History lesson for Salisbury, Stevenson
If history is any indicator of the future, Saturday’s rivalry game between No. 2 Salisbury and No. 3 Stevenson figures to have significant ramifications for both teams in the NCAA tournament.
In the past two seasons, the winner of the regular-season contest has lost in the Capital Athletic Conference tournament final but bounced back to prevail in the NCAA tournament.
That’s what happened in 2009 with the Mustangs winning in the regular season, losing in the CAC final, and ousting the Sea Gulls in the NCAA quarterfinals. The Following year, Salisbury won the first meeting, dropped the CAC title, and advanced to the national championship game by edging Stevenson in overtime in the semifinals.
Sea Gulls coach Jim Berkman wasn’t sure what to make of the pattern.
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s momentum,” he said. “Maybe one team has a little bit more momentum or is a little more fired up because they lost the last game. I’m not quite sure what it was.”
Mustangs coach Paul Cantabene said he thinks that the trend is suggestive of each side’s ability to adapt in preparation for the next meeting.
“Each time one team loses, that team makes changes for the next game,” he said. “I think that’s a benefit for each team. But I would throw out the records when it comes to this game. This game is going to be won by whoever is the toughest team that gets the most ground balls. It’s not going to be a huge X’s and O’s game. I think it’s going to be about whoever makes more plays.”
So Saturday’s game is significant, but as Berkman pointed out, it won’t likely be the final chapter in this series this spring.
“It’s a big game, but the reality of the situation is that somebody’s going to have to do this more than once,” he said. “Whatever happens on Saturday, it would be a feather in the cap for that team because they’ll get to be the host for the next game that will probably happen in another week or so, and obviously, that’s an advantage. And that would be an advantage down the road in the seeding for the playoffs. So in that regard, it’s a huge game. But the reality of the situation is, it’s not all and done for either team on Saturday.”
