The common saying, “defense wins championships,” resonates heavily with the 2026 Ithaca College men’s lacrosse team. The Bombers have leaned into the mantra for their defense, “system over matchup,” and it has paid off, earning the No. 22 spot in the national Division III rankings and the No. 12 spot in the USA Lacrosse Magazine for the week of April 12.
The defense has been productive all season, but especially clicked March 28. Since then, the Bombers have won four games in a row, including matchups against the No. 15 St. Lawrence University Saints and the No. 6 Rochester Institute of Technology Tigers and allowed just an average of fewer than eight goals a game. The Bombers pulled off a huge upset against the Tigers on April 8 by limiting the Liberty League’s top offensive team.
Head coach Tommy Pearce operates a man–to-man, but highly unified defensive system. Pearce and the South Hill squad emphasize working together as one unit, staying organized and communicating, rather than making flashy plays.
“We want to be great one-on-one defenseman and then also have a great defensive scheme behind it,” Pearce said. “We want to make it really, really hard for the offense to find the open guy because of the speed at which we’re communicating and recovering.”
The Bombers play together and help fellow defensive teammates out when someone is getting beat in a one-on-one. Instead of strategizing matchups based on skill level, the defensemen lean on each other’s abilities and adjust as needed, the players and Pearce said.
Senior midfielder/LSM Greg Szyluk, a big contributor to the ride and valuable leadership asset for the defense, said the team is more powerful when everyone is on the same page.
“Our system isn’t very matchup focused,” Szyluk said. “We trust all of our players to cover the best player on the other team or the worst player. [We focus on] having a one slide, having a two slide ready in case someone does get beat, to have your brothers’ back.”
The team also focuses on “controlled aggression,” making sure to contain the ball handler where they see fit, rather than forcing turnovers. Szyluk and Pearce said the Bombers had a tendency to get overly fierce earlier in the season, but worked on maintaining a disciplined mindset.
“I think that’s just guys really wanting [to win],” Szyluk said. “You get a little lost in that frustration towards the other team and that want to beat them, that you kind of put yourself out of place. Definitely sometimes it does hurt us a little bit, but it also helps us put the ball on the ground and get the ball to the offense. So there definitely needs to be a balance in our aggression. But [Pearce is] not wrong in saying that it does nip us in the bud.”
In the shot clock era of lacrosse, minimizing the amount and quality of opportunities the opposing offense has to shoot is more important than risking gaps to gain possession of the ball. The 80–second countdown for offenses to shoot the ball, implemented in 2019 by the NCAA, forces offenses to make timely decisions around the net.
Because of the nature of Pearce’s system, the Bombers rank last in the Liberty League for caused turnovers, averaging 7.08 per game, a full 2.49 mark behind Union College. For the Bombers, their stats do not tell the full story.
“It’s more important that we make them shoot from far out which allows our really good goalkeeper, [senior] Andrew Minard, to make easier saves,” Szyluk said.
Pearce said that Minard bails out the defensive where they make mistakes or if there are gaps in the defensive rotations. Minard, a 2025 USA Lacrosse Magazine All–American Honorable Mention, has been a “stud,” as his fellow players say, for the Bombers and earned Liberty League Defensive Player of the Week after the RIT and RPI slate of games.
Junior midfielder Will Kleine also got Liberty League honors for his performance, earning Offensive Player of the Week.
Minard plays a major role in the communication of the defense on the field. Harry O’Neil, a first-year starting defender/long stick midfielder, has settled in nicely to the strong veteran presence of the starting lineup, with the help of leaders like Minard, Szyluk and senior defender Jace Dockx.
“I’d say our defense is heavily rooted in communication, and just communicating on the field, off the field, everywhere in between,” O’Neil said. “One of those big factors is through captain Andrew Minard, who’s definitely extremely helpful in helping all the guys, especially me, a younger guy, on the defense. [He] helps us get through certain matchups or certain big plays, and then certain scouting reports.”
Minard is not the only specialized member on the team making an impact. Sophomore Liam Alberti, a midfielder and the team’s primary face-off specialist, has won 70.8% of his draws, the best in the Liberty League and 14th best in the nation out of DIII players.
“A lot of times I try to win [the faceoff] myself, right?” Alberti said. “But to do that, the wings left of me have to get a box out for me, and then have to keep the other defenders out of the way to make sure I’m not getting swarmed. There’s a lot of different strategies we have throughout a game. Everyone’s just super bought in and coming prepared every day to take care of business.”
O’Neil said the commitment of the team and their fluidity matchup–to–matchup is some of the defense’s’ biggest strengths.
“I think Coach Pearce established a great culture here during his first three years,” O’Neil said. “That’s great seeing as a first-year, and just [seeing] how we’re all we’re all buying into Pierce’s system, and it’s working.”
Although the Bombers have gained national attention thanks to the help of their defense, Pearce reminds his guys the end goal is making a run in the 2026 Liberty League and NCAA tournament, after losing to RIT in the semifinals of the conference championship.
“Defense is really like a set of rules that everybody is playing within,” Pearce said. “When one guy reacts, everybody else reacts accordingly.”
