...As we woke up to the good news, the mood only got better when we gathered to head over to the aquarium in the Baltimore Harbor. Although it seemed we had brought some North Country weather with us, we were pumped to head to the harbor. Personally, best part of the Monday's trip was satisfying my Chipotle addiction, and for those who say Moes is better, well, you're wrong. After lunch, we headed to the aquarium where we were able to see all sorts of marine life, from sharks too coral reef. Favorite part of the aquarium for the majority of the team had to have been the dolphin show. Pretty impressive stuff. Oh, and they absolutely drenched Timmy Lawrence and Charlie Dullea at the very end. Always a positive. After the aquarium, the team went to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. First time there for me and I was pretty impressed, good food and cool atmosphere. Anyways, team headed back to the hotel and prepared for the next day...
...So the Tuesday of spring break was definitely one of my favorites. This may come across as a surprise but the best part was practice. Coach Cavanagh wanted to make sure we were prepared for Conneticut College on Wednesday, so he managed to get us two hours to practice at Maryland University at College Park which is an awesome campus. We practiced on the football/lacrosse practice field, but the Capital One stadium was just behind us, and that was an awesome sight. After a quality, and warm (finally) practice, the team traveled to Tyler Forsyth's house for dinner, which he and his wife, Gail, put together for us. It was an awesome meal and it meant a lot to us that an alumni would help out the current squad like that. Safe to say in five years I probably won't be serving 50 collegiate lacrosse players dinner at my house (most likely my parents' house still, who am I kidding). So a big thank you to the Forsyths for the dinner from the entire team...
...Wednesday was game day, and one of the biggest of not only our season, but our program's history. #19 versus #17 Connetticut College, a top tier team of the highly competitive NESCAC conference. On top of all this, we were playing at historic Homewood Field, the home of the John Hopkins Blue Jays. The game lived up to the hype for sure. Down early 1-0, the team fired back with goals from Tim Lawrence and Joey Kramer. At half, we held a 4-3 advantage, as the game was shaping up to be a defensive battle. After a few back and forth goals from each squad, Brendan Damm sealed the 7-5 victory with a late goal in the fourth. Lawrence finished with three, while Kramer, Brett McClelland, Damm, and Tom Duggan all had one goal a piece. Not to take any personal credit, but a strong and discipline defensive effort was essential to this win, and our overall team effort allowed the Cards to come away with a huge victory for our team and program...
...The following day, the team went off to the Washington D.C. to check out the Zoo. Who doesn't love the Zoo, right? Well, the Zoo managed to take up most of the day for the team. I actually couldn't make it, but from what I heard, the gorillas were the best part, as they were supposedly eating their own vomit (sounds like I missed a good one). For dinner, we went to the beautiful establishment the Golden Corrall. I love this place, and for one main reason; endless food. I've managed to establish myself as the human disposal among the housemates, so buffets are always welcomed in my book. The following day, the team got a two hour practice in and began to prep for the big match-up versus Mary Washington at their home field on Saturday...
...Well, Saturday, as you will tell from my brief description of it, was a day to learn from the negatives and put it behind us. No excuses to be made, we just came out flat. Poor team defense, some sloppy offense and some other mental errors led to a poor result. We ended up losing 12-8, but it felt more like 15-0. The perfect season was lost, but, the season for us was just beginning. We hit a bump, but we knew we could turn things around as conference play lurked in the background...
...After a nice 11 hour bus-ride...you know, to really let the loss soak in...we arrived back at the nest. Overall, it was a pretty successful spring break with an unfortunate ending. We knew we had a big week ahead of us with Clarkson and Cortland coming into town. We always take pride in defending the nest, and these two games are some of our biggest rivals. I'm gonna cut it short here, for your eyes' sake. I'll post this weekend after the Cortland game. I know we had a game yesterday but I'll include the rundown of Clarkson in the next blog (spoiler: OT win). Well, the team is in the thick of it now. From here on out, its a must win for the Cards, as every game has either conference playoffs or an at-large bid into the NCAA's riding on them. Thank you to everyone and anyone that made our spring break as successful as it was. From the activities too the tailgates, even 800 miles away we have an awesome fan-base. Well, I hope everyone can come to the conference opener versus Cortland, should be one to remember, and if not, have a great week and god Cards!
Although I am getting ahead of myself, the weather in the Burgh this week has definitely made me eager for some summer...
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