Completed Event: Lacrosse versus Air Force on May 4, 2025 , Loss , 10, to, 11
Final Score
Lacrosse
10
vs Air Force
11
Photo by: Betsey Bowen
Wrapping Up Lacrosse's Inaugural Season
5/9/2019 4:20 PM | Lacrosse
"I believe now, more than ever, that we can win a national championship at Utah. I'm very proud of what we're doing and just so excited to be part of all of this. I think we're on to something very special here. I'm a very lucky man and very grateful."
Those were the thoughts of head lacrosse coach Brian Holman as he reflected on Utah's inaugural season. It's been a long road since the announcement in June, 2017, that the Utah athletic department would be adding lacrosse as the 20th NCAA sport at Utah, and now that the Utes have one season in their rearview mirror, the staff is ready to get going on season two.
"I've never seen a group of people after a season was over that literally wanted to get right back out on the field," Holman said. "That says a lot about what our intentions are."
The season began with great fanfare against Vermont, as Jimmy Perkins scored the first goal in Utah history and Josh Stout had a hat trick in the inaugural game. The Utes recorded their first win the next week against Mercer behind seven goals from Stout.
A 6-5 win over Air Force on Feb. 24 was the start of three-straight victories for the Utes with victories over Furman and Bellarmine. Although the Utes struggled to find the win column for most the second half of the season, bright spots included leading second-ranked Duke in the first half and several close losses to established programs. Utah ended the season on a strong note, defeating Detroit Mercy, 16-10. James Sexton scored 13 points in the game, the most by any player in the nation this season prior to the NCAA Championship, while his eight assists on the day tied for second in the NCAA.
"We talked about the highs and the lows, but I think overall we did a good job trying to maintain what was realistic – living for the moment, getting better every day, taking every game for its own entity," Holman said. "For 90-percent of the year we did that – we had one game where I felt that didn't happen. The beauty of it was that we recognized it, confronted each other with it and the players made a resolution that wasn't going to happen the following week, and it didn't. That's the thing that I'm most proud of this year, that we were very diligent about being true to who we said we were going to be. The most vital part of our program is growing and learning. I know we grew a ton as human beings."
Stout led Utah with 43 goals on the year while Sexton had team highs with 49 points and 25 assists. Perkins tied for second on the team with 24 goals and Aaron Fjeldsted had a solid year with 11 goals and 13 assists.
Samuel Cambere led Utah with 20 caused turnovers and ranked second on the team with 52 ground balls. Seth Neeleman had a team-high 54 ground balls and ranked second with 16 caused turnovers. Nick Hapney had 11 caused turnovers and Aidan Christian recorded 32 ground balls.
Liam Donnelly played 14 games in goal with 166 saves, going 4-10 on the year. Daniel Costa started the final game of the year and made 17 saves over seven games.
With some solid accomplishments in year one, what does Holman want to see for next season?
"I think we're going to develop a little quicker," Holman said. "We have a much broader, stronger base of guys coming back. I think the leadership will take hold a lot quicker. We're going to do a lot of work over the summer with that group. We have a lot of players staying here for summer school and jobs, so our workout pool of returners has doubled from last year. All those things lead me to believe we can make exponential growth in year two. I think that year two to three is the real growth period anyhow. For a player, freshman to sophomore year is the biggest jump, and that's how I feel about the program. What will that equate to? Obviously more wins. We would like to continue to make our imprint on the college lacrosse scene. We want to be recognized as a team that needs to be dealt with. I think we can make strides. It's exciting. We have a big class of freshman coming in and a lot of those kids were recruited heavily. I think in that class there is a lot of athleticism and lacrosse IQ and it's going to add elements to our team. And yes, there are face off specialists in that class."
One of the questions that has come up is potential conference affiliation for the Utes.
"I'm doing everything I can and the administration has really stepped up and is active in that as well," Holman said. "I think between both of us, we're going to find a way to get us into a conference. I think there were some questions about whether we could do this, but we're showing that we're not going to go away. We're going to fight and we're going to put a good product out on the field. I think that was recognized by a lot of people."
"We have a tremendous amount of ability to grow here. It's really exciting."
