Photo courtesy of JU Athletics

Jacksonville University’s Men’s Lacrosse team is again setting out to help the community by taking part in the “Keep Lax in Jax” fundraiser Saturday, Nov 5. The goal of the event is to raise money to keep lacrosse an active sport in Duval County Schools.

Student athletes have integrated themselves repeatedly within the community surrounding JU, which is a meaningful source of support for the teams.

“We want to show the community our support and appreciation for all they have done for our program,” said junior defenseman Tanner Gard.

Gard believes that the event will not only help a great cause but it will help the team bond, come together and build chemistry.

The school  has always exhibited a strong commitment to community service. Several campus organizations and sports teams take it upon themselves to go out and make the community a better place. It is important that, as a university, JU keeps close ties with the surrounding area so that together, in a symbiotic relationship, they can continue to grow and prosper.

“In return, this event will provide an opportunity to give back to the community but also grow as individuals,” said Gard.

As another endeavor for community outreach, JU holds free workshops to increase youth involvement in the game of lacrosse. Their mission is to expand public knowledge of the sport. Their next session will take place on November 5 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Losco Park, located at 10931 Hood Road S.

Saturday’s event is open to the public and everyone is encouraged to attend. The team will be running a lacrosse clinic for youth. They will also be playing a Green vs White scrimmage at about noon. The end goal of the event, after the fun and games come to an end, is to raise money for Jacksonville high school lacrosse programs. This promises to provide a positive outlet for local youth while also keeping the future of the sport alive.

The Jacksonville University Women’s Lacrosse team surged w

Photo by Grace Singer

ith 12 second-half points to win 18-10 in National Lacrosse Conference play over Longwood last Sunday, April 3, at D.B. Milne Field.

For the second time in three days the Dolphins got a victory over a previously undefeated team in NLC play after having beat Liberty Friday. The win now makes them (9-4) overall and (4-0) in conference play. This was their last home game as they won seven out of nine of them.

Ellyn Spangenberg, Morgan Derner and Amanda Hurley recorded hat tricks in the game to help the Fins create such a large margin. That hat trick made Derner the second player in school history to record a career high of at least 30 goals, which also led to her being named the NLC “Player of the Week”.

This victory was vital for the Fins as they remain undefeated in conference play. JU will now enter the conference tournament as the favorite and will likely receive a no.1 seed in the competition later this month.

Chelsea Watts played a major role in the win as she scored a game-high four goals. She had her teammates behind her picking up some of the load; Nicole Albino and Kayliegh Hynes each scored an unassisted goal that gave the Dolphins the lead at halftime, 6-4.

JU’s coach saw her players participating at a high level that day.

“I saw us staying focused on our game plan and execute our fundamentals at the highest level,” JU Head Coach Mindy McCord said. “We tried to play a good out of conference schedule to prepare us and each conference game gives us confidence that what we are doing is working.”

The defining moment of the game was when the Lancers received two scores within 26 seconds, one each from Cara O’Brian and Sam Stifler, narrowing the gap to 8-7.  JU then exploded in retaliation with nine straight points.

Derner will be entering the next game against Detroit at 2 p.m. with a team-leading 35 goals and 45 points in her first 13 collegiate games.

Photo by Grace Singer

The Jacksonville University Men’s Lacrosse undefeated streak in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference play ended against Manhattan College Saturday, April 2.

The story of the game circled around one man in front of the net and his stellar play. Manhattan goalie, Rich Akapnitis was on top of every shot JU attempted as he posted an outstanding 16 saves, which led the Dolphins to their defeat.

Those saves were crucial because JU aggressively threw down 44 shots, twice as many shots as Manhattan attempted. Unfortunately, the Fins couldn’t strike with the same efficiency that the Jaspers brought to the table. Their defeat brings their win and loss record down to 4-6 and 2-1 in conference play.

This victory helps Manhattan maintain their undefeated streak in conference, but a worse overall record then than JU, 3-8 and 2-0.

Despite the end results, the Fins were relentless throughout the game. Bobby Stockton, Jeremy Tissenbaum and Owen Green dominated the scoring for JU most of the afternoon. Each of them registered two goals apiece. A Fourth quarter onslaught in the end by JU scoring three goals proved not to be enough, as they didn’t prevail.

Manhattan made good use of their early lead by having a 6-3 halftime lead after JU was initially up 2-1. When the second half came, Akapnitis hustled for six clutch final quarter saves. Then offensively for the Jaspers bench play from the reserves showed great depth as they stepped up to the task.

Kelly Mahon, Tyler Jarvis and Brett Miranda came off the pine to all deliver two scores each. Overall, the reserves accounted for eight of the 10 points their team finished with.

