One last ride: Chapman men’s lacrosse season comes to a close

Photo Courtesy of Shane Pase

Sophomore communications studies major Cody Shevelson is a staff sports writer and member of the Chapman men’s lacrosse team. This is a first-person article, part of a larger series where Chapman athletes tell their stories.

Our championship dreams died earlier this month.

The Chapman men's lacrosse team took a 9-7 loss to the San Diego State University Aztecs at Wilson Field on April 18. It was a rough way to end an up and down season, where we battled through constant setbacks — some due to internal flaws, others from difficult matchups on the field. 

Earlier in the season, while the majority of the student body was relaxing on the beach, we took trips to Northern California and Phoenix to play the University of California, Berkeley, Arizona State University and Grand Canyon University.

After a seven hour bus drive, and brutal 12-10 loss to Cal, the team hopped back on the bus to Chapman for a week of practice. This was just the start of a grueling spring break. We soon headed off to Phoenix to play our first interconference games of the season against ASU and GCU.

The game against ASU was a nailbiter. We quickly went down 5-1 in the first quarter only to battle back to within four points to make it 10-6 going into the fourth. After scoring three quick goals, we were on a run and looking to tie the game up. I went out for the next faceoff, got set in my stance and readied myself for action. 

You could cut the tension with a knife as I readied myself for the referee's call. Pointing my right foot at the ball and left foot upfield, the ref set the ball down on the line and called for us to get set in our stances. I lowered my hands to the ground, scraping my knuckles against the turf and awaited his call. As the referee transitioned through each stage of the call I felt my body tensing up ready to explode over the ball and win possession for my team.

And when he blew the whistle, that’s exactly what I thought happened.

I clamped over the ball immediately, but before I could exit out and help transition my team to offense, he flagged me for moving early, blowing my team's chance of tying up the game with only minutes left to go. 

I was livid. I had won the most important faceoff in the game and the referee said that I had cheated. I came off the field hot, cussing and yelling about how “there’s no possible way I went early,” and “he just cost us the game!” 

After being consoled by my coach, and having multiple people tell me that they agreed with me in the fact that I didn’t go early, I realized that my negative presence on the sideline was only going to hurt the team in these crucial last minutes of the game. So, I took a deep breath and made my way to the end of the bench.

As I took my seat, I watched in anticipation as our defense got ready for the most important possession of the game.

Unfortunately, though, an ASU player picked up the ball and they began running out the final minutes on the clock, scoring one more goal at the end of regulation, making the final score 11-9 to the Sun Devils. 

Two days later, we were back on the bus, making our way to GCU. It was a beautiful day outside, we were playing on grass, there was a slight breeze and hopes were high as we piled into the Antelope’s soccer stadium. 

Throughout warmups, our team seemed more preoccupied with GCU's main attraction, senior defenseman Garrett Beck, than with mentally preparing to secure a much needed win. 

While the rest of GCU began their warmups in standard lines, Beck positioned himself right on the midline, staring us down as what he felt to be some form of intimidation. He pranced around the field like some wild bronco, kicking his feet into the dirt and shaking his head back and forth with growing intensity.

He is the only human being I’ve ever seen make a six-foot lacrosse stick look small. That being said, skill doesn’t always come with size. 

Fortunately for Beck and the rest of the GCU roster, we were about to play the worst game of lacrosse we had all season. We put up a disappointing six goals through four quarters, compared to GCU’s 11. 

Although we didn’t score many, it wasn’t necessarily an offensive disaster as much as it was a full on team breakdown. Absolutely no factors of the game were swinging our way, and you could slowly feel the negativity creeping into the sideline.  

At the end of the game, our coaches called us over to talk before we could even take our pads off. 

One thing stuck out in that chat. Our new offensive coordinator, Clay Eggeman, said something that had many players wondering what was coming next. 

“Changes will be made going forward,”  he said.

Everyone was nervous on the bus ride home, just wondering what these changes were going to be. Nobody wanted to lose any playing time to someone below them on the depth chart, and the seniors were worried about being benched in the last four regular season games they had. 

The next Tuesday at practice, we found these “changes” coach was talking about was much more about our mentality as a team, as opposed to the players coach decided to play on the field. 

You could instantly tell the difference in practice intensity. After an unsuccessful spring break, we were hungry for a win and it showed in our attention to detail. 

