Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1545007
4 0 J U N E / J U L Y 2 0 2 6 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M OLYMPIC SPORTS T here was a point when it seemed as though the Penn State men's lacrosse team was destined to bow out quietly this year. The Nittany Lions were talented but wildly inconsistent. During a four-week early-season stretch, they defeated then-No. 3 Princeton and then-No. 7 Cornell by a combined margin of 32-14, but they also lost 1-goal games to un- ranked Villanova and Navy. That sort of unpredictability appeared to foretell a short postseason. But after wrapping up a 7-5 regular season with a 16-8 win at Rutgers, Penn State regrouped. When the Big Ten Tour- nament began on April 30 in Piscataway, N.J., the Lions looked like the team that had pulled off those eye-opening ranked wins in the nonconference season. They started out by topping No. 10 Maryland, 8-6, in the semifinals, capi- talizing on a hat trick by Hunter Aquino, the sophomore attackman's sixth multi- goal game to that point in the season. Two days later against a Johns Hop- kins team that had edged them 11-10 during the regular season, the Lions put together a dominant second-half run that brought them their second Big Ten Tournament title in a 15-7 victory. Aquino again came up big, tallying 2 goals and 2 assists, while junior at- tackman Kyle Lehman contributed his fourth hat trick of the season. As a team, Penn State outshot the Blue Jays 27-12 over the last 30 minutes, during which they pulled away after holding a 2-goal lead at the break. To head coach Jeff Tambroni, the title was proof that his Nittany Lions really were as capable as they'd looked in their best moments during the regular sea- son. "This team had this in them," Tam- broni told Inside Lacrosse magazine. "We needed those 10 days between Rutgers and Maryland in opening the tournament. … Every time I felt like we were getting there, something would happen to lose it. In the last few weeks, we put a lot of time and effort into making who we thought we could be happen. That meant invest- ing in the little things — groundballs, face-offs. It all led to a bigger picture." Senior defender Alex Ross, a first- team Inside Lacrosse All-American, said the Lions learned and grew from their earlier difficulties. "Our five losses taught us more than any of the games we won," Ross said. "We wanted to set an identity with groundballs and face-offs we won, and we had to reset ourselves. We knew our potential and knew how good we could really be, but we weren't showing our potential. … We knew we could beat any team in the country. We made things tough for us, but we knew we could handle it." The Late Show After an up-and-down start, the Penn State men's lacrosse team found its rhythm M AT T H E R B | M AT T. H E R B @ O N 3 . C O M Sophomore attackman Hunter Aquino was named Most Outstanding Player of the Big Ten Tournament after totaling 5 goals and 2 assists in wins over Maryland and Johns Hopkins. PHOTO COURTESY PENN STATE ATHLETICS