On Friday, May 1, the Whitman men’s lacrosse team travelled to Tacoma, Wash. for a chance to take home their tenth Pacific Northwest Collegiate Lacrosse League Division II Championship in the past sixteen years.

Whitman opened the weekend with a semifinal match-up against No. 1 seeded Southern Oregon University on Saturday, May 2. Southern Oregon entered with a 13-1 season record and had risen to as high as No. 8 in the national rankings. As the Whitman team took their warm up lap, Southern Oregon’s confidence was evident.

“One of their players was standing on the field talking trash as our entire team passed by, saying ‘I’m going to remember you,’ ‘I’m going to remember this,’ ‘it’s over,'” said senior defenseman Michael Warren Anderson.

However, Whitman was the first to score and went up 2-0 early. The SOU Raiders didn’t get closer than 5-4 for the rest of the game, at which point Whitman surged ahead and maintained their lead for an 11-8 win to advance to the finals against Western Oregon University.

Western Oregon had defeated Whitman 20-13 in Walla Walla, Wash. in the two team’s earlier meeting this season and Western Oregon again jumped out to a lead in the final. With five minutes left in regulation WOU held a commanding 8-4 lead.

But with 1:30 left in the game and only down 9-7, Anderson pushed a Western Oregon player holding the ball outside of the box where a team leading by two or more goals must keep it. The play resulted in a penalty against Western Oregon and set off a tirade from the player pushed out that ended with his dismissal from the game, giving Whitman a one man advantage for the final portion of the game. The Missionaries took advantage and tied the game at nine with 30 seconds left in the game. The game was extended into sudden death overtime: the first goal scored would win the championship for their team and earn them a spot in nationals.

“Throughout the first overtime we had some offensive opportunities, but their goalie stopped it or a turnover would happen,” said Anderson. “The most impressive part was Kevin’s [Whitman goalie Kevin Wilson] performance in those two overtime periods. He made I don’t know how many saves, a dozen or so great saves.”

The game went into a second overtime, and with 30 seconds left in the period a Western Oregon midfielder slipped one past Whitman’s defense.

“I slid up to him, hit his arm, the ball came out of his stick about four inches, fell back in and he shot it. It went in and the game was over,” said Anderson. “Some of us were really disappointed, but most of us came off the field with big smiles on our faces. Nobody expected what we did, even some of us secretly never thought it would’ve happened. To think that we were mere inches from going to nationals in Denver this weekend is disappointing, but inspiring at the same time.”

“It was a disappointing loss,” said junior Bidnam Lee in an e-mail. “But at the same time, we found consolation in the fact that there wasn’t a guy on the team who hadn’t played his heart out.”
Whitman goalie Kevin Wilson was named game MVP and sophomore attacker Sunn Kim was named the PNCLL Division II MVP after leading the league in goals (4.13), assists (3.25) and points (7.38) per game.

According to Coach Schmitz, a history professor at Whitman, the team played extremely well in spite of several key injuries.

“The team’s performance was outstanding,” said Schmitz. “We were shorthanded due to injuries and the team overcame that […] That shows strength of character and belief in each other to come back in that manner. They played hard and gave it everything.   I am very proud of their effort and performance.”

Schmitz credits the team’s success this season and in the matches last weekend to the men’s outstanding team dynamics and ability to cooperate as a league –– united by a common goal: optimal performance and, with that, the promise of success.

“The strengths of this team are its unity, willingness to work for team goals and not individual goals, and effort,” said Schmitz.

In addition to the team’s success this past weekend, several team members received all-league honors for their work over the entire season. Whitman midfielder Chris Duncan was an honorable mention selection, while attacker Bidnam Lee made the 2nd team. Attacker Kim, Midfielder David Ogle and Defenseman Anderson were all selected to the PNCLL first team.

The team’s weekend success also rocketed them to No. 16 in the nation in the Men’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association’s top 23 poll.