The week leading up to Valentines Day, weather wise, was absolutely horrific. The days were cold and rainy, the fields were wet, and the guys on the team full of complaints.

Through it all, however, Southwestern knew it would have one of its toughest challenges of the season on Valentines Day, a game against Preseason #25 in the nation, Tulane Green Wave at home.

To top it off, Friday night/early Saturday morning, it snowed more in the Austin area than it has in almost twenty years, and thanks to a few guys on the team who stayed up late(obviously past curfew ; )), there was an enormous snowman with huge tree limbs for arms sitting right in front of one of the cages when the players got to the field. Their excuse? "We were going to use it for target practice, Coach".

To further complicate things, the field was covered with almost three inches of white snow.

Well, Tulane showed up, although in smaller numbers than expected, the sun came out early and melted the snow, and the fans came out to support the Bucs on a day which couldn't have been nicer. Must have been the Valentines announcement Gupta sent to the campus.

As he did against SFA, Bier notched the first goal of the game. This time, however, Bier wasted no time and scored with only twenty six seconds gone in the game. Needless to say, with only twelve guys on the team for Tulane, SU never looked back.

Bier dominated at face-offs, not losing one the entire day, and winning most outright. From the beginning, SU ran Tulane into the ground. By half-time, the score was 7-1.

Caldwell and Gainey were brilliant all day, commanding the crease, and moving very well. By the end of three, it was 10-2, before SU decided to start getting penalty after penalty. With six in the fourth quarter alone, SU allowed Tulane to score 5 in the fourth to make the final score 13-7.

Tulane had some very good players, but no support from the bench. SU controlled most ground balls, the tempo of the game, most, if not all face-offs, and again improved as a team.

Emmel, has been playing brilliant for a first year all season, and was rewarded with his first goal of the season in the fourth, to go along with his first assist last week. Arrington, did a great job facing off on the second line, winning most of his as well.

Again, the line of Jay, Om, and Jones, filling in for injured Daulton, did an exceptional job in transition. Jeffcoat had a great game as usual, and many of the freshmen made their presence known on the field, in a hard hitting game. MacConnell has hit the goalie in the chest twice on one on ones in unsettled situations now this year. Maybe one day MacConnell will aim at the goal and not the goalie - we are going to clarify that for him this week. Gette played more than he has all year and was tired after all the man down situations SU put itself in.

The game ball went to Daniel who again had a very good game, and it was shared with first year D-man Kunkelmann, who, in a short semester and a half, has turned into a very physical and adept long pole. Overall the defense played very well, again led by Senior Sholars and Winter. Tulane did have many chances in front of the crease but could not finish.

SU, a huge underdog came away with a big win. With the hustle of the entire team through the last second of the game, we are learning how to never let up. No where can that be seen more than by the play of Frank Makal in a game like this one. While he notched no points for the day, a rare occasion indeed, Frank was all over the place at attack, maintaining possession, picking up loose balls, riding defenders, and finding ways to make his team come out ahead.

Next week SU hosts UT-Dallas, a team that came to SU last year and lost in overtime. This team cannot be overlooked. A win against UT-D puts SU in a solid position in the Division at 4-1, with its only loss against well deserving NSU.

Overall the game was a great win, celebrated after by many of the players, who DON'T have to wash jerseys, with a slide in the huge mud puddle after the game. They enjoyed that so much that they decided to let coach join in the fun by picking him up (tackling him)and carrying him to the great mud pie on the crease, and letting him go with a splash seen and heard by many.

Caldwell, one of our two fearless seniors led the charge of the mud brigade. Coach Bowman needs to discuss with Caldwell again what it means to be a captain. Most importantly what is appropriate and what is not, as coach Bowman ended up driving home with very little clothing on. There will be EXTRA running this week he says. Reason - Can't let up on the conditioning. Whatever it is, it is definitely not because it took several washes to get him and the clothes clean.

Back to Men's Schedule/Results (2004)
Back to Men's Lacrosse Home
Back to Lacrosse Home