Weekend of Athletics Awesomeness, Or 'Awe,' for the Grammar Police

With hockey being such a high profile sport here at UML, sometimes it feels like our other sports don't get their just due.  But here's the thing that makes that unfortunate - we're good at pretty much every sport.  Seriously.  Don't believe me?  Check out this weekend of River Hawk awesomeness as a for instance:

Today, the UML women's soccer team, the number three seed in the women's Northeast 10 conference, is competing at Franklin Pierce.  The game is a semi-final matchup of two of the three strongest teams in the conference, and the winner plays in the NE-10 final. 

Soccer has had a great season too, so great that coach Elie Monteiro was named Northeast 10 coach of the year.  Plus, seniors Jamie Gillis (North Billerica, MA) and Kathleen Strazzere (Wilmington, MA) were named to the Northeast-10 Conference Women’s Soccer All-Conference Teams.  Jamie, as noted in numerous tweets and articles set a Division II record for shutouts, was subsequently recognized in Sports Illustrated's 'Faces in the Crowd,' which is a big deal for those of you who did not grow up reading SI like I did (this was way back in the day when relics you may have heard of like newspapers and magazines were still popular), and was named NE-10 Goaltender of the Year.  So, long story short, women's soccer is awesome. 

Getting back to this weekend of sports awesomeness, the field hockey team will play Bentley in the first round of the NCAA DII North tournament.  UML, the #3 seed in the east, had a typically great season.  They are 16-5, have outscored opponents 80-31, and have outshot opponents to the astounding tune of 474 to 176.  Again, awesome.  But we're not done. 

Cross country just came off finishing second in the NE-10 tournament, they won the New England Cross Country tournament (that's across all divisions - I, II, and III) for the second year in a row, and this weekend they are competing in the NCAA East Region Cross Country Championship Sunday at Franklin Park, MA.  While we're on the topic of cross country, one of our tour guides, Haley Catarius, finished sixth in the NE-10 cross country championship last weekend.  Go tour guides.  Way to be versatile. 

Last but certainly not least in the weekend of River Hawk awesomeness, UMass Lowell's men's basketball team will be taking on traditional Division I powerhouse UConn on Sunday.  If you're a sports fan, you've probably heard of DII Lemoyne taking out Syracuse recently, and that gives the River Hawks something to aspire to.  Regardless of the outcome of the game, playing at UConn in front of over 10,000 fans is what I would categorize as awesome.  Good luck, boys. 

Lastly, I will be at Tsongas on Sunday to watch the River Hawks take on UNH.  The game is at 5:00 p.m., which is plenty of time to watch the Pats and then get to the Tsongas in time for the game.  I can't wait.  Should be, you guessed it, pretty awesome. 

Ed