for 3/25/01
The Softball team was on the road to face three opponents. Colgate lost its first game to Delaware State, when a 3 hitter by Beth Haas was tainted by 7 fielding errors, 4 of them in a 6 run 5th inning. 5 runs were not enough to win game 1. We evened up our record in game two, with 4 innings with 2 or more runs. Colgate jumped ahead early to win 9-3. Coppin State was up next, who we have been beating pretty badly in recent years. At the end of 1, its was 6-1 us. Emily Wright went 3-3. This game was ended via the mercy rule after 5 innings. Game two saw Colgate earn its second no hitter of the season, this time it was Lauren Wygant who struck out 10 of 16 batters she faced, to get the shutout. This game was again stopped at 5 because we had a 12-0 lead. Going 3-3 were Melissa Rawson and Emily Wright. Coppin state falls to 0-12 on the season. Sunday, we have a series with Morgan State, last year we beat them 2-1 and 10-7, but I want to put this issue online now, so I will add those results after they come in. Look for an interview with Melissa Rawson sometime in the next week or so. This Wednesday is the home opener, against Cornell University at 3 pm out on Eaton Street. It's a nice place to watch a game, and away from the hill just a little bit, its a fairly new field, and very nice.
The Mens Lacrosse team lost their Patriot League season opener to Army yesterday. Army was the heavy favorites going into the game, and a gutsy effort by Colgate helped kept the game close in the first half. We were doen just 4-3 at halftime. Colgate was winning the little battles to keep themselves in the game against a strtonger and faster army squad. We were getting more than our share of groundballs and faceoff wins. Then, in the third period, it fell apart. It was the only period Army outshot Colgate, but they did it 16-2, and scored 7 goals to our nil. Army would score 9 straight to bury the Red Raiders. With back up goalies in place, Colgate once again played even with Army in the 4th quarter, but it was a lost cause. We did pretty good in the midfield, but had trouble running our offense and were a step slow on defense. Both goaltenders did a pretty good job, with a few robberies on both sides of the field. The final score was an ugly 13-5, Army.
The Womens Lacrosse team won their first league game, against the Bison of Bucknell. Colgate just outclassed Bucknell really. We were faster, more skilled, and had more depth. I mean, we were reacting to everything a second before Bucknell could. That led to a ground ball, and draw control advantage. We were just out hustling them too, like when the ball was about to go out of bounds, or was knocked loose. After building a quick lead, the Bison were able to catch a few breaks to pull within a few, but Colgate kept pouring it on all game. Liz Brown was the number 1 scorer with 5 goals, Heather Smith was right behind her with 4. And two freshman, Jane Manning and Caitlin Houck had 3 a piece. Jane Murray stopped 6 in net. A scary moment came later on when senior Meghan McLaughlin was bonked in the head and had to leave the game. It is a concussion, she will be out at least until next week, maybe a little bit more.
The headhunting continued Sunday, in a non conference game against Duquense University. The Dukes handeled Bucknell without much trouble in a game on saturday, but seemed to turn it up a notch for us. While I will say the refs seemed to be helping us out a bit, 5 Duquense players were given yellow cards for hitting Red Raider's in the head. The Dukes got off to a quick start, then Colgate recovered, but never were able to mount a full comeback. The Duquense offense was slow, but well controled, and when they finally set up their shot, we had a hard time stopping it. They had a good passing game, and not a lot of mistakes for Colgate to use. To our credit, we did make the most of the mistakes we were given. We had a hard time getting penetration to get our shots off. Liz Brown was covered closely, and only scored two, leaving Caitlin Houck some more room, to score 4, including a great take away as the Dukes were trying to clear. Duquense had one of the most annoying clears I have ever seen at the end of the first. Usually about once a game, you will see a goalie come way out unchallenged on a clear attempt, and take some time deciding who to pass to. Well, the Dukes goalie held onto the ball for well over a minute, and no one was even trying to get open to recieve the pass. Colgate would muster one last comeback attempt in the final 20 minutes, but it would fall short as we lost 7-12. The next game is Wednesday night against Syracuse. That game is at home at 7pm. As always, Syracuse is a powerhouse, so this will be a tough game.
Our Tennis teams picked up some PL wins this weekend over Lafayette. In womens action, we won the top 4 singles matches, and all 3 doubles contests to win 5-2. On the mens side, the took a sweep over the leopards, surviving a tough match at number 1 singles with Eric Saccullo getting the win for Colgate, then everyone else needing just 2 sets to get the win. Colgate won all 9 of it's matches. Both teams are now 1-0 in the league, and travel to face Army next weekend.
