After weather has slowed the start of the South men’s lacrosse season, the team is off to a 2-1 start. The team has so far defeated both Deerfield and Evanston but fallen to Glenbrook North, the number one team in Illinois according to laxpower.com.

Despite the somewhat mixed early season results, the team has high expectations for the season; according head coach Matthew Jones, the team has aspirations of a state championship.

“To win state […] is the expectation,” Jones said. “That is the expectation the kids have put on themselves, and any less of an expectation would be a disservice to them.”

Senior midfielder Spencer Ford shares this goal, saying that the team will be good enough if they can work as a cohesive unit.

“We want to win state,” Ford said. “I think that our team is good enough to do it, and if we can put together the pieces before the season ends we’re gonna have a great chance.”

To win state, the team needs to be firing on all cylinders. According to Jones, the team will need to work as a unit to achieve peak performance this season.

“I don’t think we have one individual who will be the most important,” Jones said. “As in any sport, you have to rely on everyone that you have. We need everyone to produce.”

According to Jones, chemistry is a strength which should play a major role this season.

“This group of guys has really bonded very early in the season,” Jones said. “There seems to be a real sense of family and community with these guys, and they look out for each other and push each other to strive to do better.”

Much of the team’s expectations rely on their goal-prevention and defense, a unit which is anchored by Ryan Hauldren, senior co-captain and goalie. According to Jones, Hauldren is one of the top goalies in the state, which makes goal-prevention a strength of the team.

The team is not without its flaws, however. According to Jones, the Titans sometimes struggle with turnovers, and they need to use more discretion in taking shots.

“We tend to force the ball into areas where there are a lot of people,” Jones said. “We need to be more selective with our shooting. We always look for the first shot when we should be looking for the best shot.”

Ford believes that some of the Titans’ struggles have been a result of miscommunication, something that he believes will be fixed as the season continues.

“I feel like communication is a bit of a problem,” Ford said. “We have to communicate more [and] get everyone on the same page and we’ll start clicking.”

Jones also believes the Titans conditioning is lackluster and that it has cost them one victory already.

“We need to improve our conditioning,” Jones said. “We’ve seen a decline in performance as the games have gone on. In the Glenbrook North game, we were up 6-2 at the half and wound up losing 13-9. We didn’t have the conditioning to play a team like that for four quarters.”

Conditioning is not something cannot be fixed, according to Jones, which is partially why the Titans have such high expectations for the end of the season. Jones says that conditioning is a particular focus during practice right now.

“We try to make all of our drills really high-tempo,” Jones said. “We do a lot of drills that involve transitions, and then we focus on conditioning at the end [of practice].”

The Titans’ season continues Monday, when the team will play Libertyville at home in a makeup for this last Monday’s game. The regular season  will conclude later in May, at which point the Titans will compete for the state championship in the playoffs.