The 2013 season is here and we wanted to work closely with college programs to bring a part of the excitement to you. Throughout the 2013 season we will highlight lacrosse programs on our space for all of our readers to follow. Player blogs serve as a unique outlet for programs to showcase their season as it develops, plus highlight everything they have to offer a student-athlete. In contrast, families and fans get a glimpse into the program’s athletic and academic regimen.
Benjamin Shapiro
Senior – #19 – Midfield
Colgate Lacrosse
Top Ten Showdown in Ithaca
With only one practice week lying ahead of us the team was excited to travel to Ithaca, New York to take on the highly ranked Cornell Big Red. We’ve scrimmaged Cornell the last few seasons in the spring and the fall, but Saturday would provide an opportunity to play The Big Red for keeps. Monday kicked off with our usual pre practice meeting, where freshman goalie Jake Danehy earned his number “29” on the lunch pale for being practice player of the week, and with a strong 6 point performance Senior captain Peter Baum earned player of the game honors for the Dartmouth game. The week would prove to be a cold, snowy week of practice in preparation for Cornell.
Monday’s practice kicked off with an emphasis on ground ball play as lead gb’s was the first drill on the plan. We ended practice with a well fought scrum between the Maroon and White teams, with Maroon erasing a 2-0 deficit to earn the victory 3-2. With the dreaded threat of “running” on the line, it seemed as if the scrimmage was played with a little extra urgency than normal. We began our prep for Cornell on Tuesday going over their personnel and tendencies. Freshman Tyler Rigo did a great job all week doing his best Rob Pannell impression for the scout unit. Practice ended with the goalies running springs following 3 cage breakout. Inexplicably Connor Murphy lost a few sprints to Freshman Alex Castle who is recovering from a torn ACL. Alex was excited about showing off his speed, but admitted the soreness he felt in his knee the following day showed he is still a month or so away from returning healthy. Wednesday and Thursday called for more Cornell preparation, including full field 6 on 6 drills allowing us to work on our half field offense and defense as well as our transition game.
Junior Matt “The Law Firm” Reyes-Guerra-Dunn got the white team fired up from his “stallion” celebration after scoring a goal in the full field drill. With the game drawing closer, reporters from YNN news showed up to the practice field on Thursday to get our player’s and coaches take on the big game. The usual suspects such as Peter Baum and Ryan Walsh were interviewed before practice, but I guess my words of wisdom from the blog have made waves, as #19 got the chance to speak in front of the cameras. The fame was short lived as we had to reshift our focus on finishing off a solid week of practice. Friday we finished the workweek with our normal pregame practice, capped by #15 breaking down the team, following chants of “Tewey” from his teammates. Pete got the team fired up for the big game, capping off a strong week of practice.
Usually a good week of practice translates into a strong performance on game day, but unfortunately this week that was not the case. We suffered a pretty brutal defeat to Cornell on Saturday, proving to be a very disappointing and frustrating performance. There really is not much to say about the game as some of the parents were joking with me in the post-game tailgate. One bright spot was the goaltending of Connor Murphy, who equipped with his new “nemesis” head played great in relief for us. One of the great parts about college athletics is that you are almost always given another opportunity to prove your worth and rebound from a tough decision. Luckily for us this will come quickly as on Tuesday we play the Hobart Statesman. We have no time to continue sulking over the loss, as we need to think positively and bounce back from the defeat. Hobart on Tuesday gives us a great opportunity to learn from our loss, and get back to playing Colgate Raider Lacrosse.
-#19