Is our nickname in trouble? The Students for Social Justice have begun to protest the use of the name "Red Raiders". Most devoted Colgate followers know that the name was not picked to honor native americans, but to honor Colgate football players in the 30's. When new uniforms were purchased by the team in 1932, the nickname came into being, when sportswriter "Dex" Teed used the phrase, the "Red Raider's of the Chenango Valley". The name stuck, but where exactly did it come from? Was it simply the colorful new uniforms, which were indeed unusually colorful for the time? Was it the fact that after a particularly bloody game, the uniforms were even redder in color, as the Raiders ran away with a victory. Was it a tribute to the program, the small school from middle of no where upstate NY, that would sweep into one of the football power houses stadiums with thousands of fans, in fact, the entire cmapus would often travel to away games, and cheer wildly, as the team few people knew of came in, and stole the victory, often leaving home town fans stunned as Colgate returned home, feeling "raided" by a smaller, quicker program with more heart. Or was it simply the fact that even back then, we did not like Cornell, who was already using the name "Big Red", were we simply taking the name to show Cornell who it's daddy was? The stories to explain our nickname are many, but none of them suggest a native american origin. That being said, I would also like to say that I do believe that there have been inappropriate uses of native american names and mascots. There are people who are legitimatly offended and hurt by these images. I have not taken a stand on this yet, but I would like to now. I do not believe we use the name in a hurtful manner, are some people offended by our use of it, I'm sure. Are these people aware of the true meaning to the name, maybe? I have taken a course on native american indians, and I can say that this is not one of the top ten problems the indian nations have to deal with. Are they still offended by it, yes, but some of them are only offended because they have been taught to be offended by it, or they do not have enough to worry about. Names do hurt, but you also can't always get what you want, and in this case, there is not a whole lot to be offended by. That being said, I consider their best argument to be, even though you and I know the name does not have native american meaning, a prospective student might not. If they can prove that the University is hurting itself with this name, then they might have an argument. But will a student really turn away from Colgate because they think our nickname is offensive? And will enough valuble potential students change their mind if the name was changed? I also am not fond of the fact that its people who might not have all that much to do with the name "Red Raiders" that are leading the charge. I will be very dissapointed if this measure is pushed without the support of the athletes, coaches and fans, the ones who have the most to do with the name "Red Raiders" If there is a change, I hope it is at least supported by a broad majority of people, and not just a vocal minority. And if a change does come about, let the decision for the replacement be made by the community at large. If NY state legistlation passes, banning the use of native american names and mascots in public schools, I cant see President Karelis taking a stand for us on the side of keeping the name anyway. I have put up a fanpoll on the issue, and I will leave it up for a few more days.
I was looking at the main page today, and we are rapidly closing in on our 10,000 visitor to enter through the front page. This number is really mind boggling to me, that we would have that many visitors in just 15 months. Me and Mike started this site Christmas our sophomore year as a place to post our predictions for the next game, and to talk about it a little. Now, Mike has moved on to pursue other interests, and this site has grown tremendously. It used to be an hour a week commitment for the both of us, now I find myself putting in 2 hours a day by myself. Of course, if I didn't enjoy doing it, I wouldn't, but I realize I cannot do all I would like to do. Over the past few weeks, I have not been able to keep up with the individual team pages, and the spring ones are not even up yet. Thats partly due to my time constraint, trying to balance classes, and other activities. So I have added more emphasis to what makes this site different from the official site. You can get game results and schedules on the official site, I try to provide more commentary, which can be found here and on the message board. I'm also spending a lot of time on features, articles and interviews. I'm very pleased with the number of people who have visitied my recruiting page, 300 visitors in the month of March alone. That is more people than typically visit any of the team sites. These reports have also been getting 30-40 readers a week, which is pretty decent I think, it's not quite as high as I'd like it yet.
One of those little extras I've been working on will be unveiled tonight. The second annual Golden Gate's are about to begin. These awards go out to the best of the best, and I've taken extra steps to make sure these are even better than last years. Number 1, there are more people on the ballots, including representatives of every sport. The ballot is also different, you get 1 ballot, but you can vote for more than 1 person. So, you either vote for the selection you feel is best, or if you can't make up your mind and think more than one person has earned the highest honors, you can spread your vote around a little bit. Before each catergory comes up for a vote, there will be discussion on the message board. I'm also hoping to advertise these this year. The ballot has its own page, so the regular fanpoll will remain on line. Thats it for this edition of the Red Raider sports report, I look foward to discussing it on the message board.
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E-mail me at RedRaider013@yahoo.com