The men’s lacrosse team opened its season with a commanding win, defeating the Olivet College Comets 16–8 at the Detroit Country Day Field House last Sunday. Junior attacker Nick Lobley led the Yeomen with a dominant performance with five goals. He wasted no time netting the first goal of his 2015 campaign, scoring an unassisted goal just 69 seconds into the game. He struck again less than six minutes into the contest, and following his lead, junior midfielder Matt Fox added another point off an assist from first-year midfielder Reese Koburov.

The Yeomen didn’t look back from there, rattling off six unanswered goals to take a commanding 9–1 lead with 10 minutes and 5 seconds left in the second quarter. Lobley scored five of the team’s first nine goals, and the team took a 10–3 lead heading into the second half.

“We started off strong against Olivet,” Fox said. “We ended the first quarter with a 5–1 lead, and it was clear that we owned the pace of the game.”

A strong effort from sophomore midfielder Kinori Rosnow on faceoffs helped lead the Yeomen attack, as he dominated the opposition by winning 14 of his 16 chances. Yeomen senior goalie and captain Erickson Andrews also contributed in a big way, anchoring the defense by making eight saves before checking out of the game. By taking control of the game early, Oberlin was able to rotate 35 different players onto the field. By the game’s end, 11 different Yeomen had registered a goal.

“Taking an early lead helped our team cycle through everybody, which is especially important for our freshmen getting their first taste of college lacrosse,” Lobley said.

The Yeomen are coming off of a 2014 campaign in which they went 8–6 with a 3–4 record in the North Coast Athletic Conference. They narrowly missed an NCAC playoff berth after finishing fifth in the conference standings and will look to take the next step this year in securing the team’s first-ever conference playoff berth.

While the Yeomen appear to be in a good place to start the season, Fox believes that the Yeomen will have to make adjustments in order to compete against the best teams in the NCAC.

“I think we have great individual talent right now, and we’ve got the intensity to bring our game to the next level,” said Fox. “Something that we’ve got to improve is our team chemistry. We sometimes get caught up in how well we are playing individually, which can cause people to overthink and make mental mistakes.”

In order to take that next step, the Yeomen will have to overcome injuries to key players, as they will play this season without junior attacker Alex Wagman and sophomore defender Jake Miller. Both players suffered torn ACLs in the preseason and will have to refocus their sights on contributing in 2016. Wagman’s injury will be especially tough to overcome, as he led the team in goals, assists, points and shots last season.

“It is always hard to lose players to injury,” Andrews said. “They aren’t just your teammates; they are your friends. To see them in such an unfortunate situation is hard. As a team we will definitely miss their sizable contributions.”

In trying to fill the void left by Wagman and Miller, the Yeomen will look to some of the 14 first-year players to play substantial roles. Though the team would prefer to ease the younger players into game action, captain and senior midfielder Sean Seaman is adamant that the first-year class is capable of rising to the challenge.

“It’ll take a group effort to replace those guys, and we have a lot of young players ready to step up,” he said.

Head Coach Topher Grossman was also quick to shoot down the notion that his team would have to compromise its high hopes due to a few injuries.

“We aren’t going to let injuries affect our goals for the season,” he said. “Lacrosse is a team sport, and we feel confident [our] players will rise to the occasion.”

No matter the challenges ahead, Lobley and his teammates are setting big goals for this season.

“For the rest of the season I think that we will be pressing for a berth in the NCAC conference tournament,” Lobley said. “This year we are looking to host a game in the tournament, not just qualify.”

The team did well to continue to work toward that goal on Wednesday afternoon, beating the Medaille College Mavericks 13–5 at the All Pro Athletic Center in Lorain. The Yeomen dominated from the outset yet again, taking a 5–1 lead in the first quarter. Several players contributed to the team’s high score, as Fox, Lobley and first-years Steve Kelleher and John Pierce scored two goals each.

The Yeomen will look to push their record to 3–0 this Saturday when they take on the Capital University Crusaders on the road in Bexley, Ohio.