Those were the thoughts of head lacrosse coach Brian Holman as he reflected on Utah's inaugural season. It's been a long road since the announcement in June, 2017, that the Utah athletic department would be adding lacrosse as the 20th NCAA sport at Utah, and now that the Utes have one season in their rearview mirror, the staff is ready to get going on season two.
"I've never seen a group of people after a season was over that literally wanted to get right back out on the field," Holman said. "That says a lot about what our intentions are."
The season began with great fanfare against Vermont, as Jimmy Perkins scored the first goal in Utah history and Josh Stout had a hat trick in the inaugural game. The Utes recorded their first win the next week against Mercer behind seven goals from Stout.
A 6-5 win over Air Force on Feb. 24 was the start of three-straight victories for the Utes with victories over Furman and Bellarmine. Although the Utes struggled to find the win column for most the second half of the season, bright spots included leading second-ranked Duke in the first half and several close losses to established programs. Utah ended the season on a strong note, defeating Detroit Mercy, 16-10. James Sexton scored 13 points in the game, the most by any player in the nation this season prior to the NCAA Championship, while his eight assists on the day tied for second in the NCAA.
"We talked about the highs and the lows, but I think overall we did a good job trying to maintain what was realistic – living for the moment, getting better every day, taking every game for its own entity," Holman said. "For 90-percent of the year we did that – we had one game where I felt that didn't happen. The beauty of it was that we recognized it, confronted each other with it and the players made a resolution that wasn't going to happen the following week, and it didn't. That's the thing that I'm most proud of this year, that we were very diligent about being true to who we said we were going to be. The most vital part of our program is growing and learning. I know we grew a ton as human beings."
Stout led Utah with 43 goals on the year while Sexton had team highs with 49 points and 25 assists. Perkins tied for second on the team with 24 goals and Aaron Fjeldsted had a solid year with 11 goals and 13 assists.
Samuel Cambere led Utah with 20 caused turnovers and ranked second on the team with 52 ground balls. Seth Neeleman had a team-high 54 ground balls and ranked second with 16 caused turnovers. Nick Hapney had 11 caused turnovers and Aidan Christian recorded 32 ground balls.
Liam Donnelly played 14 games in goal with 166 saves, going 4-10 on the year. Daniel Costa started the final game of the year and made 17 saves over seven games.
With some solid accomplishments in year one, what does Holman want to see for next season?
"I think we're going to develop a little quicker," Holman said. "We have a much broader, stronger base of guys coming back. I think the leadership will take hold a lot quicker. We're going to do a lot of work over the summer with that group. We have a lot of players staying here for summer school and jobs, so our workout pool of returners has doubled from last year. All those things lead me to believe we can make exponential growth in year two. I think that year two to three is the real growth period anyhow. For a player, freshman to sophomore year is the biggest jump, and that's how I feel about the program. What will that equate to? Obviously more wins. We would like to continue to make our imprint on the college lacrosse scene. We want to be recognized as a team that needs to be dealt with. I think we can make strides. It's exciting. We have a big class of freshman coming in and a lot of those kids were recruited heavily. I think in that class there is a lot of athleticism and lacrosse IQ and it's going to add elements to our team. And yes, there are face off specialists in that class."
One of the questions that has come up is potential conference affiliation for the Utes.
"I'm doing everything I can and the administration has really stepped up and is active in that as well," Holman said. "I think between both of us, we're going to find a way to get us into a conference. I think there were some questions about whether we could do this, but we're showing that we're not going to go away. We're going to fight and we're going to put a good product out on the field. I think that was recognized by a lot of people."
"We have a tremendous amount of ability to grow here. It's really exciting."
Players Mentioned
D
/ Lacrosse
D
/ Lacrosse
GK
/ Lacrosse
GK
/ Lacrosse
M
/ Lacrosse
D
/ Lacrosse
D
/ Lacrosse
A
/ Lacrosse
A
/ Lacrosse
A/M
/ LacrosseHead Coach Kyle Whittingham weekly press conference - 9.15.25
Monday, September 15
Utah Soccer's Grace Watkins - ESPN+ Feature
Monday, September 15
Utah Soccer's Devi Dudley - ESPN+ Feature
Monday, September 15
Utah: 31, Wyoming: 6 | POST GAME PRESS CONFERENCE
Sunday, September 14