As the old saying goes, practice makes perfect.
Le Moyne lacrosse coach Liz Beville is taking that literally.
"Haven't lost yet," Beville said with nervous laughter during a team practice last Friday. "Yes, I try not to think about it."
The former J-D and Cortland star says there is no pressure to keep the unbeaten streak going, one that stretches back to the season opener of the virus-shortened 2020 season last March. With some lingering uncertainty because of the ongoing pandemic, she simplified it for her team in a pre-practice huddle.
"There's no guaranteed games, so now we just want to keep building that win column," she said.
That's the only column she's been building since she took the reins last spring — and is now a perfect 12-0 as a college head coach. Not bad for a relative newcomer who's already sounding like a veteran.
"No pressure," the 2021 Northeast-10 Coach of the Year said with a smile. "Again, with all the COVID stuff, we're just taking things one game at a time."
And that last game was a 12-goal win Monday in the Northeast-10 conference tournament divisional semifinals, the eighth 12-goal win of Beville's young career.
So, how has she been so successful, so early?
"I think what it probably would come down to is getting the girls to believe in themselves, more than anything," the -almost-29-year old said. "I think when you continue to develop that faith, and you encourage girls and you give them that confidence, they start to believe in themselves a little bit more."
And Beville always believed she'd be a head coach one day, which makes sense because she's the offspring of one — longtime Cortland men's lacrosse coach Steve Beville.
"I think having my dad as a coach my whole life, I kind of saw how much fun that job was," she remembered. "The phone calls, like on a frustrating day, those are usually right to him. So, he's a big help."
And now, she's carrying a clipboard, just like pop, and coaching players not much younger than she.
"I'm not too far out. I don't seem super old," Beville chuckled. "Some days, I still feel old, but like when they didn't know how to address an envelope..." she said, laughing.
But the Dolphins have certainly delivered on the field, now moving closer to the first perfect season in program history, and the second national championship in the last three years. Beville made the Final Four four times as a player at Cortland, and never won.
Maybe, this year will be different.
"I know how bad they want it, and I know how bad our coaching staff wants it," she said. "So, hopefully we can just do it for each other and just get that job done, and come up with a championship in May."