After holding a starting spot for the entirety of his sophomore campaign, Penn defenseman Brett Hughes had high expectations for his junior year with the Quakers lacrosse team.
Hughes — who saw playing time in all but one game as a freshman — managed to grab 27 ground balls in his second season. His 10 caused turnovers were the second highest on the team that year.
Unfortunately for Hughes, injury struck in the preseason. But it wasn’t lacrosse that sidelined the York Beach, Maine native in his junior year.
“It was flag football in the fall,” Hughes said. “It was the school tournament or whatever, and I dove on [my knee] and hit it funny and that was that.”
Hughes tore his posterior cruciate ligament and damaged the surrounding cartilage. After surgery and what seemed to be enough time to recover, he suffered setbacks in his rehabilitation.
On track to return for the first game of his junior season, Hughes re-injured the knee and was never able to get back to full health and play in 2009.
But arthroscopic surgery on the knee this past summer cleaned out damaged cartilage and has improved Hughes’ condition dramatically.
“After one or two practices in the fall, after going 100 percent and not feeling any pain or instability, I was pretty confident,” the senior said. “Going forward from there, I haven’t had any re-injuries or anything — knock on wood.”
The Red and Blue would certainly benefit from a healthy Hughes over the rest of the season, as he typically draws the toughest defensive assignments.
Beginning at the Quakers’ season opener, when he came face-to-face with Duke’s Ned Crotty — last year’s U.S. Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association’s national attackman of the year — Hughes has matched up against some of the best offensive players in the country.
“He’s got the hardest role out there … He’s what you call a shut-down defender,” said assistant coach Brian Dougherty, the Quakers’ defensive coordinator. “Right now he’s turned into one of the best defensemen in the country.”
After missing two games with a concussion, Hughes rebounded with five ground balls and two caused turnovers at Princeton. He has snatched 12 ground balls so far this year.
The senior’s role for the rest of the season will only increase in importance with the Red and Blue still searching for their first Ivy League victory. When they face Yale tomorrow in New Haven, Conn., the Quakers will have their hands full.
If last week’s game against No. 7 Cornell was any indication of how ball control can affect the outcome of a game, tomorrow’s contest could be a sequel.
The Big Red won 16 of 22 faceoffs and held Penn to six goals, its lowest output of the season.
This time around, draw control specialist Justin Lynch will meet a Bulldogs team at the ‘X’ that is fourth in the nation in faceoff percentage.
“That battle will be pivotal,” head coach Mike Murphy said. “The nice thing is we have our second faceoff guy back from injury, Brian Jackson, so he’s going to take some draws.”
Murphy also highlighted the importance of minimizing the opponents’ shot selection, an area with which Hughes is certainly well acquainted.
“If he can nullify the other team’s best player or at least minimize their impact, then it allows our second defenseman to do the same thing to their second guy and really reduces the amount of options they have offensively,” Murphy said.
And whether Hughes is recovering from injury or not, the Penn coach doesn’t doubt his senior defensive anchor’s talent.
“He’s as good as I’ve seen in the country this year, defensively.”
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