It was the little things. Everyone wore the same color undershirt. We made sure we hustled from drill to drill. There was constant communication and hard work. And most importantly, nobody took reps off. 

We seemed like a well oiled machine with the sole intention of winning the last four games of our regular season and earning a playoff berth after a highly chaotic season. 

We kicked it off with a 18-13 upset win over the University of Arizona, who at that time was ranked 19th in the country. 

Five of those goals came from Dante DeCollibus, a junior attackman, business and economics double major and standout offensive player on the team. The other 13 goals came from an assortment of other players.

Seniors Josh Vormund, an applied human physiology major, and Jack Wirth, a business administration major, each tallied a hat trick of goals on the game against the Wildcats while senior and computer science major Luke Morrisette put two between the pipes.

Adam McDonnell, a sophomore broadcast journalism and documentary major, also scored two, alongside fellow sophomores Rocco Reginelli, a business & accounting double major, and Patrick Sebree, a business administration major, who both scored one. Junior Nicolas Ursino, a communication studies major, added one as well.

Coming off the win against the Wildcats, we were scheduled to play both the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles — two teams that have historically struggled to find their footing on the lacrosse field, but bring the energy regardless. 

First was USC, an away game at St. Francis High School on April 10. We managed to keep them scoreless in the first half, all while putting up eight points of our own. Both the offense and defense were really flowing and creating opportunity for one another by continuing to make the right decisions play after play. When the final whistle blew, the scoreboard read: Chapman 14, USC 4. 

The night of the UCLA game was electric. With only two more games guaranteed in our schedule at that point, we were taking nothing for granted, and every opportunity to play lacrosse seemed like a blessing.

Photo Courtesy of Shane Pase

We started strong again like we had against USC, putting up eight goals in the first half while holding them to only one. Being up by seven points going into the second half gave us the opportunity to mix in some players that normally don’t get to see the field of play, allowing them to record some stats of their own.

Robert Crowell, sophomore long stick midfielder and business administration major, and George Mullen, an undeclared freshman attackman, both scored the first goals of their collegiate careers against UCLA. 

Crowell, a multisport athlete who decided to join the lacrosse team in his football offseason, was able to score off of an assist from Reginelli for our 11th point of the game. Mullen scored his first goal off of another assist from Reginelli later in the game for the last Chapman goal, leaving a final score of 14-8.

Going into our last game against San Diego State University emotions were running high. Being senior night, everyone felt as though we owed it to the seniors to play the hardest we had all season. Whether it killed us or not, we needed to go all out in order to try and preserve what little season we had left and prolong it as much as possible.

Photo Courtesy of Shane Pase

We had 60 minutes to prove whether we deserved a spot in the Southern Lacrosse Conference playoffs, and we felt fully prepared. 

I knew I was going to have a tough battle ahead of me facing off against Tristan Keyser, a senior faceoff specialist for SDSU. Sitting at around a 73% win percentage, Keyser is one of the most elite faceoff men in the country at the Men's Collegiate Lacrosse Association Division I level. 

SDSU started off hot. They scored four goals in the first half, while holding us scoreless until late in the second quarter. That's when DeCollibus and McDonell each put a goal in the back of the net, finally putting us on the board and sending us into half down two. 

The second half we started strong, scoring three goals in the third quarter and another two in the fourth. This was largely thanks to an outstanding performance by Holden Walker, a sophomore midfielder and finance dual major with an accounting and business administration emphasis, who scored three goals in the second half to keep us in the game and the sidelines spirits up as time slowly ticked off the clock.

At the end of the game, however, the final score read: SDSU, 9, Chapman, 7. Our chances of controlling our destiny of getting a playoff spot in the SLC were gone. Now we needed GCU to beat ASU in an upset to have a shot of making it. 

A few days later on April 19, GCU lost to ASU 15-10, ending the chapter on our 2025 season, and closing out our seniors' meaningful lacrosse careers.

Wirth, Vomund, Morissette, Elijah Bruggeman and Max Hartel are five men who have put blood, sweat and tears into this program. Their impact, both on and off the field won’t soon be forgotten. 

Although I only had the pleasure of playing alongside these guys for two seasons, I consider them to be some of the best friends I’ve ever had. They’re more than just teammates, they’re family. From small locker room moments, to big plays on the field, to socializing off of it, they’ve helped lay the foundation that future teams can continue to build on for years to come.

At the end of every season I constantly find myself coming back to the quote “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”