Red Raider Sports Report                                for 2/13/01
		Another interesting weekend for Red Raider sports, lets start with what I did this weekend.  The band was on the road with the Mens Hockey team.  The first stop was at Yale,  where the Bulldogs looked to break a two game scoreless streak.  Yale was able to score first, but Colgate quickly responded to tie it at 1.  The difference came late in the second.  Bob Vandersluis was hit from behind and into the boards.  A 5 minute major was quickly called, but Bob took a while to get up.  He would only play another shift or two all game.  On the ensuing major,  Cormy Murphy scored the first goal, 17 seconds later, Mike O'Malley scored, then Byran Long.  In 2 and a half minutes, we scored three times, and the strong Colgate crowd there was able to forget about the rest of a very forgettable season, and was enjoying the moment.   Yale scored 1 more, but that was as close as they would come.   A 4-2 win on the road was a great experience for everyone involved.     The next night, we were in Hobey Baker rink, a place we had not won in since 1993.  Princeton came out playing strong, and I would say they dominated the first.  But every time they scored, we responded quickly, and it was a 2-2 tie going into the locker room.  There was a strong Colgate group there, but we were a bit more spread out than at Yale.  The best part is, there was no Princeton band, and the Princeton crowd was pretty quiet, in short, it was our house.  Colgate did not stop fighting hard in a physical game.  The turning point was Morins goal seconds into the start of the second.  Sean Nolan scored later in the period to give Colgate some breathing room.  Then in the third, Smith, Stay and Vandersluis lit the lamp en route to a blowout.  It was Dan Stay's first collegiate goal.  We had a great time in the stands, we actually had to plan out the order for our cheers.  "Ok, this time we chant, this is our house, next time we'll do 4 point weekend, then see you next year..." My personal favorites from the weekend, first at Yale, the "It's all your fault" cheer is pretty good for taunting goalies, but on our 5 minute major, we toned it down a bit to chant "It's mostly your fault!" And at Princeton, in one of the few shots we took at the crowd.. "Yale is better (clap clap clapclapclap)"  As far as the team, it was their first 4 point weekend of the season, unfortunatly Union and Cornell did not cooperate, and we are still currently out of the playoffs.  But we have momentum and confidence now.  The biggest differences this weekend was having a very good neutral zone trap, this put a quick stop to opposing drives, and created some opportunities, which we capitalized on.  Out shot timing was excellent.  When something opened up, we pulled the trigger right away, not a lot of hesitation which has cost us in the past.  11 goals in 1 weekend, nice!  For thier efforts, Sean Nolan was named ECAC player of the week, while David Cann picked up rookie of the week honors.          The Mens Basketball team continued thier momentum, out lasting Albany this Saturday.   It was good to see Pat Campolieta step up with 18 points and 9 rebounds.  His stats have dropped a little lately. After a back and forth game, we pulled away to win 66-58.  We won it at the foul line. The next opponent is Lehigh, a win will put us solidly in 3rd place, while a loss will put us even with them.  Lehigh has most recently beaten Army 84-79.  We won the first meeting.      The Womens Basketball team continues to skid, after pulling out to a 9 point lead over Stony Brook, we gave up a 15-0 run.  There's also something unsettling about seeing Ali Hanson lead the team in rebounds, even if it was with 11.  Rebounding wasn't our problem though, the shooting percentage went bad again.  Spot brought home 21 points, but was only 7-19 from the floor.   Things are just not going well, and the news only gets worse.  Frances Boone is out for the season.  Not due to injury or illness, but she did not make grades.  The team has different standards to be considered by the University to be academically eligable.   So, thats why you saw her on the bench, because her grades fell in between the coaches and schools standards.   This is most likely the end of her career with Colgate athletics, and it's an unfortunate way to go out.   The team is in not much better shape.  They travel to Lehigh this week.  The Mountainhawks are 3rd in the league.       The Womens Ice Hockey team continued thier run, whooping up on Hamilton 7-0.  Casey Schofield recorded a hat trick in the game!  R.I.T. proved to be a bit tougher though.  Annie Stover scored in the second to tie the game after we fell behind a few minutes earlier.  And that was it for the scoring.  The Red Raiders nearly doubled thier opponents in the shots column, but could not pull ahead.  It's time to head into the last weekend of the season with Southern Maine and MIT making up the opposition.  Southern Maine is a few slots ahead of us in third place, while MIT has scored 2 goals this season.  Gotta love the diversity of teams in this league huh?  Colgate is ranked 8th in the nation, while Southern Maine is right behind us at number 9.      The spring season is coming, the spring season is coming!  The Womens Lacrosse team will be on the road this weekend at a preseason tournament.  It will be interesting to see how far the team has come along.  I'll be interviewing Jane Murray next week to talk about the season.  They have a lot of injuries though.  The Men's Lacrosse team will be opening up thier season in about ten days at Syracuse University.  The Orangemen captured the national championship last year.  And about a month from now, the Softball team will begin play.  They are hoping to have one of thier best seasons ever.      Speaking of interviews, Mens Hockey Coach Don Vaughan will be sitting down with me this Thursday to talk about the program.  We will cover a range of topics from the program in general, to last years success, this years squad, and where things might be heading in the future.   I'm hoping it will be pretty good.  Also on the hot seat Thursday is Professor of Sociology, Nigel Bolland.  He attracted attention recently for THIS LETTER to the Maroon-News.   Look for a different point of view, as he has studied sports as an academic subject for some years now.  There are hopefully more interviews on the way.        As already mentioned on the message board.  ESPN the Magazine ran a story on the UVM hockey team, and thier struggle to put the hazing incident of last year behind them.  In the middle of the article, there is a big section on Ken Baker.  Baker, a former Red Raider from the class of '92.  According to the story, he was hazed quite severly as a freshman, but went along with it for fear of being blackballed.  And guess what, he's writting a book about it.  Man Made: A Memoir of My Body will hit the shelves in March.  This might initially seem like horrible press, but at the end of the little blurb on him, it says he put a stop to abuse of freshman by his senior year, so maybe it won't be as bad as it looks, at least I hope so.  Baker graduated the year before Don Vaughan took over the program.  That's it outta me, have a good week.
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