Limestone Men's Lacrosse Wins Back-To-Back National Titles

It was a fluke, so many lacrosse people said 15 years ago, when a tiny school from the Southeast won an NCAA Division II national championship.

But two years later, Limestone did it again.

And on Tuesday afternoon, this latest group of Saints marched into a news conference and sat in front of four trophies that were on display. They added the last one Sunday, when they beat Le Moyne, 9-6, in Philadelphia for a second straight title.

"As soon as we got back home and got off the bus," Limestone head coach J.B. Clarke said, "we heard, 'You're going to win three in a row, right?' "

Limestone only loses a couple of starters from a team that went 20-1 to set the Division II record for victories in a season, so expectations for 2016 are already high. The Saints lost seven key members from 2014 and had to overhaul almost the entire defense. Six goals allowed to Le Moyne matched the effort last year against LIU Post and marked the fewest in a title game since 2007.

"We grew so much on defense," Clarke said. "To rebound on that end was very difficult. It took some time. (Assistant coach Carroll) Kennedy did a great job of figuring out our strengths and weaknesses. We developed schemes to help us be successful."

Back in 2000, when Limestone first played for a national championship under then head coach and program founder Mike Cerino, the school had only about 500 on-campus students (as compared to about 1,200 now) and not much of a lacrosse history. The Saints had a perceived easier path to the title game, too, because of a format that included a team from the South in the Final Four.

In what was then a shocker of epic proportions, Limestone pulled off a 10-9 upset of Northeast powerhouse C.W. Post, which later became LIU (Long Island University) Post.

"I think it was like the Little Engine That Could," said Cerino, now Limestone's athletics director, officially vice president for intercollegiate athletics. "Once we got over that hill, we started rolling."

Limestone has been to nine national championship games in 16 seasons.

"I feel like we always had the dream, the vision," Cerino said. "We got so much support from the administration and the community. We were able to take action and turn it into something special."

Clarke was the one who has been able to make Limestone a fixture at the pinnacle. In his five seasons, the Saints are a remarkable 87-8, including 39-2 in the past two years. The center of the Division II lacrosse world is no longer somewhere up north.

It's in Gaffney, S.C.

"Limestone is a very unlikely school to have this kind of success in lacrosse," Clarke said. "Before I came here (while at Division III Washington College), I thought, 'How do they do it down there?' I still get those questions. I used to get them a lot more before these new facilities were built."

There is a now an elaborate field house with 450 lockers, separate areas for women's lacrosse, both soccer teams, baseball, softball, field hockey and the newest program, football. The $1.6 million building is next to the artificial turf playing surface. No longer do the Saints have to walk half a mile from changing areas to the field.

All that, and playing for the national title seemingly every year, continues to help bring in even better athletes. And the cycle gets stronger.

"They answer all emails now. They pick up the phone now," said recruiting coordinator Brendan Storrier, who grew up near Le Moyne in Syracuse, N.Y., and was a standout player for Limestone in 2008 and 2009. "I think winning a second straight championship has cemented where we are as a program."\

(Article by Todd Shanesy, Spartanburg Herald-Journal, May 27, 2015)