After a tough game last week against a very talented Albany team, we set our eyes on the biggest rivalry in the history of collegiate lacrosse, Hopkins vs. the University of Maryland. Because of two straight losses, we knew this game was a must-win for us, but we didn’t even need that motivation in getting up for the rivalry, especially because Maryland was ranked number one in the nation coming into this match-up.
We knew we were in for an intense match for everyone involved, from coaches to players. We had the whole weekend off, so we knew Monday was going to be a tough one, which was much needed to set the tone for the week.
We came out flying and the tone was set, it looked like we were determined to beat Maryland, and it was only the first day of practice.
Tuesday had the same intensity in another tough practice and Wednesday didn’t disappoint in maintaining the same rigor.
Unfortunately, I was unlucky and suffered an injury late in Wednesday’s practice, forcing me out of the rest of the day’s practice and stopping me from playing in the game on Saturday. As a senior in my last regular season game against our rival Maryland, it was extremely tough not being able to play in this one.
It was next man up though, and senior John Kaestner stepped right into the role when called upon as he has done his whole career.
Thursday was used to put in some plays and go over existing ones that we had, along with doing some extra man-work in preparing for what they were going to throw at us. Friday was our walk-through practice, but a little different, as a few of the drills were changed up in order to possibly change our fortune.
To everyone’s dislike, we did not get Sammi’s food Friday night, but usually on away games we don’t get the food anyway, so we couldn’t get too angry.
Instead, we ordered some Chinese food for dinner, then attempted to go to Rita’s for some dessert, but they decided to close a little bit early on this Friday night, so a couple of us went with milkshakes instead.
After an hour or so of Call of Duty, we decided to rent ourselves a new movie. We went with “Dog Pound,” which I found very entertaining, terrible ending though. For anyone that has seen it, I am a big fan of Butch and would do anything for his buddies.
We had the pleasure of having Greg Edmonds join us for the movie along with Eric Schneider and Kevin Interlicchio. Of course, Schneider was the only one who didn’t think that the movie was entertaining.
Next thing we knew, it was the morning and I was dropping the roommates off at the bus because I wasn’t able to travel.
One of the hardest things I’ve had to do was not getting on that bus with my teammates for a game like that.
I had a great feeling about this game, however. A few hours later, I was waiting for the team to arrive with a “W” under their belts. We had a big win over the Terps.
Jays are picking it up at the right time. Huge game against Navy next week.
Beat the Midshipmen! #greatdaytobeajay