The Jaspers’ cushion was just too much.  It negated the 5-1 run the Fins went on in the final minutes. Stockton’s two goals came during that period fourth. He is now tied with TJ Kenary for the team high in scores with 16 goals on the season despite only starting four games.

JU will host MAAC reigning champion Siena College at D.B. Milne April 9 at noon.

Photo by Grace Singer

The Jacksonville University Men’s Lacrosse team maintains their undefeated streak in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference play after a win over Detroit, coming from behind Saturday, March 26 at D.B. Milne Field.

Perseverance paved the way as the Dolphins were successful in their victory over Detroit.  This win now makes the Fins 2-0 in the conference and 4-5 overall. One of the Titans top scorers for that game, Shayne Adams, scored two goals but couldn’t overcome JU’s fourth quarter surge as Detroit fell to 2-8 overall and 1-1 in their conference.

Owen Green and Donovan Lange proved to be vital contributors to JU’s performance Saturday as Lange scored the go-ahead goal to give them the lead with 6:01 left in the game. Green recorded his second goal with 2:36 left in the game, breaking the tie for a 10-8 win.

“I was pleased with the scrappy game, I liked the way Detroit played; they earned it in the first half,” JU Lacrosse Coach Matt Kerwick said. “We played through it and fought back and made it a great game in the second half.”

The going was tough for the Dolphins when the score was at one point 3-3. The Titans started rolling with three straight second quarter scores. Scott Harris hustled for them to get a score along with Adams off of an assist from Tony Dennis making a 6-3 first half score.

Nevertheless, the scoring streak ending once Green and TJ Kenary checked in two scores creating a 6-5 halftime score. Then one of the defining the moments of the game occurred when JU scored on a rush shot with two seconds left in the third quarter.

From that point on JU shut out the Titans in the last period in order to come up with the win after being down as many as three scores.

The Dolphins hope to maintain that momentum and enthusiasm this Saturday, April 2, as they travel to Empire State to face Manhattan in another MAAC conference battle scheduled for 1 p.m.

Photo Courtesy of JU Riparian

This past week Jacksonville University students were living the Spring Break lifestyle. Meanwhile JU Men’s Lacrosse was hard at work, winning their first ever conference game. On Saturday, March 19, JU faced Canisius College in Buffalo, New York. Last season JU was an independent team, and this year is their first year in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. The 12-8 victory was lead by sophomores TJ Kenary who accounted for five total points, and Cameron Mann, who had a hat trick in this game.

JU Men’s Lacrosse Head Coach Matt Kerwick praised the two sophomores.

“TJ and Cam are two players we look to for leadership and we’re looking forward to building off this game as we continue to face our challenging MAAC schedule,” Kerwick said.

The Dolphins jumped in front of the Griffins early with a 4-1 lead, and it stayed that way, but Canisius began to chip away. They tied the game up at five apiece with 10 minutes left in the third quarter. The JU balance of attack was just too much though, as five players notched a multi-point game. They finished the game on a 7-3 run after the game was tied up. This included a scoring spree at the end of the third quarter as the Fins scored four goals in the final seven minutes.

The Griffins were carried by Simon Giormetakis who had a part in five of his team’s eight goals. His efforts proved to fall short when Kenary and Jeremy Tissenbaum scored a goal each in the fourth quarter to ice the game. Freshman Goalie Peter DeLuca recorded 10 saves in this victory.

“Going into our next conference game this weekend, we must continue to play together, at a fast pace, and communicate well with each other,” starting defenseman Tanner Gard said.

The Dolphins will finally be back at home this Saturday, March 26, as they will host another conference opponent in Detroit Mercy.

Photo Courtsey JU Riparian

The Jacksonville University Women’s Lacrosse team weathered the storm to defeat Temple, but fell to Louisville on their road trip to Georgia as they win only one of the two games they had last week.

A lightning delay couldn’t slow down the Dolphins as they defeated Temple 13-12 at Ashley Sports Complex Wednesday. Freshman Morgan Derner couldn’t miss as she connected on all five of her shots in the game, adding to her hot streak of 12 goals in the past four games. In addition, Derner had a hat trick in all of those games and leads the team in scoring overall with a total of 16 goals.

Temple surged in the second half with a hard fought comeback attempt scoring nine second-half points, but still lost as they fell to an overall season record of 1-3. The Owls’ Charlotte Swavola’s hat trick wasn’t enough even though she was one of the five players who put the team in double scoring figures.

Sophmore Karli Tobin was “Co-Player of The Week” for the National Lacrosse Conference the previous week and showed everyone why as she recorded 12 saves in the victory.

Unfortunately, the Dolphins couldn’t click on all cylinders over their trip to Cumming, Ga. as they lost to Louisville 17-7 at West Forsyth High School.

