With a new season and new coach, the lacrosse team is ready to get its first winning season since its inception at UNM.
Nick Griffith, a sophomore business major and vice-president of the lacrosse club, said the team has yet to have a winning record in its past two seasons, but hopes to change that this year.
“We have been really improving every year after only getting a few wins our first year,” he said. “We are putting in more work than we did last year so we can compete at a better level.”
The team is led by first-year head coach Andrew Goldston and competes in the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse Conference (RMLC). After playing for four years at the University of Oklahoma, he said he is prepared to get into coaching.
“I really like the team we have right now. They have really good potential and everyone on the team is really excited,” he said. “The emotion and enthusiasm I have seen on this team is more than any one I have played on.”
The team opens up its season at home against Fort Lewis on Friday and plays Texas Tech on Sunday.
“They are both very winnable games,” Griffith said. “Fort Lewis is a rival of ours ever since the team started up a few years ago.”
Goldston said he plans on getting two wins this weekend to start off his coaching career.
“I’ll be disappointed if we don’t come out 2-0,” he said. “We haven’t fared that well against them in the past, but the team we have and the strides we have made, I definitely think we can come out being 2-0.”
The team also has games this year against Colorado School of Mines, CSU-Pueblo, Utah State, Utah, Western State and North Texas.
The highlight of the schedule is the match against No. 1 BYU on March 9. BYU won the national championship last year, and Goldston said the team is excited to play the best team in the country.
“It’s going to be a really good experience getting to play a team that is so well known across the nation,” he said.
Because lacrosse is a club sport at UNM, it receives money through team fees and ASUNM. The team fee per player is $650.
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Griffith said the amount the team receives from ASUNM changes every year. Last year ASUNM funded the team $2,000, a small portion of the team’s total expenses.
He said the team fees provide most of the funding for travel, practice time and equipment.
“It (money from ASUNM) doesn’t really cover for any of the costs,” Griffith said. “There are a lot of costs, so the money we get from the school helps, but it’s nowhere near enough. So we have to do a lot on our own.”
Goldston said the fact that each player is willing to shell out the $650 fee demonstrates the group’s dedication to the sport and to the team.
“These kids really put in a lot of hard work,” he said. “The dedication on this team is great and there have never once been a complaint about the cost.”
Men’s Lacrosse vs. Fort Lewis
Friday, 7 p.m.
Johnson Field
