2024 DIV II NCAA MEN'S LACROSSE CHAMPIONSHIP

May 26, 2024

Gordon Purdie

Dylan Renner

Brian Harinski

Lincoln Financial Field

Adelphia Panthers

Media Conference

Adelphi 12, Lenoir-Rhyne 10

MODERATOR: All right. We're joined by Adelphi head coach Gordon Purdie and student-athletes Dylan Renner and Brian Harinski. This is the eighth NCAA championship title for Adelphi in program history and their first since 2001. We're going to start with an opening statement from coach, then we will move to questions for the student-athletes, once the questions for student-athletes are done, we'll dismiss them back to the locker room and take questions for coach. Coach?

GORDON PURDIE: This is a long time coming. Got here in 86 in pursuit of a national championship as a student-athlete and we couldn't achieve that and those alumni have been letting me know about that and having been given the opportunity to coach some 17 years ago here at Adelphi, that's been my true hope. I thank everybody who has helped us get here, the president, professors, they're awesome at Adelphi, and the coaching staff that I have are second to none. There's a reason Coach Volpi has won assistant coach of the year and Coach Cat has won assistant coach of the year, because I've got the best coaches and they showed that today in preparing these guys, these student-athletes for today's victory. I truly am grateful for the opportunity to coach here at Adelphi. Winning a national championship is just an awesome opportunity. I can't even put into words how much joy I have having worn this shirt Doc Doherty, his daughters are here and they brought this for me to wear as a token and a remembrance of what he's done for our program. So I've got so much joy and to watch these guys never give up all year long is truly a blessing.

MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes? We'll start right here.

Q. Brian, Patrick Stevens with Lacrosse Magazine. When you look at what you guys were able to do out in the midfield in the second half, what kind of flipped for you guys and how well were you guys all playing off of each other to be able to get those opportunities and dominate the way you did?

BRIAN HARINSKI: So, we had a rough first half offensively, only putting up four on the board and we came into the locker room at halftime, made some adjustments, trying to pick on the short sticks and a lot of two-man games and everything like that, and we just never gave up hope and we all felt confident shooting the ball and they went in the back of the net and no better feeling.

MODERATOR: Right here.

Q. Dylan, I noticed the big pile-up at the end of the game, everyone goes in, I noticed you ran to the coaching staff. What was that moment? What were you saying with those guys?

DYLAN RENNER: Yeah, the beginning of playoffs we watched the 2011 National Championship where Adelphi lost to Mercyhurst and we saw Coach Purdie and everyone on the coaching staff was part of that. Coach Gill was playing his senior year. It just meant to me it meant everything to them just because of how long it's been and hard we know they've worked for everything to come. We've had great teams in the past, we've fallen short. Just to even get here and to represent the 2011 team and win it for them kind of means everything.

MODERATOR: Patrick here and then we'll come across the way.

Q. Dylan, just when you look at how your zone shirt-circuited them in the fourth quarter, from your perspective, could you sense some frustration? Did you feel that whole time you guys were basically one stick check away from creating misery for them in the stretches?

DYLAN RENNER: Yeah, of course. First of all I got to give a shout-out to my defense. Without them, obviously we're doing nothing like that, but we talk about it especially in the second half. Coming into the second half, we were down. We talked about riding the wave all year. Lacrosse is like basketball. It's a game of runs. There's going to be times where you're holding them for 30 minutes. There's going to be times where you're getting scored on three goals in three minutes.

We felt that coming into this at zone, especially with the heat and everything would work out best for us and I think in that fourth quarter you really saw it. We kind of played as one, hunkered in, we talk about protecting the heart, just right in the middle. They did everything and more and so in the fourth quarter we really frustrated them, like you said. I really can't thank them enough and without them, really we're not here, so.

Q. Dylan, I want to ask a few weeks ago when you beat Pace you said you were a win away from playing for a national championship. Following week, it becomes reality, you are playing for a national championship. Now that you've done it, has the reality set in for you?

DYLAN RENNER: Honestly, no? I'm sure in an hour or two when the adrenaline comes down, I'm going to be freaking out.

BRIAN HARINSKI: So much pain.

DYLAN RENNER: Yeah. I said it earlier, my mom posted a photo of me ten years ago here at The Link watching the Final Four and right before bed I got to look at that and just kind of soak everything in that I'm actually here. This has always been a dream of mine. Nothing makes me happier than bringing it to a school that's right down the block from me, watching the greatest alumni in Division II, hands down, and bringing it home for everyone here here at Adelphi.

