The Dean College Men's Lacrosse team is 8-2 and sits in third place in the GNAC Conference. (Photo Courtesy: Minese Photography).
The Dean College Bulldogs Lacrosse team has a 8-2 record as of press time and sit in third place in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) standings behind Norwich University and Lasell University.
The Bulldogs success has come mainly from the team’s ability to stick together as a group during the good as well as the bad. “Leading the team to success has been how close we all are. We are brothers on and off the field and the chemistry that we have built not only on the field, but also off it is really showing,” sophomore Diego Alvarez-Segee said.
Coach Matt Schairer explained, “The success of the team has been their ability to play together as one cohesive unit. Great leadership from our upperclassmen and a collection of guys that put the success of the team above the individual is the key,”
Coming into this season, Dean was picked to finish eighth in the GNAC preseason poll. This did not sit well with the team, and they are now starting to embrace it and prove everyone wrong.
“When those ranking came out, me and the rest of the guys felt disrespected. We felt that the coaches of the GNAC counted us out and thought we would be easy wins. The eighth ranking really put a chip on our shoulders and made us want to work harder than we ever have,” Segee said.
“We are at the top of this conference and the camaraderie on this team is unmatched.” Junior team captain Damon Shute said. “As captain, I love how much we believe in each other, it’s very motivating to know everyone has each other’s back and that we all trust each other.”
The strength of the Bulldogs is their depth as they have a lot of players that can contribute when they get called on late in close game situations, which allows them to constantly rotate fresh bodies onto the field. Dean also has had a lot of success with the players always supporting each other as they also enjoy always being around each other.
While the Bulldogs have been very successful as a team, they have also had two standouts so far. Diego Alvarez-Segee has 38 goals, 21 assists and 59 points so far this season, was named GNAC Player of the Week, and senior goaltender Alexander Govoni, who has started all their games, has a record of 8-2 when in net, along with a 59.9 save percentage so far this season, was named GNAC Goaltender of the Week for the week of April 3rd.
“I feel like I’ve been working hard and playing great, so to see the acknowledgment from the league was awesome. I also credit my team as we have been playing well as a unit and they’ve been helping me feel confident and getting me in the right spots to finish,” Segee said.
While Dean is playing well, Coach Schairer would still like to see his team improve on their decision making when on offense as well as improve their on-ball defense and have more balanced scoring throughout the roster.
“One thing we would want to improve is just being able to stay positive in games where we aren’t leading the entire time,” Segee said.
At a high level for the team this season, their goal is to win out the rest of the season to gain a high seed for the playoffs, and to ultimately win the conference tournament.
Depending on who you ask on the team, the highlight of this season has or has not already taken place.
Segee said, “The highlight of the team so far was going to St. Joseph Maine and winning our first close game and getting our first win in the GNAC this season. Every guy had energy and played with a chip on our shoulder. We came out realizing that this was a team that ranked us eight and we wanted to prove to the league that we were not the 8th seed.”
On Coach Schairer’s watch though, the highlight of this season has not happened as he believes that the best is still yet to come.
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