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Vandal Shots Week 12: Tropical D-Unit

MCLA Idaho Vandals Week 12-3

Editor’s note: The Idaho Vandals are an MCLA D1 team, competing in the Pacific Northwest Conference. Krieg Shaw, a senior midfielder, will be contributing photos on a weekly basis all season long. You can check out all of his posts here.
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Oh another week closer to games, I’m in envy of everyone who has already been able to play. I want to get this ball rolling. We’ve been working hard to continue the progress we’ve made since last year as well as a last ditch effort to get some more fundraising in. Outside meetings and extra indoor sessions, along with the normal shooting and lifting make for a lot of time outside of school focused on lacrosse. I love it.

The Saturday before the Super Bowl our coach wrangled us in for an EMO practice to go over some stuff that he had worked on this past week. While being a pretty laxidasical meeting for the EMO team, it was a solid session and showed a lot of potential to having an effective man-up squad. Now to just work out all the kinks and execute the advantages when we get them.

While the east coast has gotten effed, we’ve been lucky to have unseasonably awesome weather…

MCLA Idaho Vandals Week 12-1
(40° in Moscow means Hawaiian shirts)

This week we are taking a look at senior Ben Lavigne and junior Sean Harrington, both returning d-poles and two of our captains this year. Ben is in his fourth and final season of lacrosse at the University of Idaho and has been a huge contributor to this team every year, earning himself 1st Team All-Conference for the past two seasons.

Lavigne has definitely earned every bit of the honors with the work he’s put in and the great job he’s done during games. While being one of our top close defenders, he also gets hungry for the occasional stride up the field in hopes of a good rip on cage.

MCLA Idaho Vandals Week 12-2
Lavigne clearing the ball, probably going to score. He’s got the look in his eyes.
MCLA Idaho Vandals Week 12-3
Playing defense vs. UVU during Gem State this fall.

Sean is the macho man of the team; he probably could break me in half if I mouthed off to him. He’s a poster child of well spent time in the gym not standing in front of a mirror doing curls. He’s a definite leader on the team and helps keep guys on top of their game by leading 7 am footwork/sprint sessions every week.

While not having the honors on paper as Ben does, Sean has been a quiet storm on this team. He consistently plays great defense, bodying up on anyone and peppering them with stick checks as soon as he gets space. This has made for some great improvement in ball protection by our attackmen.

MCLA Idaho Vandals Week 12-4
Clearing the ball up the field during Gem State.
MCLA Idaho Vandals Week 12-5
Probably getting ready to pummel someone.

All in all, I feel our defense has gotten a lot better this year, way more vocal, way better communication, really playing as a unit. It’s great to see and it helps push the offense to be better every practice.

MCLA Idaho Vandals Week 12-6
From last year… just looking tough.

And now a random picture from around Moscow…

MCLA Idaho Vandals Week 12-7
Still not really sure how I feel about this.

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