Lacrosse misses chances in loss

By JENNIFER COOKE

Santa Clara lost to the University of California at Berkeley by a score of 16-10 last Sunday in their first lacrosse game of the season. However, the Broncos remain optimistic.

"There is nothing to be sorry about," Head Coach Gary Podesta said. "We played well."

Podesta thought of the game as a warm-up since the team's first two games were rained out."If we had [played] the two other games in front of this one," Podesta said, "we would have done better."

Junior attackman Jeff Bissell took their improvement over the past two years into consideration."That was the best outing against Cal, although we didn't get the results we wanted," Bissell said. "They are a good team and this [game] is a good yardstick to measure against."

Podesta is positive about the rest of the season.

"We're going to give a lot of people in the league a good game, he said. "They'll have to prepare for us."

Groans were heard from the coaches and crowd as they watched potential goals get away.

"I hate losing, but the game was closer than the score showed," Podesta said. "We played the way we wanted to play, but we missed a lot of open cages."

Three blown one-on-one chances against the Cal goalie, seven shots hitting the pipe and too many missed-cage shots gave the Bears the lead they needed to win.

"We have many young guys playing hard who've never played before," Podesta said. "They pick us up because there is a lot of widespread talent that will get us through."

He thinks the key to a successful team is to have desire coincide with talent.

"This year's team has a good core of guys who want to play," Podesta said.

He believes that avoiding injuries will be the team's biggest challenge.

"We're thin from numbers to begin with, so we can't afford to have any injuries,"Podesta said.Junior attackman and team captain Brendan O'Brien is looking for big things this year.

"The team has found the direction and leadership that's needed for a team in this league to succeed in the playoffs as well as winning a championship because of Podesta and his coaching staff," O'Brien said.