Greetings...My name is Matt Drenan.  I am 22 years old and am a senior defenseman on the lacrosse teams at Johns Hopkins University located in Baltimore, Maryland.  This has been an extremely exciting week and today was microcosmic of the anticipation of what will be an exhilarating experience come this Saturday as we go up to the Dome to play Syracuse.

Looking back, we opened our regular season schedule a few weeks ago with a solid win against a talented up and coming Siena College team.  We came out excited to play and were able to settle down in the second half in what ended up being a nice first test.  Last year I played long stick middie and after spending a year at the rope it was fun to be back down low at the close defense working with my fellow bash brothers Mike Evans and Sam Devore. 

The starting weeks of our season were a bit of a roller coaster ride.  We were all humbled a bit following our Siena win after we lost to a very good Princeton team on a national stage at M&T Bank stadium.  After a tough loss we all looked ourselves in the mirror as we still had a big week coming up.  We dug a little deeper for the next two games and earned two quality wins against top ten ranked UMBC and Hofstra.  This Saturday we head up to Syracuse for what will be our toughest test to date this season.  I can't wait.

Today has been a packed and fulfilling day.  I got up pretty early this morning for a film sesh with the middies and defenseman after which I grabbed some breakfast and went home to finish up a little work before my noon class, Leadership Theory.  This class has turned out to be a fun and interesting class in which we have studied different styles and methods in leadership both historically and contemporarily and has been one of those classes that I have really enjoyed.

After class got out around 1 I headed to a local coffee shop on campus to meet with my senior thesis advisor.  I am a double major in History and Art History and am currently working on my senior thesis in history.  I submitted my first draft a couple of weeks ago and had a meeting to discuss the changes I need to make for a final draft.  My thesis is on Charles Carroll, the most notable signer of the Declaration of Independence from Maryland.  Baltimore history is pretty interesting if you're in to good old fashion colonial studies and going to school here has really been special.  We even have Carroll's son's house on our campus and is a national historic landmark...pretty cool to walk by everyday on your way to class.

After my meeting got out around 2 it was time to head to up to the AC for practice.  As each day goes on things intensify as we get closer and closer to getting to play on Saturday.  My favorite time of the day is hanging out in the locker room with the boys talking about everything from lacrosse to certain individuals "social agenda."  Regardless, the guys on our team are what make this a special place.  After decompressing and showering up I headed down the hallway to Coach Petro's office to watch a bit of film and hang out for a bit. 

I headed to my car around 8 and got home shortly after.  I'll do a little work for my classes tomorrow watch some more film and try and get in bed by 12 or 1, although I know that getting to sleep will be tough when all I can think about it Saturday.  Tomorrow should be another long but exciting day as we get closer to game day.  Thanks for reading.

Matt