Dane Pound

Just wanted to echo the thoughts of everyone who've posted. Congrats on a remarkable achievement. This is shaping up to be a really special season.

I don't know if the Pepsi is sold out for the $iena-Syracuse game already or not but it probably will be. I wondered the same thing Albany Fan did when I looked at their schedule. I'm sure Lanier will keep them focused for us but Syracuse has to be on their mind. The SU game and the Vermont game are the ones that get the most discussion of their board. I have to imagine the fact that $iena beat Albany so handily last year might cause them to overlook us.

I probably shouldn't bring this up again but in talking with some people around campus it's not just me who's skeptical about why this game isn't happening this year.

If I'm not mistaken Albany should have it's own media day first. $iena just had theirs the other day and ours it usually around this time. Gianiani from Maine talked about how good he thought UA would be this year. He's out of the conference now and I kinda hope no one listened to him. I'd rather come in under the radar this year and then surprise people when the season starts. Maybe have the coaches pick us low in the preseason poll and then have them wonder what the hell they were thinking when we have a good season. This should be a very fun year and I intend to enjoy the preseason predicitons as well. The fans and people around the Albany program know what this team is capable of but I think alot of people on the outside just look at last years 5-23 record and say "maybe they can win 8 or 9 games this year if they're lucky." Just look at what the people on the Siena board are saying. A couple of them like SienaTony know whats going on at Albany but I think the rest of them pay no attention at all. They're the ones who will be surprised when we have the season most of us think we'll have.

Welcome to the board! It was great to meet you today. It would have been great to hear from Patterson and Will Brown. I think last year's luncheon was right before basketball season and they had the fall coaches and the basketball coaches give a talk. Maybe there will be another one before basketball season. I'd be happy with an exhibition game.

I went to the Fall Sports Luncheon held at The Pearl. Very nice place. Crowd seemed smaller to me and I didn't notice the corporate sponsors that have been introduced at the luncheons in the past. Mostly coaches and staff today with a few athletes there. Roger Wyland was again the MC. Also there and introduced was the Channel 13 sports director (introduced as Wyland's boss). Dr. Mcelroy pointed out the person in charge of construction. I wish someone else from the board was there to fill in the gaps in my memory. I'm pretty sure he said the guy was from Clough Harbor and associates but I may be wrong. Coach Ford was introduced first. As many of these things as I've been to Ford always find a way to single out one of the other coaches to compliment. Today's was Coach Sheffield. He described his amazement at how talented his players were when he watched them during their early morning practices. He also said the football program is at a crossroads in 1AA. As we've talked about here he mentioned his problems scheduling, especially with teams from the MAAC. Albany played Cansisius and they folded their program, they played St. Peters once and they refused to schedule them again and of course $iena was on the schedule again for this year but then dropped football. He said the NEC has changed the way they've scheduled their conference games. In the past they've spread the league games out through the season so Albany could mix in some higher level opponents with the conference games. This year all the league games are clumped at the end of the season so he had to start out with consecutive tough games against higher conference opponents. He said he thought those games this year had taken a toll on the team and that they may have lost a bit of their swagger in those opening games. He also said there have been alot more injuries this year than in the past. He cited the early injuries to Kurtz and Vidal as well as Delgado, Walls and Ungerzadt. He said Delgado is having an MRI and may require another surgery on his knee. Coach Aarnio wasn't there as soccer had a game at 2 today. Coach Banda said his team was still having trouble with some things he thought they had worked out before the season had started. He still sounded upbeat about the future and said his team was still competing hard. Field Hockey Coach Sykes said his team has had an up and down season. He said he felt like Coach Ford's team that opening the season with four straight losses knocked alot of confidence out of this team. Once they got their first win things started to turn around. He was proud of their recent win over UNH, a team that beat Albany 13-1 two years ago. That win should be the one that helps put his team in the AE tourney. Coach McVey said he expects the men’s cross-country team to compete for the conference championship coming up in October. The women had one of their top runners injured and he expected her absence to knock the team down a few places overall. He said some of the freshman have run very well and picked up some of the slack. One of the most notable things he said was about how the atmosphere around the athletic department has changed in the last year or two. He pointed out that most of the programs have gone from trying to build and hang on to expecting to win conference titles and regional events. The final coach was Sheffield who is a pretty funny guy. He said his team has played better than he expected this year. Two players are nursing injuries and wear a protective boot when they’re not on the court. They should be OK to play but he rests them whenever possible. He said his goal was to get Albany to the top of the regional rankings, UA is currently third. He reviewed the 3 wins over Big East opponents and the fact that Albany hammered Siena. His team is at Stony Brook this weekend and he told us he is going to keep them on campus so they can watch the football team “beat the snot out of Stony Brook.” I had a chance to chat with Coach Sheffield after the luncheon. He told me they had planned on redshirting Ashley Crenshaw but that Green (I think) went down with what looked like a serious injury and he was forced to forgo that. He said she has to get used to the style of play (it’s much quicker sets than other teams) but feel she will be a terrific player. He said during some drills in practice she has been the most impressive player on the floor. He said he likes the old gym set-up over having games held at the RACC where the crowd would be lost in a building that’s too big. Like me, he would like to see the floor painted to make it a true volleyball court. Despite their record, he feels UNH is one of the better teams in the conference. He said they’re very young and will get better as the season goes on. I jokingly asked him if he would hold E-Rod out during some of the road games so she could break the aces record at home. Apparently other people have asked the same things. He said it’s not a given she’ll break it on the road but she had a huge service game against UMBC last year who is one of the teams in the road trip. He said he would certainly like to have her break it at home because it will be such a special event. That's pretty much it. I handed out a couple of "Beat Siena" pins. Never too early to start.