MODERATOR: Any other questions for the student-athletes. Congratulations, gentlemen.

DYLAN RENNER: Thank you so much.

MODERATOR: Questions for coach?

GREG PARADINE: Get the scissors ready, boys. (Laughter)

Q. A good bet I'm guessing there, huh?

GORDON PURDIE: It was a commitment I made. I'm an honest guy, I just haven't told the wife yet. (Laughter)

Q. In the first half, Dylan making eight saves in the first quarter, given the way things were unfolding, how much did that give you guys the chance to get your bearings in this thing?

GORDON PURDIE: You know, it helped the offense tremendously. The brick wall that he's been all year, it just gives us those extra eight possessions that we get that we don't have when we're facing off, you know? That face-off has been tough on us all year. We won a championship, the Northeast 10 Championship without winning a face-off. Takes me back to 1979 when we won our first championship here at Adelphi without winning a face-off because they didn't have a face-off, so, it can be done. Former teams have done it and we certainly had our chances to win games without possessions, and Dylan has really offered that to us, those extra chances.

Q. Coach, I was going to ask you about the face-off but you got there first. To see Dylan win player of the year, obviously, and have that be an honor he gets on top of this at this culmination point for him, how special has it been to watch him?

GORDON PURDIE: Yeah, Dylan's ability to make saves and I have played with some of the greatest goalies in the world, and I feel like as Dylan's my teammate now and playing for us, it's unbelievable the level of concentration he has, the level of commitment he has to every practice. He doesn't take a practice off. What you saw out there was exactly how he is in practice. He, if he makes a save, he's beat up by that. I think he's at 65%, the highest in division I, II and III before this game, and I think there's a reason why he's the best goalie in the country, and we're thrilled to have him and have him back again next year.

Q. Gordon, to get the midfield going the way that you did, that's not the conventional way to go win a championship like this, but you haven't been a conventional team, right?

GORDON PURDIE: Yeah, we went a little wide on the midfield early and we got down and at a point, Coach Cat came over and said I hope I didn't hold them out too much and then you look at that third quarter and that final quarter when we had our legs and we were running, gunning, that gave us an opportunity to get some momentum which we hadn't had, and that gave us some confidence and that confidence, along with some great saves and some great defensive stops, it pushed us to a point that I think they became -- I don't want to -- listen, they're a fantastic team. They're beating us. We have played 20 times, 10 times we'll went and 10 times they'll win, every game is a battle out there and to give them all the credit, if I haven't said that already, I want to make sure we know Greg's team is an unbelievable team, to bring it back and ready to go back-to-back. I'll put that out there, but our midfield in the second half, the running, the gunning, the clearing, the fast breaks, something we practice every day. We've been giving them a challenge. You've got to win every practice this week. If we win every practice, we win the game and the four quarters, the two last quarters are those two that I think we won and we came through and that gave us an opportunity to walk away with the victory.

Q. They talked a bit about Steinbach. He obviously wasn't playing when you guys faced them the first time --

GORDON PURDIE: Did you see that shot? Show me a shot better than that one where a goalie is ready. That is an unconventional shot that I would say you got to be kidding me. And he can pull those out at different times and has had those all year and we -- not having him in the first time we played him, they had a shorty on him at one point and I was like, this is going to be fun for us and it was and we put that, I think he put that one on the scoreboard then. They had to switch their match-ups and cunningly they did and that opened up the opportunity for others and it was a chess match that both coaches knew exactly what was going down every play and at the end of the day, two unbelievably talented coaching staffs watched two great teams go at it and today we have the victors.

Q. Coach, I want to go back to the discussion on face-offs we had last week. Last week for you it was Kyle Trass. Can you speak a little bit in the second half on the performance of Steven Bayer and what he meant to your team?

GREG PARADINE: You know what I said to Greg who was on the field who was a player for us back in 2011, do you think we should give Stephen a chance? And Stephen has been working out and we've had eight guys facing off all week ready to go, and Stephen was fresh. I get to work and he's out on the field on his own, with somebody, with a video going of Matt with the whistle. This guy didn't face-off until two or three weeks ago and yet he was the difference out there and got some key possessions for us when we really needed it. He's a tough kid and so was Lenoir-Rhyne's kid a tough kid, but at the end of the day, couldn't be happier for Stephen for him to tribute like he did and we're thrilled with the way that he was able to go in there and play a position that he hasn't done since high school.

MODERATOR: Any other questions for coach? All right thanks, coach. Congratulations.

GORDON PURDIE: Time to go to the hairdresser! (Laughter).