Anyone who knows me, knows that my perspective on lacrosse is shaped by efficiency numbers and film study.

Right now, the adjusted efficiency numbers are signaling in bright neon lights that there is something special with the Vermont defense. Through seven games, the Catamounts have allowed opponents to score on an average of 18.5% of their possessions. That’s the best in the country, and it’s better than the 19.7% mark that the Richmond defense posted last year to lead the country. Granted, their slate of opposing offenses hasn’t exactly been a murderer’s row, but even adjusted for their slate of opponents they still come out as the second-best defense in Division I. It’s a dramatic improvement over their performance last year, when they were ranked a below-average 52nd in adjusted defensive efficiency.

So naturally I had to dig into the film and try to figure out what has been going on up in Burlington. Well, technically it’s been happening mostly places other than Burlington; so far as the Catamounts played their first six games on the road. The Catamounts continue that this weekend, as they visit America East foe Albany on Saturday for a matchup of two of the last three undefeated teams in college lacrosse.

The first thing that jumps out on film is all the lefties. Goalie Nick Washuta and all of the poles that play in front of him are left-handed. Not just the three starting close defenders either, but both LSMs too. The SSDMs are right-handed, but they switch hands, so it’s not unusual to see six of the seven players out there with their sticks in their left hands.

In addition to lending itself to the nickname the Lefty Legion (Which isn’t yet a thing, but I’m trying to make it one. Make the shirts?), it potentially offers a slight advantage with most offensive players so used to playing against right-handed defenders. One left-handed attackman who played against Vermont this season said, “It really threw me off. I’m just so use to playing against righties.”

It’s impossible to have a great defense without great goalie play. Washuta leads the country in save percentage at 63.2% even after what was easily his worst game of the year last week against Sacred Heart.

Washuta’s play in the cage sets the basis for the play of the six guys in front of him. “The guys trust our goalies. There’s no ego with 1v1 matchups, and we understand where we want to get beat and see shots.” said assistant coach and former Princeton goalie Brian Kavanagh.

Watching the film, you can see it in the quality of the shots that opponents take. Defenders who are confident that their goalie will make the save on bad shots know that all they have to do is force a low angle shot or contest a shot rather than prevent one entirely which helps avoid mistakes that lead to great shots. Take a look at all 20 of the shots on goal they allowed against Quinnipiac, in which Washuta made 15 saves:

Washuta has been playing well, but it’s the group in front of him that really stands out.

The defense starts when they turn the ball over on the offensive end. Ian MacKay is Vermont’s leading scorer on offense, but back home in Canada he is known as an electric defense-to-offense transition player in box lacrosse and potential first round NLL draft pick. Running offensive midfield for the Catamounts, he brings that transition hustle to the field game and will often run someone down in transition to either head off a potential fast break or cause a turnover.

That helps set the tone for Vermont’s defensive effort from the entire group, and the hustle back on defense from the entire group of offensive midfielders minimizes the number of fast breaks and other transition opportunities that they give up.

Defensively, the five poles of the Lefty Legion are all juniors and seniors who have played in at least 20 games for UVM over the past three seasons. It’s that experience that helps create the defining characteristic that has led to their success this season. They communicate as well as any defense in the country and have clearly improved their understanding of the schemes their running in their second year under head coach Chris Feifs.

At 5-foot-10, 185 pounds, James Leary isn’t particularly big. He often ends up with what most people would consider the second or third cover assignment. With 13 groundballs, six caused turnovers and an assist through Vermont’s first six games, his stats aren’t anything outstanding. When you watch him play, he doesn’t stand out as particularly fast or athletic. But there might not be another defender in the country who brings as much as he does to the Vermont defense.

Team defense and communication aren’t just the responsibility of one player, but you don’t have to watch many possessions of the Vermont defense to realize that Leary is the air traffic controller of that defense.

Great on-ball cover guys, no matter how great they may be, can only ever cover one player. They help your team defense by minimizing their own mistakes and eliminating the need for other players to slide to them. However, a great off-ball defender and communicator can functionally defend two, three or four players and make up for or prevent the mistakes of other players.

Vermont makes some mistakes defensively. But they’re usually an individual mistake in which a player gets beat or is just a bit late getting there on a slide. Very rarely are there communication mistakes where they don’t have a second slide ready, have two players sliding to the same guy or don’t recover in time after a slide.

Take a look at a series of slides and recoveries during their game against Quinnipiac.

The first thing that happens is there is a dodge that sweeps topside from the wing with a clear through to the crease ahead of it. No. 23 Graham Bocklet slides from the clear through and replaces No. 26 Spencer Decker on ball. No. 50 Leary is the second slide into the crease from adjacent behind the ball, and then Decker bumps him back out to his original man. Good execution of a slide and replace with a bump recovery.

One pass and Quinnipiac will dodge against, this time from the other wing out of a 1-4-1. No. 12 Matt Burke slides from the crease to the ball and replaces No. 28 Zach Bucci. As Bucci goes to recover, the trouble starts. Both of the crease guys have vacated leaving an open set. No one has picked up No. 19 in white, and it’s not clear Bucci realizes that’s the open guy. He goes to No. 26 Decker’s man and Decker looks to find the open guy to matchup again. Meanwhile, there is another clear through from the top and a redodge of the slid,e and No. 23 Bocklet hedges ready to slide again. A second slide before the defense has fully recovered from the first is a crisis-level situation.

Leary sees what’s happening and points toward No. 26 on the crease, presumably calling for someone to pick him up. Meanwhile the ball is moved to the backside leaving Leary defending a 2v1. He approaches the ball while realizing that the recovery needs to happen over to the open player. Playing on ball doesn’t stop him from continuing to direct traffic; you can see him point out to the open player during his approach.

He comes out just enough to leave the Quinnipiac player guessing whether he should step up and shoot it or pass and manages to delay that decision for long enough to allow the recovery to happen. That’s an example of a play that’s only possible if you trust your goalie to make the save. Then, as the Quinnipiac player dodges the recovering SSDM, Leary slides to help force a shot wide of the net.

All that happens in a span of about 20 seconds. It’s no doubt a team effort to make that happen, but it highlights the important role Leary plays in the Vermont scheme. Few players have the ability and awareness to direct traffic behind them as they step out to play the ball.

Here he is again against Jacksonville pointing at someone up by the box while his man has the ball.

Vermont tends to pack in its defense to be willing to concede outside shots that Washuta can save and be willing to slide quickly when needed. Thus, it’s not a surprise they will go to an invert zone when teams want to dodge against their shortstick defenders from X.

Take a look at their invert zone frustrate Jacksonville’s invert offense.

Other than potentially conceding step-down looks from the top corners, the problem that most teams run into when playing an invert zone is the transition into it from their man-to-man defense and then back out of it to the man-to-man again. Half of the defense playing man while the other half is in a zone will tend to leave players wide open in front for goals.

That’s not an issue Vermont’s defense often has, in part because you can see that Leary is there directing traffic to get them set up in the invert scheme.

Highlighting each individual instance of good communication from a defense might not make it seem like much, but when you watch some of the mistakes being made by defenses on many of the most talented teams in the country, it makes the top-notch communication that’s taking place on the defensive side of the ball for Vermont seem more important than having even the best cover defender in the country.