Wednesday Night Lights

Come down to Cressy Field tomorrow night and see YOUR UMass Dartmouth Corsairs take on LEC rival and heavyweight Eastern Connecticut. The Warriors and ourselves are fighting for the top spot in the Little East. The first 50 fans there will receive a UMD Lacrosse t-shirt. Game starts at 7.

Cheers, No Regrets

22

This Week's NEILA Coaches Poll

We've received top 10 votes in this week's NEILA Coaches Poll.

Cheers, No Regrets 

22

Back at Home, 8-1

Last night marked the first time we've played at Cressy Field since the Nichols game before spring break, but this didn't change the fact that we're undefeated at home. 

Wednesday April 10th vs. Mass Maritime

Home sweet home. Another non-conference opponent came to 285 Old Westport Rd. looking to knock us off & another left 285 Old Westport Rd. with a long bus ride to think about what went wrong. After 4 goals from Bo (2), Riley, and Justin in the 1st the game went to half-time closer than expected at 5-2. The defense was able to keep the Bucs from creeping back into the game led by Thayer in goal and senior defenseman Eric Kulpacabana getting his first start of his career. Gaff and Bo punched in 3 combined goals in the end to fend off MMA and keep us undefeated at the crib, final 8-3.

This Saturday we'll be at home again back in a conference game against UMass Boston who beat us in a big upset last year- something we won't let happen again.

Cheers, No Regrets

22

3 Game Road Trip

After spring break, everyone got back to Cressy Field that Monday and back to work. A huge 3 game road trip including two LEC games and a match up in New London, CT against NESCAC powerhouse and nationally ranked #20 Connecticut College.

Saturday March 30th @ WestConn

Huge nail biter for the boys in our first LEC game of the year. We started out a little slower than usual and were down at halftime 6-3. The game got much more intense for both sides in the second half, especially towards the end. I think everyone really turned it on and got fired up when Tarpey went coast-to-coast for an unassisted goal, his first of the year. We also saw three hat tricks Niden, Rod, and Jordbro. With a minute and a half left, we came back from a 3 goal deficit and sent it into overtime. In the extra frame, Jordbro used his wheels and put the team on his back with a game winning goal. Nice win to grind out, final 12-11.

Tuesday April 2nd @ #20 Conn College

Another good show of heart at this game. For the first time in the program's history, your UMass Dartmouth Corsairs were set up to face a nationally ranked opponent, a testament to the program's growth that I mentioned in a post back in the fall. Jordbro and Justin gave us first half goals to send it into halftime at 6-2. By far our hardest played game of the season next to the WCSU game. In the end, the nationally ranked camels proved just a little too much and pulled out the dubya- giving us our first loss of the year. Good guys go down, final 11-5. Not too bad for a team that should "get smoked by 10+" according to one LaxPower forum post. 

Saturday April 6th @ Southern Maine

Another nail biter conference game after an early Saturday morning bus ride. This was a game where it took about a half for the boys to really get off the bus. Another big day for the 12/23 line with Justin punching in a couple and Jordan with another hat trick. At halftime is it was locked at 5 a piece. Until Niden finally put us up 8-6 in the 3rd with a lead we wouldn't give up. Fan favorites escape and run out of Maine on the eve of Wrestlemania 29, final 9-8.

What a blast this was to order on PPV the day after Southern Maine at Pine Hill....

Cheers, No Regrets

22

Jordan's Story in the Boston Globe

In this past Sunday's Boston Globe, junior captain Jordan MacPherson was featured in a story about him coming back from a serious knee injury last season.

 Here's the link: 
Jordan- Boston Globe


Cheers, No Regrets
22

LEC Weekly Honors

Congrats to the three kids who were recognized by the LEC this week. Junior goalie Nick Thayer was named LEC goalie of the week. Freshman middy Zach Drolette was named defensive player of the week. And Bo picked up his second consecutive LEC rookie of the week.

Here's the link to the official press release 

LEC Weekly Report

Cheers, No Regrets

22

5-0. Spring Break, We out.

Another day, another win.

Saturday March 16: Nichols College

By far the hottest start to a game we had all season. The game opened up 6-0 in the first quarter with goals from six different players. Niden started things off then also got a dime on the next goal which belonged to Todd. Jordbro then got in on the action, then followed by Gaff . Next two came from RIley and Bo. Gaff and Bo each added another in the second to send in the game into halftime at 8-1. In the third, Jordbro and Hot Rod each tacked on the second each of the game. In the fourth Bo and Riley helped put the game to bed by scoring their third and second respectively. Thayer had another nice day in goal making 9 saves on 17 shots. Local celebrities leave with a dubya, 12-8.

