Mount St. Mary's returns to top
Mount St. Mary’s first Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament crown and trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2003 wasn’t just a thrill for the players and coaches. It was validation for their determination to rebuild a program that suffered when head coach Tom Gravante was afflicted with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and was forced to sit out the 2005 season.
"It’s a tremendous win for the program and an opportunity to be in the spotlight," Gravante said. "These kids have persevered through so much, especially my seniors, who, as freshmen, watched a coach fight to regain his health and fight to rebuild his program. And I made a promise to them that if they stayed with me, I would get this right for them. And I commend them and am so grateful to them for staying in there and believing in not only in me, but in themselves for turning this program around."
The Mountaineers, who set a single-season record for wins with 12, advanced courtesy of a 7-6 victory over Siena in the MAAC tournament final on Sunday. Freshman attackman Andrew Scalley scored with no time remaining in regulation to send Mount St. Mary’s to the postseason.
"I can’t say we drew that up as planned," Gravante said with a chuckle. "My staff and I knew that we wanted to set the ball behind with either [sophomore] Brett Schmidt or Andrew Scalley. Andrew’s got a little bit better footwork coming around the corner and banging it. So he ended up back there. … That’s the deadliest place – in my opinion – to set the ball and drive from because defensively, they’re all looking right at you, but their backs are on the guys we’re trying to get the ball to. And in this case, he just got a step on their D-man, and the rest of their five players were all pressed out, and he came around and banged it. … It was goal, time over, and that was it. It was unbelievable. It was almost too real to be true."
The Mountaineers’ reward? A first-round showdown with No. 1 seed Virginia on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
"That’s going to make graduation a little bit of a problem on Sunday," Gravante said. "But that’s going to be great. That’s going to be a lot of fun. That’s going to put a little pressure on our kids for Sunday, but we’ll figure it out."
