Kingston’s lacrosse team suffered a surprise 6-2 defeat at the hands of Portsmouth University to stay third and ahead of Surrey in the league on a cold windy afternoon at Tolworth.
The team started strongly, defying pressure from a surprisingly strong Portsmouth team and went two goals ahead early on.
“I think it was a rough start to the new season,” said Kingston captain Kasper Borys. “I think we were much better at the end of 2014 than we are now. It’s the first game we’re back, a lot of the guys are injured and we don’t have the full team. It’s looking good.”
Kingston started to lag in the second quarter and conceded the first of many goals. Portsmouth equalised late in the second quarter after pressure from the home side lead to a quick counterattack.
Borys, who plays for the Belgian nations lacrosse team, said there was a need for the team to focus on the basics in training: “With the passes in lacrosse, you forget everything so quickly and it’s such a precision game.
“We do need to do some more rotational work. Besides that we need to get the guys out on the field which is kind of difficult because it’s so cold now, we can’t even go in the back yard and throw it about it’s so cold.”
After half time, Kingston were deflated by the loss of their lead and Portsmouth were quick to pick up on sloppy mistakes by Kingston.
Despite the score line, the game was well fought by Kingston and the late substitution of Joe Nicholson gave the team a boost but it was too little, too late.
“Good game, a tough game,” said playmaker Jacob Stapleton. “They’ve improved a lot since the first time we played them because the first game we beat them 15-2, we had a few players missing, we missed a few chances but we had a good game.”
Despite the defeat, the players were in good spirits at the end of the game.
Attacking player, Robert Nicoll, said: “The society has grown so much this year. For a lot of the guys that was their first game, if anything it shows that people can come out first try and have some fun. It’s an experience and that’s how you get better.”
The team will face Surrey next week in the hope of defending their position in the league.
Caitlin Hamill 
Josh Smith