It's now Thursday and Spring Break is winding down. Everyone will be back sometime on Sunday and practice will open up again Monday.

Cheers, No Regrets

22

Bo named LEC Rookie of the Week

Congrats to our freshman left pipe Bo Prozinski for being named the first Little East Rookie of the Week for the first week of the 2013 season.

Here's a link to the official press release: 

Bo being the man

Cheers, No Regrets
22

2013 Warm-Up Playlist

People are always intrigued by a team's warm up CD, what song they come out, what fires them up, etc. Here's the beats of the 2013 version of YOUR men's lacrosse team put together by ya boy and DJ Lars, formerly of Hetland Arena.

1. KG is Ready for War

2. 2Pac & Dr. Dre- California Love

3. Michael Danna- The Blood of Cuchulainn

4. Alesso- Pressure

5. Cam'Ron- Killa Cam

6. New Noise- Refused

7. Lynyrd Skynyrd- Free Bird guitar solo

8. Wolfgang Gartner- Illmerica

9. Biggie, Puffy, & Ma$e- Mo Money Mo Problems

10. U2- Sunday Bloody Sunday

11. A$AP Rocky- 1Train

Cheers, No Regrets

22

4-0

Four games in, and things have seemed to start off on the right foot with The U coming out of the gates 4-0.

Saturday March 2nd: Norwich University

Nice to get a W right away at home. It was 3-0 after the 1st quarter after a couple of goals from sophomore studs Riley Baxter and one from Connor Gaffney. Freshman Tyler Prentice, Tyler Chasnov, and Bo Prozinski all picked up their first collegiate points along with junior Dennis Healy. Nick Thayer had a great day in net making 12 saves and led the boys to victory, 11-4.

Wednesday March 7th: Wheaton College

Next team to roll into Cressy Field was the Lyons. And it was also freshman Bo Prozinski's coming out party. Bo led the offense with 5 goals. Gaff had three. Jordbro, Healy, Chasnov, and RIley each netted 1. Freshman Alex Lucas picked up his first collegiate points with 3 assists. Ya boy also picked up his first with 1 assist. Huge game for Tarp, no one could get by him. Thayer's 13 saves along with tight D helped stave off a late run from Wheaton. Good guys win, 12-7.

Saturday March 9th: @ Mount Ida College

Came out flying with a goal from Jordbro then a couple from Gaff before the Mustangs put their first one in. In the second, Lucas picked up his 1st career goal picking out a top corner. Junior middy Hot Rod Todd Davis picked up his first off the year coming off a shoulder injury early in the third. Despite out-shooting Ida 50-22, they were still able to make a legitimate late game push until Thayer and the D said no-no. The U leaves Newton 3-0, final score 11-9.

Wednesday March 13th: @ MIT

Yesterday we traveled north into town to play a group of kids who were a whole lot smarter than all of us. Junior Justin Lawless got things started early with his first G of the year, going opposite hand. Also getting their first of the year was freshman psychopath Zach Drolette and junior captain Adam Niden. Adam had a big day coming off a broken shoulder blade by dominating MIT defensemen and netting a hat trick. Gaff and Bo continued to lead to offense with consistency, Bo had a monster day with 6 goals and Gaff put one in and added an assist. A late game surge of outscoring MIT 6-1 in the 4th pushed us to a nice dubya. Four game win streak, final score 11-4.

With the win at MIT the brief road trip is over. Nichols College travels to 285 Old Westport Saturday for a 1 o'clock game. Spring break officially begins for us immediately after the game and everyone will go there separate ways and we will have the week off. Some will go lay around the beaches of Cancun, Mexico while I wear sweatshirts around Revere Beach and murder Kelly's finger plates and roast beef 3-ways. 

Cheers, No Regrets

22

Home Opener: Saturday March 2nd

Season opens up Saturday March 2nd here at UMass Dartmouth on beautiful Cressy Field. The Cadets from Norwich University travel down for face-off at 1pm. Come out and support ya boys.

Cheers, No Regrets 

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Season Preview Press Release

Here's a press release I wrote for the school website, it's a season preview for our 2013 campaign. You can also see it published on http://corsairathletics.com/landing/index:

Captains: Junior goalie Nick Thayer and senior defenseman Ryan Holbrook

Corsairs Open Up 2013 Campaign Saturday

NORTH DARTMOUTH, MA--- The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Men’s Lacrosse Team begins their season Saturday afternoon at 1pm at Cressy Field and look forward to building upon the success of the past two seasons. In the home opener, the Corsairs are set to face off with the Cadets of Norwich University. 21 returning players and 13 newcomers make up the 2013 roster. 

