M. Lax | Despite ACL, 'Steak' still has sizzle

The men's lacrosse team's most potent weapon for the past few weeks may have a cannon for a stick, but he's also got a bum knee.

Senior midfield Drew Collins has been on fire in the past month, netting 10 goals over the past five games. Even more impressive, he's doing it after playing in only one game last season due to a torn anterior cruciate ligament, and while playing all of this year with a partial tear in the same knee.

Collins' offensive explosion has coincided with the team's best play of the season. The Quakers has won two of their last three contests, upsetting No. 16 Brown Saturday and pushing top-ranked Princeton to overtime April 7.

"He's done an incredible job the last couple of weeks not only with his production on the field but off the field stuff, keeping guys going," coach Brian Voelker said. "I think he's one of the bigger reasons we've played as well as we have."

But most praiseworthy is the senior's ability to compete at such a high level with the partially torn ACL. He first injured his right knee two practices after the Quakers' season-opening loss to Drexel last season, during which he tallied a goal.

"I was just dodging and went to cut and my knee just went out," Collins said. "I knew what happened immediately, before the trainers told me. I felt the pop and everything. Pretty upsetting. . I was feeling great going into last year. I thought I was going to have my best year career-wise. It was obviously a huge setback."

After the surgery, he spent the remainder of last season rehabilitating his knee. He was in playing condition -- though admittedly not at 100 percent - going into this season.

But his turnaround didn't last long. He reinjured his knee during the first practice of the year, in essentially the same way as last year. The doctors cleared him to play this season, though, as long as he wore his brace. And though it took some time to get back to proper playing form, his brace - and his injury - don't appear to be holding him back.

"You can't be scared to go out there and hurt it again," Collins said. "You just have to go out and play regardless of what happens. It's hard after not playing for a full year to jump right back in the flow of things - things are flying around. After a few games, things started slowing down for me, I started being able to see the field a little better."

On the field, Collins' shot stands out as his greatest weapon. And he seems to recognize this, as only attackmen Craig Andrzejewski and Alex Weber have taken more shots than he has.

After being held scoreless through five contests, Collins found his groove March 22 against Bryant, notching three goals. Against Princeton's two-time Ivy League Rookie of the Week goalkeeper Tyler Fiorito, he added another hat trick to his total. And he managed to score one on last year's Ivy League Player of the Year, Brown's Jordan Burke.

Off the field, he brings leadership and a workout mentality to the squad. His "meathead" persona in the weight room -- both self-professed and a point of ridicule for teammates - in addition to his actual love of meat, propelled his teammates to give Collins the nickname "Steak."

Regardless of his teammates' jokes, they know that it's tough not to see a correlation between Collins's recent resurgence and the team's.

"He just had to get back in a groove, get back into playing. I think we're getting in our groove right now, too," senior midfield J.J. Lian said.

"I don't think it's coincidence."

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