America East Daily Word - March 30

Vermont women’s lacrosse sophomore Sydney Mas scored her 100^th career point yesterday in the Cats’ 16-13 win over UC Davis.

It was only the 26^th game of her already impressive career.

Mas became the fastest UVM player to eclipse the 100-point milestone when she scored the second of her five goals against Aggies. After a 55-goal, 63-point freshman season that resulted in the America East Rookie of the Year Award, Mas has not skipped a beat tallying 36 goals in UVM’s 10 games so far.

Vermont senior Allison Pfohl also scored her 100^th career point in the game. Mas and Pfohl became the 12^th and 13^th 100-point scorers in Vermont women’s lax program history.

Perhaps more importantly, however, the Cats are one victory shy of matching last season’s win total as they improved to 7-3 entering a big conference game this weekend against New Hampshire at Virtue Field.

Check out some highlights from CatamounTV with interviews from Pfohl and head coach Jen Johnson.

America East women’s lacrosse teams continue to get a dose of the west coast squads today as well when Albany hosts Stanford on John Fallon Field. Live coverage links are available at AmericaEast.com.

News out of Orono yesterday featured women’s basketball coach Richard Barron. In this, the 40^th anniversary of Title IX, Barron will appear on ESPN’s Outside the Lines on April 3 to speak about using male players during women’s basketball team practices during the 3 p.m. airing of the show. Details, here, from the Bangor Daily News.

The only baseball action today features the Maine Black Bears kicking off a three-game set against Norfolk State in Virginia. The Bangor Daily News has a pregame capsule of what to expect over the next three days.

In softball yesterday, Albany and Siena tangled in a doubleheader and UMBC hosted Howard. The Retrievers got back to the .500 mark on the season (14-14) with a 12-5 win while Albany swept the double-dip with the Saints thanks to a walk-off grand slam by Charlise Castro. Check out the highlights, here.

Men’s lacrosse conference play gets underway this weekend with three games, highlighted by a semifinal rematch from last year’s conference championship between Hartford and UMBC under the lights in Baltimore. Elsewhere, Stony Brook entertains Vermont and Albany hosts Binghamton. All of those games take place on Saturday. We’ve got a conference preview for you, below.

A Pitino-Teague Reunion

The year is 1983. Boston University and Holy Cross battle for the ECAC North Atlantic title – one win away from the NCAA Tournament. At the helm of the Terriers: 30-year-old Rick Pitino.

Pitino’s floor general: Shawn Teague, a transfer guard from Missouri.

Teague scores 10 points and dishes out seven assists in the Terriers’ 63-62 win and Pitino leads his first team to the NCAA Tournament.

A lot has happened in the 29 years since Pitino’s first trip to the Dance with the Terriers. The ECAC North Atlantic became the North Atlantic Conference and then its name changed to the America East Conference, Teague played two more all-conference seasons at Boston U., Pitino left Comm. Ave., guided 16 more teams to the tourney, reached the Final Four with at least one team in each of the last four decades and won a national title with Kentucky in 1996.

With all that said, the 2012 Final Four, where yet another Pitino squad (Louisville) will play, has a remarkably interesting America East feel to it.

On one side you have Pitino, who in five seasons with the Terriers back in the late 70s and early 80s compiled a 91-51 record (.641). He has since gone on to win 536 more games in stints at Providence, Kentucky and now with the Cardinals.

And on the other side you have Pitino’s former team, Kentucky. One Wildcat in particular might send Pitino all the way back to 1983, all the way back to Walter Brown Arena, all the way back to memories of coaching Shawn Teague. Why? Because Shawn’s son, Marquis, runs the show for Kentucky averaging 10 points and nearly five assists per game in this, his freshman season.

Marquis wears the same No. 25 that his father donned while playing for Boston U. and now looks to help Kentucky beat his dad’s former coach for a chance to play for a national title.

Pitino talked rivalries today on the Scott Van Pelt Show on ESPN Radio in lead up to the Louisville-Kentucky game on Saturday.

“Being at Kentucky and being at Louisville, you want to beat each other. But no more than Duke and Carolina. No more than Northeastern and Boston University,” Pitino said. “You have your rivalries and that’s pretty much it. It’s really not personal.”

It’s Teague’s Wildcats versus Pitino’s Cardinals, a matchup that no one could foresee back in 1983.

