Please enjoy this special feature story on the Gents lacrosse team:
By Matt Noonan, Noontime Sports
CJ Seling was beaming just two days after the Centenary College of Louisiana men's lacrosse team scored its first varsity win over the University of Dallas. And he had a good reason to smile.
The Gents' three-goal (7-4) victory over the Crusaders was the culmination of both commitment and hard work by a group of student-athletes that Seling welcomed to a school, which recently relaunched the men's lacrosse program as a club team in 2019 before competing at the varsity level one year later. And despite playing just six contests last spring before the current Covid-19 pandemic sidelined the squad, Seling began to notice his unit improve from week-to-week – he considered this some serious growth for a young squad that is currently made up of two seniors, eight sophomores, and eight freshmen.
That growth, which Seling highlighted in a phone interview on Tuesday, was on display Sunday against a Dallas squad that was limited to four goals on 13 shots. The Centenary offense produced a season-best 56 shots while Mark Temple and Jacob Miller combined for four goals and three assists.
Said Seling, "To keep a team to four goals was huge for us … (it shows) the growth (from the past two seasons), but also the potential we have for moving this program forward."
Indeed, Seling's squad has potential for more success – perhaps Sunday's win could be viewed as a turning point for the state's only NCAA Division III program that recently returned to the practice field with smiles from ear to ear. Seling and his team know there is still a lot of work to be done, but winning that first game in program history is exciting.
"No win is ever easy as you still have to go out and execute," Seling explained, "but our guys did that and we're proud of them."
The Gents will attempt to continue their recent momentum tomorrow, March 12 when they visit Huntingdon College with face-off scheduled for 8 p.m. eastern, 7 p.m. central time.
#Gocentenary #CTheOpportunity
