After the Valentine’s Day blizzard blasted upstate New York with more than a foot of snow last month, Albany lacrosse head coach Scott Marr was in a quandary. His season opener against Johns Hopkins, then the top-ranked team in the nation, was 10 days away, and the snow had rendered his practice fields unusable.

Marr, a former Johns Hopkins lacrosse player, decided to call on his alma mater for a favor. He asked the university if his team could come to Baltimore on Tuesday to use its facilities in preparation for the Saturday game. Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala, one of Marr’s former teammates, agreed.

Albany took advantage of the generosity and stunned Johns Hopkins with an 8-7 victory, led by a four-goal performance from senior attackman Frank Resetarits. It was the first time Albany had beaten Johns Hopkins in their six-year series.

Nearly a month later, Resetarits looks back on the week his team spent in Baltimore as a positive team-building experience that has helped the Great Danes to a 5-0 record and the fifth spot in the Nike/Inside Lacrosse media poll.

‘Practicing was a little rough but, you know, being all together in the hotel and we all ate dinner together and we spent all day as a team and we really bonded well,’ Resetarits said. ‘Everyone just seemed to grow really close as a team and I think that’s really helping us now, how close we are.’

After beating Johns Hopkins, Albany was faced with the task of continuing to stay focused and avoid complacency. Marr said he was concerned about his team having a let-down game, particularly after watching Drexel beat defending national champion Virginia and fell to Lehigh six days later.

‘We know it’s a long season, we know it’s one game,’ Marr said. ‘We were 1-0, we had 13 games left. All of our eggs weren’t in one basket. The Hopkins game was not going to define our season.’

Albany proved the Hopkins upset was not a fluke by thumping Siena, 21-8, a week after the Johns Hopkins victory. The Great Danes continued by beating Delaware and Drexel, both nationally ranked at the time.

‘Coach Marr does a great job just saying every day that you haven’t won everything yet and if we beat Hopkins there are so many teams out there that can just come up and beat us,’ Resetarits said. ‘There are so many good teams in Division I that you take a day off and you’re going to lose.’

Less than a year ago, Albany was stuck between being a good team and being a legitimate contender on the national scene. Despite winning the America East tournament for three-straight years from 2003-2005, Albany never advanced past the first round of the NCAA tournament. But after its season opener, which Marr described as a breakout win, the team hopes it has elevated itself to the next level.

‘I think it turns people’s heads a little bit and it makes them more aware,’ Marr said. ‘We’ve been in the top five for the last couple of weeks so our name is up there with Virginia and Hopkins and Princeton.’

While Albany currently sits among the perennial favorites, it realizes the season is still young. The team begins its conference schedule on Saturday against Hartford and still has nine games left on its regular season schedule, including trips to Syracuse and Binghamton.

‘I think we’re a little bit more of a household name now just in terms of being a solid team,’ Resetarits said. ‘But we have a long way to go before we’re considered one of those kinds of teams. We just have to keep playing hard, and hopefully one day we’ll be considered like that.’

For Marr, the win over Johns Hopkins had a personal touch to it. Afterward, many of his former teammates contacted him to wish congratulations. He even received a call from Bob Scott, the former athletic director at Johns Hopkins.

Said Marr: ‘It certainly shows that I paid attention during practice and I learned some things while I was there.’

Game of the week

Virginia at Johns Hopkins. Saturday, 1 p.m.Virginia, the defending NCAA Champion currently ranked No. 2 in the latest Nike/Inside Lacrosse media poll, travels to take on No. 3 Johns Hopkins. Johns Hopkins lost its first game to Albany but has since rallied to win four straight, including its most recent over Syracuse. Virginia also lost its opener to Drexel but has beaten its last six opponents, also including Syracuse. The two teams have played nearly identically thus far, setting the stage for a close game.

Power Three1. Cornell – Cornell’s rise to the top of the rankings comes as a surprise, though it was aided by surprising early season losses by big-time programs (see: Virginia, Johns Hopkins, Syracuse). But don’t let that fool you. Cornell is coming off two big wins against Army and Duke and looks strong going into the main portion of its season.

2. Virginia – The Cavaliers lost its opener to Drexel, but have roared back with six-straight wins to climb near the top of the polls. Its toughest game of the season is on Saturday, but a win against Johns Hopkins could put them in a strong position going into the rest of the season, which features only one game against a top-20 team.

3. Johns Hopkins – This team looks remarkably similar to Virginia on paper thus far, but that will end Saturday when the two play each other. Add two subsequent games against North Carolina and Duke, and Johns Hopkins has some of its toughest lacrosse in front of it.

Published on March 21, 2007 at 12:00 pm