Spring Sports

[statefan]

A few random thoughts regarding Spring sports and this past weekend's Spring Stomp.

 

1. The women's lacrosse team won yesterday and secured the 4th seed for the conference tournament. I believe this is the first time they have made the tournament. Assuming the baseball team secures a spot in the league tournament (which is not yet a mathematical certainty), we will be the only school in the America East to have a team in the league tournament in each of the spring team sports (baseball, softball, mens and womens lacrosse). I think this is a significant accomplishment, and give credit to the student-athletes and coaches, and also to Dr. McElroy for his leadership in securing these coaches.

 

2. I watched most of the first game of the Saurday softball doubleheader and while, I have watched a few softball games in the past, I generally get there late in the day, so Saturday was the first time I saw Andee Lindgen pitch. The article in Saturday's newspaper was right on. She is not the fastest at this level, but her ability to change speeds and throw curves keeps the opposition way off balance. It was fun to see her pitch.

 

3. The atmosphere at the lacrosse game was great; the crowd was great and very supportive. I think this will translate to basketball crowds once we get on a winning tract. I was somewhat disturbed by the small, but noticeable group of students who felt the need to chant a profane slogan directed to the Binghamton fans. As far as I could determine, the Binghamton contingent was basically parents of players who only cheered when their team scored. I thought it was wrong for our students to shout some of this garbage at Binghamton parents.

 

4. I'd be interested in hearing reactions to the "stomp" activities, whatever they were. To the extent that the publicity brought more fans to the lacrosse game, I guess it was good, but I couldn't really see any other effect of having it.

 

5. I guess I misjudged the Binghamton lacrosse team, based on their having lost to Siena. All usual kidding aside, I feel if we had played Siena, we would have beat them by double digits. The Binghamton goalie made several point blank saves on shots by Thomson, which, really was the difference in the game. I thought our face-offs and clearing were better than I had seen in the previous home games and we certainly outshot them. All in all, it was a very exciting game, and when Kevin Rae intercepted the pass in the last minute, I still felt certain we would pull it out.

 

6. Last point. I don't know why they didn't do the senior day activities for lacrosse before the game. I credit the Binghamton players for staying on the field quietly for the ceremony, when they certainly had good reason to be celebrating. The ceremony was very anti-climactic and obviously our players had long faces. The better photo-ops for smiles would have been before the game. Also, the public address system should have been set up to provide those sitting on the south side of the field the chance to hear the announcements.

[DaneFan2k3]

To lacrosse issue - maybe they thought the opposite - it was anticlimactic to do it before the game when you're all ready to go, then you have to sit and wait for the senior ceremony?

 

Just a thought. There were like 15 of them it seemed. I left in the middle, as I don't know any of them. But it was long, the parents were going on the field, etc. That would be a long time to delay the start of the game, an important one at that.

 

Maybe there are also rules about starting the game on time?

[Dane Pound]

The senior ceremony for basketball is done before the games start. Granted there are less players involved but it seems to work. I don't know if the honor start they grant the seniors would work in lacrosse.

I was curious about the PA system as well as the team benches being set-up across the field. You could hear the PA a little better during the Yale game because the crowd wasn't quite as loud. I don't think I heard anything on Saturday. Having the games on the football field is a great idea though.