2012. At 7:54 Nick Diegel took an assist from Michael Italiano and tallied his first goal as a Buckeye. Detroit got on the board less than a minute later when Shayne Adams scored at 6:34. At 3:45 Schuss found King for a man-up goal and a two-goal Buckeye advantage (3-1). Ohio State outshot Detroit, 14-6, in the quarter.
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