Men’s lacrosse wins Baggataway Cup over McGill to win national championship
After 16 games, and a long bus trip to McGill’s Molson Stadium in Montreal, the Gryphons men’s lacrosse team can finally call themselves national champions.
On the back of an eight-point performance from senior attackman, Ryan Serville, the Gryphons took down the undefeated McGill Redman 14-11 on their home turf, winning the program’s fourth Baggataway Cup and their first since 2008.
The win was Guelph’s third victory in three days, dropping two of the Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association’s top teams; the Bishops Gaiters and the Brock Badgers, on route to the championship win over the host Redmen.
For the graduating players, including four graduating fifth year seniors, this championship is the culmination of a university athletic career filled with hard work and sacrifice, which finally paid off.
“It feels great,” said fifth year goaltender, Jeremy Snider. “It’s five years too late but we finally got [the Baggataway Cup].”
The team’s previous four seasons ended in disappointing playoff losses including consecutive last minute semi-final defeats in the past two seasons. However, returning players were able to learn from these adverse experiences and use them to push them over the threshold to a championship.
In fact, adversity became a focus for the team, making a conscious effort not to lose focus when the bounces weren’t going their way, which was an issue for the team in previous seasons.
“We talked about it all year. If we wanted to win a championship this year we’d have to overcome a heck of a lot of adversity, and that’s exactly what we did,” Snider said. “We came together at just the right time and it worked out.”
“Everybody was working hard together and everybody was up for each other and I think that really showed this weekend,” said Snider.
The weekend was a fitting conclusion to the season, which also saw some of its top players receive individual league honours. Five Gryphons were named to the CUFLA All-Canadian team for the West Division, including team Captain Ben Van Galen who received All-Canadian considerations at both the face-off specialist and long stick midfield positions. Van Galen was also named the defensive MVP for the Baggataway Cup tournament, along with Serville who was named the overall tournament MVP.
As a team, the Gryphons close the 2013 season with an overall record of 13-3, and ended the year with five consecutive wins including four sudden-death playoff games.
It was an impressive year to say the least, and it’s one that returning players will look to build on when the 2014 season kicks off next September.