UMass Dartmouth will be returning several veteran players on both sides of the ball including junior captains Adam Niden (Walpole, MA) and Jordan MacPherson (Westwood, MA ) on offense. On the defensive side of the ball, captains Nick Thayer (Chelmsford, MA) and Ryan Holbrook (Braintree, MA) return to the team. “The leadership on the team is not just our five captains but most of the returning players are all leading by example” says Head Coach Kevin Mahoney. Mahoney added “They are setting the tone in practice and trying to improve our play on a daily basis, it is a good thing to see”  

The offense will lean on 2012 LEC 2nd Team attackman Adam Niden along with fellow point leaders from last year’s squad junior Justin Lawless (Quincy, MA) and sophomores Conner Gaffney (Andover, MA) and Riley Baxter (Groton, MA.) Other offensive returners include MacPherson, Brendan Dalton (Braintree, MA), Mike Lynch (Lynn, MA), Todd Davis (Sandwich, MA), Zach Medeiros (Freetown, MA), Torrey Savoie (Wilbrham, MA), and Dennis Healy (Hanover, MA). Newcomers such as Freshmen Tyler Chasnov (Plymouth, MA), freshman Nicklaus Prozinski (Ashland, MA), Alex Lucas (Brookfield, MA), Andrew Johnson (Hopkinton, MA), Tyler Prentice (Chelmsford, MA), Spencer Andrews (Bourne, MA), Steve Merrick (Methuen, MA),and Joe Bouthilette (Northbridge, MA) will also look to contribute to offensive production.

Along with Holbrook, the Corsair defense returns nearly all of its starters from last year including Steve Tarpey (Shrewsbury, MA), Larry Gilvarg (Natick, MA), and 2012 2nd team all conference goalie Nick Thayer (Chelmsford, MA). Last year’s defensive midfielders juniors Jared Wright (Gloucester, MA) and Dan Dawley (Revere, MA) will be joined by freshman Joey Christopher (Chelmsford, MA), Dan Brown (Beverly, MA), and Zach Drolette (Burlington, VT). Other returning defensive players include Eric Kulpa (Pittsfield, MA), Brian Grant (Eastham, MA), Andrew Ahearn (Medway, MA), and goalie Jesse Johnson (Pembroke, MA). New comers to the Corsair defense also include freshman Xavier Hillman (Westfield, MA), and Nico Cornelio (Woburn, MA).

Coach Mahoney is looking forward to the season, “We have a great combination of returning and new players. They are feeding off each other, putting forth some excellent effort and improving on a daily basis. Competition in practice is better and we are on track with our short term and long term goals; getting better every day and competing for the Little East Championship. It is a long season and we look forward to seeing how our hard work is going to pay off.”   

Cheers, No Regrets

22

Scrimmage Recaps

Saturday February 16th

We traveled down to Bristol, RI for a couple scrimmages against Emmanuel College and the host team Roger Williams University. As soon as we arrived we got suited up quickly and faced off against RWU right away. We were able to work in the entire roster and empty the bench. We came out on top 11-5.

In the second matchup we stayed on the field like psychos in the snow and waited for the Emmanuel Saints to get on the field. Again we were able to work the entire roster into the rotation and the game ended in a 5-5 tie.

Saturday February 23rd

The following Saturday the boys and I took an early trip down to Middletown, CT to face off against two teams nationally ranked in the preseason Division III polls: Wesleyan University and Trinity College. In the first game we faced Trinity, and held our own. In the end we couldn't contain them, final score 10-2.

In the second scrimmage we again stayed on the field in the snow and sleet and waited for the home team Wesleyan Cardinals to take the field. We were able to keep them to single digits with the final score being 9-1. Not bad for a state school a month into the season against two nationally recognized programs.

All in all, I'd say we got a lot out of both trips. It was a good couple of chances to go out and hit someone else besides ourselves. We'll see how it translates for the next couple of days before our home opener Saturday against Norwich.

Cheers, No Regrets

22

Storm Nemo: Oh Man Dude

This kid wasn't playing around at all: 2+ feet of snow, 2 days off of classes, 4 days off of practice. 

The Mass South Coast was like a pale wasteland. It all started Thursday night when MyUMassD alerts went out. My phone vib'd a whole bunch of times for emails, texts, and voicemails saying campus was closed for Friday and Saturday. No one person I talked to was upset. 