America East Daily Word - March 29

Durham, N.H. turned into Upset City on Wednesday afternoon as the UNH women’s lacrosse team hosted No. 12 Vanderbilt.

The Wildcats’ Laura Puccia, the reigning America East Rookie of the Week, scored her fifth goal of the game with 4:07 remaining in regulation to give UNH the 12-11 upset over the Commodores. This is New Hampshire’s first win over a nationally ranked foe since a February 2010 win against Dartmouth, a stretch of 11 games.

"We know we have the heart but we have not always put it all together collectively," head coach Michael Daly told Foster’s Daily Democrat postgame. "This is a signature win for this season. If we cannot build off this one, we can't build off anything." 

UNH will get the chance to build on the upset win when it takes on an improved Vermont squad this weekend in Burlington.

Check out the Democrat’s full game story from the Wildcats’ thrilling win.

More news from the pool today as another handful of America East swimmers will try their hand at qualifying for the London Olympics. UMBC Mohamed Hussein, Pierre De Waal and sophomore Patrick Husson all have the special opportunity. Hussein has already made the Egyptian national team in the 100-meter freestyle and becomes just the second Retriever to qualify for the Olympic Games. De Waal will attempt to qualify for his native South Africa and Husson will contend for a spot on the United States team in the 2000 breaststroke.

More details can be found, here, in UMBC’s official release.

We also had a busy day on the baseball and softball diamonds with several teams picking up wins. Hartford baseball set down Fairfield 9-1 in West Hartford while Stony Brook split a softball twinbill with Iona. Freshman pitcher Allison Cukrov fired her third straight complete game shutout to guide the Seawolves to a 2-0 win in game two.

Relatively quiet docket this afternoon with only three games scheduled. Albany makes the quick trip to crosstown rival Siena for a softball doubleheader while Vermont hosts UC Davis in women’s lacrosse. Check out AmericaEast.com for the live coverage links.

America East Daily Word - March 28

While many students spent time on the beach in some tropical locale or resting up on the couch at home, several student-athletes at America East institutions ventured overseas to help and serve those in need during their winter and spring breaks.

Binghamton junior Mike Danaher, a catcher on the Bearcat baseball team, spent two weeks in Kenya over his winter break. With eleven other members of the Wilson Rehab Foundation, Danaher had a hand in providing educational training and support to local rehabilitation centers in Kenya. The group also visited an orphanage during their initial day in Africa which left a lasting impact.

“To interact with them was an incredible experience,” Danaher said in a press release from Binghamton athletics. “To be able to see the kids laughing and playing was great. They are truly grateful for everything they receive and are such an inspiration.”

Read more about Danaher’s trip, here.

Several weeks later, Varun Gopinath and Austin Davis, both sophomores on the Vermont track and field team, spent a week in Ecuador thanks to an organization called MEDLIFE. Gopinath and Davis teams with students from a variety of different universities to establish and work free mobile clinics in different villages around the Amazon rainforest.

Gopinath and Davis spoke with UVM’s Alastair Ingram for a feature story.

The Bangor Daily News’ Pete Warner wrote a great story on the offseason recruiting trip for women’s basketball head coach Richard Barron. Now entering his second season at the helm, Barron will have visited at least 10 countries by the time the trip culminates this weekend. Details, here.

Tuesday featured a solid slate of action from around the league and teams performed well picking up a total of six wins.

Highlighting the afternoon was the Stony Brook women’s lacrosse win at Iona. The Seawolves jumped out early and poured it on in an 18-5 win over Iona. Demianne Cook scored 5 goals to lead the way for Stony Brook. Since suffering three losses in a row, Cook and company have outscored opponents 35-10 in their last two games.

On the baseball diamond, Binghamton and UMBC both collected wins on the day while Albany battled Cornell to a tie in game two of a doubleheader in Albany. The Bearcats split a twinbill with Bucknell, UMBC took a single game from Mount St. Mary’s and the Danes dropped game one before the nightcaps draw.

Softball teams went unbeaten on Tuesday with Binghamton sweeping a doubleheader over Siena and UMBC downing George Washington. The Press and Sun Bulletin has a recap of the Bearcat sweep and Your News Now has highlights.

For the complete schedule of today’s games, check out AmericaEast.com