Nice going. When I checked this out I thought the season started in the RACC and the question would be too easy. There was a home game played before the RACC opened that year against RPI.

Depending on which one you look at Albany is ranked at #78 by the Pablo and 72 by the RKPI. Either way they moved into the top 25% of teams in the country. Like baseball they break the rankings down to region. Northeast Region (Overall RKPI) 1. Notre Dame (27) 2. Pittsburgh (46) 3. Albany (72) 4. Rutgers (79) 5. Northeastern (85) 6. Xavier (90) 7. Boston College (102) 8. St. John's (103) 9. American (109) 10. Connecticut (110) 11. Dayton (117) 12. Syracuse (119) 13. Penn (129) 14. Yale (138) 15. Princeton (139)

Coach Sheffield had it in his update. I wouldn't want to add anything to his update and then attribute it to him. The update is a great idea and for him to include the BPF site is terrific. Hopefully I'll see him at the luncheon tomorrow to thank him in person.

Good question. I was thinking about heading down to that game so it probably would be helpful to have the starting time. All of Wagner's other home weekend games start at 2 so it looks likely that they made the mistake on their site.

Hello Friends, Family, and Alumni of UAlbany Volleyball! A big weekend at home earned the Great Danes two hard-fought victories over Maine and New Hampshire. Both were very significant as Maine entered the weekend undefeated, and the fact that we've never beaten UNH. In the match against Maine, our passing was very good and our offense was even better. Sophomore Blair Buchanan led the team to a .506 hitting percentage - one of our highest of the season. All five hitters hit between .440 and .600. The team started off extremely strong and kept getting better as the match went on. The next day against two-time defending conference champion UNH was a terrific battle. Both teams made some amazing plays defensively, and hit some great shots offensively. The back-row defense was about as good as it's been all year. What is also starting to become evident is the balance of our team at the net. Ashlee Reed, Shelby Goldman, Susan Spierre, Ashley Green, and Ashley Hunter, are all in the Top 10 in the conference in hitting percentage; with Goldman and Hunter leading the conference in kills/game. The balance of our offense, and the speed of our attack is making it very difficult to defend against. The two wins this weekend put us at 17-5 overall, and at 5-0 in the America East. And winners of 11 in a row and 16 of our last 17. Sophomore Ashley DeNeal led the way defensively for us. She had 23 digs in the three game match against UNH. Here's what she had to say about the weekend: "The team is really enjoying the success we have had so far. Although we respect every team in the conference, New Hampshire was a huge win for us. Also, with the improvement that Maine has made from last year, it shows that the AE Conference is becoming stronger every year. We realize that to reach our goal (America East Championship!), we must continue to get better day by day. We have worked really hard up to this point, and will continue to do so until we have reached our goal. Every match provides us with another opportunity to improve on our game. I know that the entire team is excited to reach the conference tournament at the end of year, and show everyone what UAlbany is really all about." The other big news is Eileen Nicole Rodriguez' pursuit of the NCAA career record for service aces. Eileen picked up 5 against Maine and another 3 against UNH. That puts her 6 away from tying the record! As always, you can follow Eileen's pursuit on any of the following web-sites: www.albany.edu/sports, www.americaeast.com, or www.bigpurplefans.com This week closes out our first trip through the conference with road matches at UMBC and Stony Brook. Both matches should be big tests as we went 5 games with both of them at their place a year ago. Other good news is that we are currently working on having live stats at our home matches for the rest of the season. So fans that are not able to attend the match, will be able to follow us live on-line. I will let you know when this happens. The schedule for the next two weeks is as follows. Fri. 10/22 @ UMBC 7:00 pm Sat. 10/23 @ Stony Brook 4:00 pm Tues. 10/26 @ Binghamton 7:00 pm Fri. 10/29 NORTHEASTERN 7:00 pm Sat. 10/30 HARTFORD 4:00 pm (following the football game) We look forward to seeing you on the road or in the stands at home! Thanks for your support! GO DANES!!! Kelly Sheffield

