Attitude change paying off, LC regains their swagger

At the beginning of the spring season, men's lacrosse coach Charley Toomey said his young team had the potential to be better than last season's NCAA tournament squad.

At the beginning of the fall season, men's soccer coach Mark Mettrick said his young team was going to be better than last season's veteran squad.

"Yeah right," all of us media types thought. "Wishful coach speak."

The lacrosse team lost 80 percent of its offense for heaven's sake! Look at the midfield -- who's going to score!?

The soccer team doesn't have any upperclassmen! There are three freshmen starting in the midfield!

With that, we dolled out our critiques, let the coach speak wash over us and tabbed both teams as middle-of-the-pack finishers, perhaps ready to make a run in a year or two. Even as both squads showed signs of greatness, we dismissed any delusional thoughts of a sustained run.

I wrote a column at the end of the fall saying the soccer team's success was a façade. Too young, I said. I then wrote an article halfway through the spring saying the lacrosse team would be "up and down" all season. Too young, I said. Oh how wrong I was.

Toomey's squad won their first ECAC title, and despite the loss to Hobart on Saturday, finished 6-1 in the ECAC and earned a second consecutive NCAA birth. Mettrick's squad won the MAAC and made the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2003.

Who's laughing now? Certainly not the coaches. Certainly not the players. They could've taken the opportunity and shoved it right back in our faces with an old, "I told you so."

But they didn't. They weren't satisfied with what everyone else perceived as overachieving.

After the lacrosse team defeated heavily-favored Georgetown back on April 12, Toomey's first comment was, "This is where we expect to be. We expect to win."

And when the Hounds clinched their first ECAC title a week later against Fairfield, Toomey said the same thing, "We aren't surprised by this. We expect to win."

After I wrote a column about the soccer team's unlikely chances in the MAAC tournament, the players confronted me.

"You watch," they said. "We're going to win the MAAC, and we're going to the NCAA tournament."

They too expected to win.

Ultimately, those high standards, regardless of how far-fetched they seemed, were the difference between mediocrity and triumph. In order to win, you need to set the seemingly impossible goals: Get to the NCAA tournament. Win the conference. Go undefeated.

Falling short of those goals must be seen by everyone associated as a major letdown. If you accept mediocrity, then you've already failed. The proverbial "bar" will never be raised.

Senior lacrosse captain Shane Koppens raised the bar.

"We're a much better team, but people don't think anything of us now," Koppens said. "They're going to hear some names they haven't heard before, and we're going to shock a lot of people. They say we lost 80 percent of our scoring, but I think we can top that 80 percent right now."

The "I'm just happy to be here" mentality doesn't work in Division I athletics, no matter how small the school.

Just coming off a 2-14 season? Next year, expect to win the conference. Just lost 11 seniors from an NCAA tournament team? Next year, expect nothing less than another postseason berth.

In three years covering Loyola sports, I've seen plenty of teams become complacent. Three years ago I watched the women's soccer team fall apart in the MAAC tournament despite having the best team in the conference.

Two years ago I watched a talented men's soccer team come up well short of expectations despite having a veteran-laden squad.

That same year, I watched in disbelief as the men's lacrosse team, fresh off a season-changing victory over Georgetown, lost to a lowly Fairfield squad the very next week. And this year I witnessed a basketball team falter early in the season after buying into their own hype.

Wanting to win isn't enough, it must be demanded and expected. That's how you create a winning culture. Losing becomes unacceptable.

"We have a desire to win," said sophomore soccer captain Tennant McVea at the beginning of the year. "Everyone's on the same page, and there's a common goal."

It used to be that Loyola men's soccer and lacrosse dominated their respective conference opponents with the expectation of making the national tournament every year. Mettrick remembers coaching his two NCAA tournament teams in the early part of the decade.

Toomey remembers his days as an All-American goalkeeper in the late '80s and early '90s, when he led the Hounds to the NCAA Final against Syracuse.

Now, both these squads are reemerging on the national stage. A return to the glory days is possible, if only they believe.

"We've proven we can play with anyone," senior lacrosse captain Paul Richards said at the beginning of the year. "When we're good, we look really good, but it's got to get to the point where we expect that all the time."

Expect to win. Never become satisfied.