2013 Colgate Lacrosse Player Blog: Back in Bethlehem (Game Highlights)

2013 Colgate Lacrosse Player Blog: Back in Bethlehem

The 2013 season is here and we wanted to work closely with college programs to bring a part of the excitement to you. Throughout the 2013 season we will highlight lacrosse programs on our space for all of our readers to follow. Player blogs serve as a unique outlet for programs to showcase their season as it develops, plus highlight everything they have to offer a student-athlete. In contrast, families and fans get a glimpse into the program’s athletic and academic regimen.

Benjamin Shapiro
Senior – #19 – Midfield
Colgate Lacrosse

Back in Bethlehem

The weekend we had preparing for all season was upon us, The Patriot League Tournament. As Coach Murphy said throughout the week, it’s a new season, everyone was starting 0-0. Despite what we would consider a sub par Patriot League regular season at 3-3, we had a chance to redeem ourselves over the weekend. There could be no better way to start our championship run than against our rivals the Lehigh Mountainhawks.

We kicked off the practice week on a beautiful sunny day in Hamilton, New York. As usual before practice we handed out our weekly awards as Ryan Walsh earned player of the game honors against Bucknell, and the Missouri Missile Chandler Millstone was named practice player of the week as his strong play in practice carried over to a nice performance against The Bison. Before practice we took our team photo on the stands of Andy Kerr. In what seems to be coming a tradition we took the picture with the team directly staring into the sun, which I’m sure resulted in some funny faces in the photo. After the picture we began our practice where we reintroduced Lehigh and began our preparation for the semifinal matchup. Tuesday brought another nice day, where we ended practice with some full field six on six play. Jack “O.C.” Callahan ended practice with a nice goal in the crease that brought a roar from the team. Wednesday we practiced in the rain, which was followed by the Colgate All Sports Banquet which we attended as a team. I am proud to write that after years of getting snubbed, Jimmy Queeney rightfully won the Scholar Athlete of the year award, a well-deserved award, as I am not sure I have met someone who works as hard in his studies as Jim. That wasn’t our only award winner of the night, as after also probably getting overlooked last year, Peter Baum won the Male athlete of the year award, in what has been a spectacular two season run for Peter. We finished the practice week off with a pregame practice on Thursday afternoon, where I had the opportunity to break the team down before we headed off to Bethlehem. I reminded the team of the last Colgate team to win a Patriot League championship in 2008, that no one remembers the individual accolades of that team, and rather only sees the banner that hangs in our stadium. I called on us to play for each other and asked, Why not us? On the road we stopped at team favorite Pizza Grande for dinner, but unfortunately the Rite Aid next door was closed for people to grab some post dinner treats and drinks. For the rest of the trip we watched “Fight Club” where the team seemed to get an idea where “The Dictator” Dennis Brown gets his preachings from.

Friday we began the day with breakfast at the hotel, followed by a light shoot around on Lehigh’s field. Afterwards we came back to the hotel for lunch and relaxation before the big game. On the way to the game you could tell the team was filled with focus and excitement for a rematch against The Mountainhawks. On the short bus trip over from the locker room at Goodman field to the game field, the bus broke into a chant just itching to step on the field. Unfortunately the game did not go our way, despite playing with great energy and emotion, Lehigh was the better team on Friday and beat us on their home field. The same mistakes we made all season seemed to come back to haunt us throughout the game, and ultimately we fell by a wide margin.

2013 just wasn’t our year. After reaching the Patriot League Finals the previous two seasons, we were unable to do so for a third time. The magical patriot league tournament run we were all hoping for just simply did not happen. Still, I am really proud of our team for sticking together throughout the year, and having an unforgettable senior season for the 10 men leaving this program. It was a great ride, but it is not over yet. I know we are going to come out flying and finish the season right against a team we can proudly say we own of late, The Maryland Terrapins.

-#19

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