thanks to Bridgette Gale, Athletic Media Relations Assistant – Jacksonville University for this press release   JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville University men’s lacrosse team heads toward its halfway point in the season Saturday and already the games are going to have a playoff feel. The Dolphins (3-2, 0-0) travel to Lexington, Va., for a noon encounter with Virginia Military Institute (0-6, 0-1) in their Southern Conference opener. And, despite VMI’s record, JU coach Guy Van Arsdale is taking nothing for granted. “I played for a coach, more years ago than I want to admit, and he had a saying that you respect all opponents and you fear none and this is an opponent you need to respect,” Van Arsdale said. The game is the fourth in 11 days for JU which is looking to win its second consecutive game for the second time this season. “(That many games in a short period) requires a certain amount of mental toughness,” Van Arsdale said. “Guys are beat up and tired mentally, they’ve all been hard fought games, but I think we’re growing at the same time. We’re improving by playing, but we’ve got to finish this stretch strong. It’s a tough, long road trip, a long bus trip. VMI is always a team that competes hard; their kids play hard they don’t quit for anything, and they come after you for 60 minutes and you have to be ready for that.” Added to those challenges is the conference aspect. “Most importantly, this is our first conference game of the year. We talk to our guys and every conference game is basically a playoff game,” Van Arsdale said. “It’s our road to have a shot to talk about things like NCAA tournaments and those kinds of things, which is premature to do that, nonetheless, every conference games has significant impact on those possibilities so you can’t take that situation lightly. Our guys will have a healthy respect for VMI.” The Dolphins have a four-game win streak against the Keydets with VMI’s only win coming Feb. 27, 2010, at home, which was the first meeting between the teams. JU has three players on the national statistics page this week. Junior attacker Tom Moore (West Islip, N.Y.) and sophomore Chase McIntyre (Vancouver, British Columbia) each have 13 goals and Moore has 17 assists which puts him second in the country in both points per game and assists per game. McIntyre leads the NCAA in shooting percentage at .900. Goal keeper Bass Barfield (Austin, Tx.) has recorded 63 saves, a .500 save percentage, and his 12.6 saves per game is 10^th in the nation. On the defensive end, Jet Harding has 21 ground balls to lead the team in that category. Senior Austin Curtis (Marcy, N.Y.) has six caused turnovers and sophomore defender E. J. Thurmond (Mabelton, Ga.) has recorded five to lead JU. ### Bridgette Gale Athletic Media Relations Assistant Jacksonville University (o):(904)-256-7761 (c): (904)-599-0801