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O, Canada! Card comes up big in the clutch
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Coming out of a film session the other day, sophomore attackman Jay Card was just having one of those days. Tired from burning the midnight oil the previous night for a paper that was due, Card was met with a dripping bag that he had ordered from the Coliseum Deli. His iced tea was leaking, and it was a mess. Halfway through the week though, he figured he'd make it.
While things don't always come easy for the Canadian native, on the field is a different story. This season, Card has 26 goals through 11 games. His team-leading 2.2 goals per game is impressive, and three times this seasaon he's scored more three goals in a game--five against Delaware, four at Brown, and four against North Carolina--but what is more impressive is the ice water in his veins.
"I think he has five or six game-winning goals in the past two years," senior attacker Tom Dooley said. "His game is shooting the ball and he's obviously able to do that pretty well."
Simply put, Jay Card is clutch. He thrives when the pressure is on.
"He wants the ball," Pride head coach Seth Tierney began. "But he wants the ball when the game's on the line."
Take for instance the double-overtime thriller at Army on March 24. He scored the game-winning goal in addition to one in the third period, an over-the-shoulder shot that ranked No. 3 that evening on Sportscenter's Top 10 plays.
"My sister's boss at work said that she saw her little brother on TV," Card said.
Naturally modest, he attributes his character to lessons learned from Brodie Merrill, his high school coach at Merrill's prep school, The Hill Academy.
"He's very humble," Card said. "He's done a lot of great things in lacrosse and you would never know it."
Once arriving at Hofstra, Card's character fit in well with Tierney's system. Character is something believed to be "not negotiable," by Tierney.
"They will be thankful for the gifts that they've been given and it's the only way to go through life," Tierney said.
Card has been given gifts aplenty, including the path that led him to Long Island. Late in the recruiting process he hadn't heard many from Division I schools and it was not until his final high school tournament, the Turkey Shoot in Ithaca, NY, where Pride assistant coach Matt Rewkowski spotted Card.
"I was fortunate enough to have a really good tournament and it just so happened that there was a lot of Division I schools there," Card said. That's when his phone started ringing.
"As soon as I stepped foot on this campus, I met the guys and the coaches, I knew this was where I wanted to be," Card said. He liked the coaches and their support, the family that is Hofstra lacrosse. Coming from so far away, he needed a place where he felt comfortable.
"It felt like family right form the get-go," he said about Hofstra.
The lacrosse tradition runs deep at Hofstra, and it was not difficult for Card to feel at home.
"When the guys on the team saw his talent, you tend to fit in a little bit quicker," Tierney said. "He's very focused, a focused competitor. Love's the ball in his stick." Tierney referred to his attacker as a lacrosse rat, a title Card willingly accepts, but he brings more to the team than his talent and hard work.
"It it's a Monday guys are gonna be down," Card began. "I just try to make the atmosphere better. I crack jokes a lot, with the coaches, just try to get everyone in a good mood."
As his team continues to strive toward improvement and its goals, Card sees more confidence in his team than last year's squad that suffered a 10-4 rout at the hands of Johns Hopkins in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The team feels confident with the game on the line, and while Card admits it would be nice if they could play with that same sense of urgency for a full game, they do have a 19-year-old clutch pedal by the name of Jay Card, and he's ready to shift.
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