Motown Showdown
4/27/2018 12:00:00 AM | Lacrosse
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - This is the kind of game that Sara Tisdale dreamed of when she became the first coach in Central Michigan lacrosse history nearly four years ago.
A championship - the first in the three-year history of the program -- is there for the taking and it's as simple as winning a game.
The Chippewas go to Detroit Mercy on Saturday (4 p.m.) in their regular-season finale. The Chippewas are 11-5, 4-0 league. The Titans are 9-7, 3-1. The winner is the Southern Conference champion and the No. 1 seed for the league tournament, which is May 3-5 in Macon, Ga.
"I have had several conversations with various people with how we are starting to see years of work pay off," Tisdale said. "That comes from everything from taking discipline very seriously here all the way up to making sure we are utilizing the services here and making sure we are fueled up the right way."
The progress is evident in the three-year-old program that has clearly turned the corner. The Chippewas have clinched their first winning season and their 11 wins are far and away the most in program history. The take a program-record six-game win streak into Saturday's game at Detroit Mercy.
Last weekend was the perfect example of how far the program has come. They opened with a 19-15 win at Old Dominion, and then posted an 11-10 come-from-behind win over Coastal Carolina, a team that handed CMU a 15-9 loss a year ago in an Atlantic SUN game in Mount Pleasant.
"Last weekend was the first time we saw a four-day complete business trip," Tisdale said. "Two games, two practices, two scouts, four days of back-to-back travel, eight of 13 days on the road, four different flights, it is not easy.
"They looked just as good (against Coastal Carolina) as they did two months ago, and obviously winning helps the energy the team carries. I think they know what it takes and it's all the small pieces. We haven't arrived, we are not near where we want to be, but we are starting to see all the work pay off."
Scoring is up - the Chippewas are averaging a goal more per game this season than they did a year ago. But the most glaring difference is on the defensive side of things. The Chippewas have surrendered 172 goals in 2018. Last year, they allowed 225.
"I am overwhelmed," goalkeeper Dominique Hamman said. "I was telling coach the other day, 'We are a third-year team and we are beating these teams who are established; what does everyone else think?'
"She has been telling us since the beginning of the season, 'You guys are so good, you guys are so good; I want you guys to realize that.'"
Clearly, the winning has wrought a measure of confidence, as it always does. So too has the first two years, when the Chippewas battled through the hard times, but stuck to the blueprint.
"I don't think all of us players realized that until we just kept on winning," Hamman said. "Like 'whoa we actually are (good).'"
As a brand-new program in 2016, the Chippewa roster almost exclusively comprised freshmen. Those freshmen are now juniors, and Tisdale has brought in talented classes behind her initial one.
The building the blocks are now in place, and the Chippewas have also benefitted from playing a challenging nonconference schedule. They started the season 2-4, losing to long-established and successful programs such as Michigan, Cincinnati and Marquette. They have won nine of their last 10 starts.
CMU has played those teams in seasons past, but the strides the Chippewa program has made were evident this season when they took the field against the likes of the Wolverines.
"With our first season, you just can't expect to win every game," Hamman said. "It's just not realistic. You have to buy into the little things and I think that is how we have gotten the success in year three. It is only year three, but since we have bought into that mentality since the very beginning we have been able to build off that. Also now we have that roster of players so we can match up against these (more-experienced) teams."
A game with Detroit Mercy means a bundle to the Chippewas, the championship trophy aside. The Titans have beaten CMU in each of the first two years of the Chippewa program. Last year, UDM defeated CMU, 17-12, in the regular-season finale, ending CMU's hopes for a bid to the ASUN Tournament.
Both moved to the SoCon in 2018, but that did nothing to cool the simmering rivalry. If anything, it has intensified it.
"For one they are so close (geographically)," Hamman said. "We have coaches and players that know coaches and players for that team as well because they are another Michigan school. There is just a lot more emotion, there is almost more on the line that just a win and a loss when we play them. … It makes it more fun.
"Detroit is beatable, just like any other team, and we have proved that this season. I believe that if we do all the little things and buy into each one of our roles on the field it will turn into a win."
Just as buying in and believing has turned the program into a winner.
