When the bowl pairing with Michigan State was announced, my initial reaction was: F*** that.
But a few days later, I've convinced myself that I'm going. There are three very good reasons to go.
1) it's in Orlando (warm weather!)
2) BC needs the traveling support
3) it's not going to be all that expensive since we're carpooling
About 12 of us are loading up into 2-3 cars and taking the 19 hour trek down. It's sure to be a good time. It's not that great of a bowl game, but you know what? It's Matt Ryan's last game, and a chance to win 11 games for the first time since god knows how long ago (update: 1940, the 'national championship' year).
I'm not ready to fully transition into hockey mode just yet. I've got one last chance to enjoy what's been a fun football season. I might as well enjoy it.
Hockey
Speaking of hockey, it's been a sluggish start on the ice for the men and the women, but last week saw each team win a huge, potentially momentum swinging home-and-home series.
Men
BC men tore BU a new one in a weekend sweep which featured BU goalie Karson Gillespie getting sent to the penalty box during Friday night's 6-2 rout. Truly a moment to remember.
Of course, neither team had a monopoly on dirty play (I was disappointed that Carl Sneep took a penalty for knocking off the net intentionally to stop play - something I affectionately call "Currying"), but I guess that's to be expected in such a bitter rivalry - especially during a season in which both teams have been struggling.
I wonder when the last time was that BC and BU started their season series with both teams coming in with losing records? Truly bizarre. But while BC (5-4-5) is hopefully on the upswing, BU (4-9-2) continues its downward spiral. I feel so bad. *sniff*
Nate Gerbe and Ben Smith each had hat tricks this weekend. I'm not really all that concerned about the team's ability to score goals (even without Brock Bradford), but the defensive end scares me. Luckily, freshman goalie John Muse has been superb so far.
Saturday night @ Agganis was my first men's hockey road trip of the season, and needless to say I greatly enjoyed it (except for the fact that I am suffering through strep throat, meaning that 1) I was really uncomfortable and 2) I couldn't scream and heckle). Agganis is a great place to watch a game.
I went with my friend Char, who had never been to Agganis before. We had scattered seats over in section 120, but we squeezed into one of the BC sections, 106 (in the corner) to watch the game. There were about 10-15 BC students decked out in gold one section to our right. They had a few exchanges with BU's 'section 108' but otherwise it was a fairly peaceful night.
Things picked up in the 3rd, though: when BU scored to make it 4-3 BC, Char turned to me and said "I have never heard anything that loud in my entire life."
The intensity in the crowd for the last 6 minutes helped contribute toward them being 6 of the longest minutes of my life. Luckily, we held on, salvaging a tough day in BC athletics.
The guys next hit the ice next Wednesday night at Harvard.
Women
The women's hockey team started off the year struggling quite a bit under new head coach Katie King. BC has had to work hard to find the right line combinations. All year long, Allie Thunstrom and Meghan Fardelmann have shouldered the load, but the Eagles finally appear to have found line combinations that have gotten the team's other big guns going:
Spillane-Stack-Fardelmann
Thunstrom-Wright-Zavisza
Baskin-Harris-Mirasolo
That line combo produced results for BC: namely, a 2-2 tie on the road and a 6-2 win at home against then #9, now #10 UConn. The series bumped BC back up to #9 in the rankings.
Most importantly, Stack is Stack again. She was named Hockey East player of the week for scoring three goals, including the game tying goal at UConn. Deb Spillane is also back to her old self, making excellent, crisp passes.
Erin Blood is doing a great job quarterbacking the Eagles' power play as well.
My trip to UConn was okay. We got there late due to traffic so I didn't have time to take in any of the exciting surrounding area that is Storrs, CT. Their rink is small, but nice. We sat behind the net and had a perfect view of everything. I didn't see much of UConn's campus, but I could tell it was huge. We passed by Gampel Pavillion. I sieved it, of course.
This picture isn't from our game, but it gives a pretty good sense of UConn's arena.
Needless to say, I'm excited about this team, and the upcoming schedule makes things even more exciting:
Thurs @ BU, Sat @ NU
Jan 4 & 5 vs. #4 St. Lawrence
Jan 8 @ #2 Harvard
Jan 12 & 13 @ #5 Minnesota
Obviously, we're about to learn a lot about this team due to the crazy upcoming schedule... and I am little over a month away from my epic Minnesota road trip. Good times. This will be the first time that I'll get to see 7 of the team's games in a row. I've missed around 5 games so far this year- damn you, 'real life!'
Soccer
Let's not even go there. We lost to UMass in the first round of the NCAA tourney. Really? Really? We'll never win a national title in ANYTHING, Jesus F. Christ.
Basketball - men
I was at the basketball game against St. Louis tonight, and if you like boring basketball, tonight was your night. Granted, I find 'boring basketball' to often be redundant, but I'm usually excited by college games and ESPECIALLY BC games (I can tolerate sports I don't like if it's BC... see: Field Hockey). This one was pretty bad. It was a solid win (61-39) but it's definitely not one for the season highlight reel.
Most importantly, John Oates kept up his 0% shooting percentage on the season.
Rakim Sanders is a beast.
Women
It's hard to judge the women's hoops team so far because they've played one real opponent (Notre Dame) and got absolutely destroyed, but they're off to a 6-1 start. Considering my low expectations for this young team, I'm pretty happy. They play Holy Cross tomorrow night at home. I might make it to the game, but I also might actually study. (pshhhhh)
I'm updating the game log & top moments tonight.
Go Eagles!
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