Over half of JU’s scoring came from Ellyn Spagenburg and Abigail Warnken, both scoring two goals each. Nevertheless, Louisville came out of the half strong by outscoring the Dolphins 13-4.

Louisville’s Bergan Foley recorded a game-high of five goals in the competition and Liannne Bobal was right behind her with four goals. The win gives the Cardinals a record of 4-0 as they continue on their undefeated streak.

The Dolphins will return home March 16 to D.B. Milne Field to face off against LIU.

Photo Courtesy of JU

The Jacksonville University men’s lacrosse team split their Colorado road trip this past Saturday and Sunday (Mar. 5 and 6). The team received a loss against the University of Denver and defeated the Air Force Academy.

In the Face-Off Classic in Colorado, a 13-4 second-half run caused the Dolphins to fall to no. 18 Denver Saturday afternoon at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium. Denver’s offense surpassed JU sophomore TJ Kenary’s hat trick, as they won 20-8. Help from sophomore midfielder Donovan Lange wasn’t enough either despite the goal and assist he added.

A win over the Pioneers would have been Jacksonville’s second win in two years against Denver who was ranked nationally last year, too. Large contribution came from Denver’s Alex Demopoulos as he accounted for five goals and recorded one assist. The team had backup firepower too by having Andrew Lay and Mark Matthews also register hat tricks for the Pioneers’ squad. The results of the game brought JU to a 1-2 season record and Denver to a 2-1 record.

Fortunately, the below .500 win percentage didn’t last long because the next day the Dolphins received a win over Air Force that Sunday afternoon.

They won 10-7 and half of those points came from the efforts of senior Bobby Stockton by him tallying four goals and one assist. Stockton has come off the bench so far in every game this season but leads the team with a total of 11 goals and has scored in every game thus far. The other midfielder Donovan Lange helped out in the scoring department by posting two goals.

The momentum in this battle swung in Dolphins favor when the team presented four straight goals in the third quarter when the lead was 3-3. Defense played a major role in the competition with freshman goalie Peter DeLuca ending the game with 15 saves.

The Dolphins leave the Face-Off classic losing the first game and winning their second. Their regular season record in now 2-2 and the next game will occur at home at the Ashley Sports Complex.

Photo Courtesy of JU

The Jacksonville University women’s lacrosse team returned home from a road trip and fell to nationally ranked Vanderbilt University on Saturday, March 5.

Despite freshman attacker Morgan Derner’s second consecutive hat trick this season, it wasn’t enough to knock off the Vanderbilt squad Saturday at D.B. Milne Field. Junior Attacker Kayleigh Hynes registered two goals in the performance to try to help the Dolphins’ chances.

The JU Women’s Lacrosse head coach Mindy McCord expressed that the team showed great effort Saturday.

“I was very pleased with a solid effort against a highly ranked team, we did some positive things on attack and defense,” Head Coach Mindy McCord said. “We must focus on our fundamentals and become more detail oriented to beat top 15 teams.”

The Commodores is the highest-ranked team JU has ever gone up against in its two-year history. Vanderbilt’s Katherine Denkler scored a game-high five goals, which helped Vanderbilt get to a 4-2 record.

The Dolphins did have a first-half lead at one point but fell to their best competition, from a ranking standpoint, in the end. The team is now on a two-game losing streak entering their next contest.

Sophomore Karli Tobin had a career high 11 saves that game and hopes to have a similar performance entering the next game.
“Karli played her best game of the season by far,” McCord said.

The next contest will be home Wednesday, March 9 against Temple at the Ashley Sports Complex.

Photo Courtesy of JUdolphins

Jacksonville University Women’s Lacrosse suffered a discouraging defeat by #17 ranked University of Florida 19-8 in their second home game of the season, a notable game that served to improve them significantly.

Consequently they came back by putting double figures up in their next game to win over the Denver Pioneers 10-7.

Head Coach Mindy McCord’s plan was to keep running throughout the whole game.

“We wanted to keep running hard and beating them to the ball and I thought we made a great effort to keep our energy up there,” McCord said.

Stellar play came from freshman Nikki Erdely as she recorded her first ever hat trick for the Dolphins. She has already scored in her collegiate debut and now this recent performance gives the up and coming athlete six scores in three games.

Chelsea Watts and Morgan Derner represented the freshman class as well as they scored too, in order to give the Dolphins a 2-1 lead over the Pioneers.
Watts showed great play also by having her second straight game with a goal scoring twice against #17 Florida. She also had an assist to accompany her score.

Women’s LAX will spend this weekend in Oregon where they will face Fresno State and Oregon. JU will depend on the scoring tandem of their talented freshmen to win on the road.