G'day,

It's been a while since my last post. Coming down to the end of the semester typically means an increase in time spent studying and an increase in intensity of practices so I have been a little busy.

I am happy to report that we won our last three games against Seton Hill, conference rival Adelphi and Dominican. All three games were must wins so we were happy to come out of them with the W. Since losing to C.W Post we have won the ground ball war in all four games which has been a nice change from mid season where we lost ground balls in three straight games. We can attriubute that change to an increase of tempo and intensity in practice. Every ground ball in practice is a battle which prepares us for games.

At this point in the season we have one game remaining and it is the most important game to date. If we lose there is a very good chance we won't be competing in the NCAA playoffs for a chance to defend our championship. If we win we still have to wait for selection Sunday (May 3rd) to learn our fate. I remember how nervous I, and our whole team were two years ago when we were in a similar situation. We had travelled to Mercyhurst and lost a close game and had to cross our fingers that we were selected as the at-large bid for the tournament. We were selected but had to go back to Mercyhurst where no ECC team has won a conference game since Mercyhurst joined a few years ago. We lost another close game in the semi final and were denied the chance to play for the National Championship at M&T Bank stadium. Being a huge Ravens fan I would have loved to have played in Ray Lewis' house but winning in Boston is just as sweet.

So hopefully my next entry won't be the last one and I'll have a win to post about. If not I'll post for the last time after a long, brutal bus ride home. Take care...

Rob-

G'day,

The NYIT Bears got back on the right track on Tuesday by defeating the Notre Dame de Namur Argos 17-8. It was a well rounded win with both sides of the field playing a solid game and dominating ground balls in the middle of the field. Two things stood out in the game. Keith Henderson took over two NYIT scoring records. He now owns the goal scoring record and the point scoring record so a big congratulations goes out to Hendo for such an amazing achievement. With so many great lacrosse players coming out of Tech it is not easy to stand out but he certainly has done that during his career at NYIT.

The other key stat to come out of our game Tuesday was the groundball war. We won the groundballs 59-19 which is quite an effort. We were coming off three straight games where we lost the groundball battle which could be a first in NYIT lacrosse history so the players took it personally and wanted to come out and put forth a solid effort and hustle on groundballs.

It's not too hard to figure out that every single player on the team was dissapointed with the loss to our neighbors C.W Post on Saturday. It is typically the first game we circle on the schedule every year and we get very excited to play in the tough, intense game but to come out of it with a loss is especially painful. Having said that, depsite the tough road we have ahead (we basically have to win every game on the remaining schedule) we are ready for the challenge. After many talks with the coaches and many hours breaking down the film from Post to fix all the wrongs we feel we are ready to move on and now focus on Seton Hill.

We leave Friday morning for Greensburg, PA to take on a team we played last year in Seton Hill. They return a lot of their players from last year so we are expecting another tough game. No game on our schedule is a push over so we must prepare for this game like we would Post or Adelphi. We had perhaps our toughest "work day" practice of the year today but it was definitely the most productive so we feel that we are back on track and ready to take the remaining games one at a time and hopefully come out at the end with a birth in the NCAA's.

I will hopefully get another entry in when we return from Greensburg, until then take care...

-Rob

G'day,

Game two of conference play is in the books for the NYIT bears and it was just as difficult as the first. Perhaps the most up-tempo game of the year for us and also the most exciting so far. Our game Saturday was made more interesting by a few familiar faces standing on the opposing sideline. Two former NYIT Bears players, Matt Dolan and Albert Maione, and former Offensive Coordinator Coach Tashman. It goes without saying that conference foes know one another pretty well considering we play every year but these two teams were a little more familiar with each other.

The game started unlike any game this year, we were in the hole 4-1 after the first quarter. One thing about the Bears is that we never panic. We faced a similar situation in last years Championship game in Boston. Lemoyne jumped out to a solid lead after the first but we went on a streak and were leading at the half. Same thing happened Saturday, we were down 4-1 and entered halftime leading 9-6.

The third quarter saw NYIT go on a 5-0 run only to be answered by a 3-0 run by the Lions. The score was 15-9 entering the fourth quarter. Against some other teams we may have felt comfortable with that lead but in conference play no lead is safe. The final quarter did not go in our favor. Molloy scored 6 goals to our 1 to come within one goal. Albert Maione scored with 58 seconds remaining but that was as close as Molloy could manage to get as our defense clamped down to hold on for the victory.

Chris Powers had a career high 24 saves in goal including 10 first quarter stops. The defense did their best but with some tough calls being made including 17 penalties against us it was made a tad bit more difficult. Despite being man down so often the defense held Molloy to only 3 man up goals which was very important.

Matt Sullivan had a game high 8 points on 3 goals and 5 assists. Austin Carino scored 6 goals, Keith Henderson had 3 goals 3 assists, and Matt Messina had 2 goals.

Our conditioning certainly helped us pull out the victory this week. In the week leading up to the Molloy game we stepped up our running and also the tempo and intensity in practice all to prepare for these tough conference games. Our next game could be our biggest of the regular season as we travel all the way to take on our neighbors, C.W Post. We will need a near perfect game to come out on top as this one will be a 60 minute battle. It's time to go to war.I'll post the results next week. Until then take care...

-Rob