This is for a "Beat Siena" button. Who did men's basketball play in the inaugural game at the RACC? Bonus question: Who did the women play in their inaugural RACC game?

Men's soccer beat Hartford yesterday 2-0 to stay tied for second place in the conference with BU. Welcome to the board Fido! Great to see you hit the ground posting. Enjoy the board.

Penaltys were awful yesterday too. I don't remember many in the first half but when things got tight in the second half they were a killer. Certainly not the Danes sharpest game but hats off to Monmouth for battling back on the road. As Ford pointed out in today's paper the season isn't over. Monmouth has a big game with CCSU coming up and hopefully the Danes can take out their frustrations on the Brook and stay in contention.

After today's home match the Danes are on the road for 3 games. 4 game home stand after that. It would be great if she breaks it at home. Nice crowd yesterday. Worked well with holding the football fans there to see that game.

A little is too much for Danes-TU Andriola's kick lifts Hawks at final gun-Asbury Park Press.

A back to practice story in today's TU. Bouncing back on courts-TU

Mom endures pain to see son-TU. Monmouth needs NEC victory-Asbury Park Press.

Very good story in today's TU about the rise of UA soccer. UAlbany's program is growing-TU

Beat Siena! buttons I still owe Reeder one for winning the NCAA pool last year. People who answer the Tuesday Trivia from now until the Siena game will get one too.

Predictions 1 and 3 were Brown's prediciton at the end of last year I think. If Albany goes from last to the top four this year I have to think he's a lock for coach of the year. That's pretty much what Bing's womens coach did last year and got the COY. Let's not mess around with 4500 for the growl. Let's just sell out the RACC starting this year.

I'd almost add "Q" to that list as well. Maybe he's not a proven scorer but he's certainly a proven contributor who can have the occasional big night scoring. If he could handle the ball better he would be scary, a much better shooter than I thought he'd be. It's funny to read the stuff about Juan Jose Barea being an NBA prospect when you think about Wilson's freshman year. He was clearly better than JJB two years ago, I hope he comes back this year and reminds everyone of that.

It looks like Maine lost alot to graduation. Most of the things I've seen have picked them to win the conference again which is hard to argue with. It should be interesting to see how much respect the coaches poll gives Albany.

Two tough games on the road for football at the Brook and Robert Morris. I'm pretty confident about Albany conference hopes also. I'm hoping CCSU stays on course and that last game of the season is for the conference championship. Agree about volleyball. That conference championship would be nice because you get to host the tourney. A few more tests in conference play still left but Northeastern looked to be the front-runner. From Coach Sheffield's description it sounded like the Danes really turned it up against NU. Don't forget men's soccer is still in the mix and as you said anything can happen at the tourney. Field Hockey has a good shot at making the conference tourney too.

The Armory Center was more convenient for me as well although I admit I don't know where The Pearl is. Is anyone planning on going?