So Thursday night at Pine Hill myself, 12, 1, 13, 4, 6 and others got snowed in which was cool until the power went out. The outage carried into the next day. We grilled and hungout in the snow pretty much all day, attempted to build a snowman but failed. We walked up the driveway to notice a gigantic tree blocking the entrance so we had to drive over the neighbors lawn to go back to campus. We stayed the night there until we heard back from the landlord saying power was back. Unfortunately for Eddie St New Bedford house they weren't as lucky. Actually I think they just got power back today.

Tonight was our first night back at it since Thursday. Got in the gym right after the girl's team and got after it right away. Things moved fast and quick. Looked a lot better than you would think for kids coming off 4 pretty unproductive days.

All in all, it was just another obstacle we had to deal with. We'll just have to push through the rest of the week until scrimmages on Saturday at Roger Williams.

Cheers, No Regrets

22

Do you?

Cheers, No Regrets
22

Opening Days

Starters from the Fall '12 scrimmage
(L-R: Thayer, Grant, Holbrook, X, Drolette, Bone, Ya boy, Bo, Gaff, Adam)

'Tis official- the 2013 campaign has begun for THE University of Massachusetts Dartmouth men's lacrosse team.

On Saturday morning, the boys and myself waited impatiently in the lower level of the Tripp Center for equipment handout. During that, Larry got yelled at for being late and it was funny (the Monday before he was actually late for a team meeting as well because he was on the couch watching documentaries on the WCW and nWo). After everyone got their numbered bag with a sweat suit, swishy suit, laundry bag and blue & gold dome we moved into the new locker rooms for the first time. We even got a fresh new fooseball table- what other Division III team that you know has one something like that? Or any college team for that matter. I can't wait until we get fresh name tags for our cubby lockers so we look wicked official. 

Let me just say that the new locker room is absolutely unreal. Huge upgrade to what we've had in the past. That and all of the other renovations that were done over the summer at the Tripp Athletic Center- including a new training room. All joking aside the school really did do a great job with those additions, same goes for the renovations to the library that I got to peep today. 

23 hours later, the clock struck 8am and plyo lines began followed by team stretch. Then everything got real again. Regardless if we were in the gym or not. Kids were flying around everywhere and drills looked sharp. Pretty impressive for a group on a Sunday morning if I do say so myself. However there was most definitely a lack of traction which made for a handful of tumbles- most notably Larry's roughly 15 minutes into practice. The new freshman mildly proved that they provide a shred of usefulness, maybe they keep that up? 

Today, day two, whole different story. I can't speak for the rest of the team, but this was something I hadn't done since high school... 6am practice. It was a serious slap in the face reminding me that the season had started when I, 1. heard my obnoxious alarm blare in my ear at 4:45am, and 2. walk out the front door of my house with Larry, Justin, and Bone and within 5 seconds feel my face peeling off in the cold while the cows across the street moo'd a ton. Even under the circumstances though, the team still looked better than what you'd expect for the second day back on the job. 

All in all, everyone is seemingly happy to be back. I know myself a bunch of other kids are. We're fired up to surprise some people in Division III this year and have our eyes set on an LEC title.

I'll keep these posts a little bit routine and end it with another ill movie quote. This time from The Patriot (Which is Mel Gibson's best flick and better than Braveheart), which could carry over to all who couldn't hit the net to save their lives the past couple of days..."What I tell you boys about shooting? Aim small, miss small".

Side note: I figured I'd mention that as I lied on the couch and wrote this entire thing, the Bs win on snip from David Krejci with under 2 minutes to go and an empty netter from the mad handsome Tyler Seguin. I then watched a 23 and 20 year old both over 6 feet tall turn the Pine Hill living room into a mini hockey and Tarp take Justin in the tilt.

Go Bs, go Cs

Cheers, No Regrets
22

Shirts for Sale

Greetings all & welcome back,

Hope everyone had a fun coupla holidays and all is well. My hiatus from my writing duties is officially ending as the spring semester and the season are both approaching in the next month or so.

With all this being said, I seriously advise all fans of The Nation, UMassD students, and Division III Lacrosse fans everywhere to take out their wallets and spend a little. 

Sam Bliss, a junior CJ major at UMD (& also the significant other of senior defenseman Ryan Holbrook) has mocked up new shirts for the upcoming season. These shirts are to show support for the boys and myself and are also kinda fresh to wear around campus. 

Here is a rough design with the final image of the rough sketch meant to be placed in the middle-front of the shirt.

Each shirt is $15 and available in all sizes. If you're interested in looking like the man and having one of these shirts you want to contact Sam at sbliss@umassd.edu. Don't be a fool and hit her up. 

Cheers, No Regrets

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