Every Friday Night, student tickets are $6.00 at Camden Yards.  Its cheaper than going to the movies.

Thanks to Edward Hodson for this recap.

UMBC SAW OFF AMERICAN AND FROSTBURG UNIVERSITY IN A CLOSELY FOUGHT TRI TOURNAMENT TO WIN THEIR SECOND CUP OF THE SPRING SEASON

After UMBC edged out American earlier on in the day, three first half tries against Frostburg were enough to claim the coveted prize in chilly conditions at Walker Field, despite a brave comeback by the opponents in the 2nd Half.

UMBC’s success is their second of the Spring season, and 6th overall since 2002. It also means that their Coach Rusty Cross is undefeated in all tournaments in 2008, with a record of 5-0 including one draw.

UMBC set their stall out early on and began in positive fashion in the first annual tri tournament held at Walker field. They dominated the opening encounters against a weak American team, also reeling from a poor Fall ’07 season. Despite playing against a biting wind in the first half, UMBC held firm and soon went ahead through a free kick which found 8-man Jake Steel to power through a disorganized American defense to make it 5-0. American almost made an immediate reply, but strong tackles by winger Bill Compton and lock Will Miller halted their surge deep within UMBC territory.

UMBC, normally a side well drilled in defending a first half lead, rarely looked like surrendering their advantage, with a strong defense stopping American on numerous occasions just short of the line. The score was soon doubled early in the second half, when a UMBC rolling maul crashed over in American’s corner and emerging from it; Ted Arantena with his first ever try for UMBC. 10-0. Just as things were looking comfortable, calamity struck. Having struggled to make much headway against the UMBC defense, American was gifted a try from a line-out deep into UMBC’s half, their back line failing to make the crucial tackle. Suddenly American were in the ascendancy, however with the wind against them, it was too little too late with UMBC recording their first victory of the day. Final Score UMBC 10-5 American.

Frostburg emerged 12-10 winners in another tight encounter against American.

With the final match looming, the BBQ fired up and merchandise selling like hotcakes, UMBC were in good spirits against a Frostburg side renowned for its large forwards, but poor overall fitness. With the crowd brewing the Walker Field into a fervent cauldron of expectation, UMBC were spurred into early action with outstanding Lock Will Miller narrowly denied the chance of immortality, breaking from the kick off and embarking on a dazzling run only to be hauled down with one man to beat, yards short of a memorable score.

The UMBC steamroller did not stop, with a Frostburg mistake from their own lineout hurting the visitors. Fly Half Jeremy Boyer pounced, hacking through the Frostburg defense and showing composure to offload to Inside Center Phill Harman to cross over under the posts for UMBC’s first try. 5-0. Boyer then turned provider again, cleverly linking up with Phill Harman to supply Full Back Clayton Lively with an offload that broke through the Frostburg line before unselfishly passing to Jake Steel inches short of the line to complete another try. 10-0. From further UMBC pressure, Boyer showed great skill in supplying the ball Forward Dan Bodrogi to power over the line through the onrushing Frostburg defense to make it 15-0, with Lively duly adding the extras, converting from the left to make it 17-0 at half time. (more…)

Pilfered from Americaleast Blog. Turns out that Co-Ed Magazine did an online poll and looks like we’re winning.

Go vote for UMBC.

Over Spring Break, the UMBC Men’s Rugby team traveled down to Savannah, GA to participate in the 30th annual St. Patrick’s Day rugby tournament.  The team dominated, and swept the college bracket with 4 wins and no loses.  For those interested, this week’s Retriever goes into more detail.

Men’s rugby is also hosting a tournament this Saturday.  Participating teams include UMBC, American, Frostburg and Washington College.  Pre-kick off (or however rugby games start) there will be a BBQ with free food and merchandise for sale up at Walker field.  The team’s new jerseys, paid for by the National Guard (recently acquired sponsor), will also be unveiled.

Expect some great games, as UMBC beat all of the participating teams last year!
For more info, check out the Facebook event.

Despite a hard fought game, the men’s basketball’s season ended Friday afternoon after our first round game against Georgetown.  I watched the game from my girlfriend’s living room, and I have to say, my heart was pounding the whole first half from being nervous!  It was so… crazy, and awesome, and scary to see the guys we’ve all seen on our home court live on CBS!  It wasn’t how I thought I’d feel watching, but I’m glad I felt a little nervous - I think it meant I felt like we had a chance to pull of an upset.

Game summary: I thought we put up a hell of a fight, and probably surprised a lot of people by how long we really were in the game.  I think at half time we were down 10 or so, but not too bad all things considered.  The second half brought a shooting cold streak, which really helped Georgetown extend their lead.  That and the fact that Georgetown just had a bunch of really  big guys who could camp out underneath the basket.  One highlight was Proctor being a steal away from tying the single-game steal record in a tournament game (set by Grant Hill).  Simple and true, I think our guys played their hearts out, did the best they could, and deserve all kinds of props.  The fact that we got to the tournament, weren’t a 16 seed, and we legitimately competed against a very good school is awesome.

Everyone feel free to discuss, but I wanted to extend an offer to anyone who went down to NC to see the game and wants to share by writing something for UU.  As far as I know, no UU’ers made the trek, so if someone is up to jotting down a few sentences on what it was like to be there, please, by all means, I’d along with many others I’m sure would love to hear about it.  Just shoot me an email - treeveins AT umbcunderground dot com.

Lastly, I really want to thank everyone who went out to the basketball games this season.  I remember months ago, when UU tried to push for people to go to that Morgan State game and pregame tailgate event, I thought there was no way we’d ever have the kind of student attendance I’ve hoped for since attending basketball games three years ago.  But, things changed - quickly even.  Soon we’d set the 4th or 5th highest attendance ever (I forget now because we’ve set so many records this year for attendance!).  The involvement and school spirit seemed to be contagious.  It’s something I haven’t seen or felt since being a student here. And it’s been utterly awesome.

I know there were a lot of factors that led to this season’s success, but I honestly believe our 6th man was an extremely important one.  I want to say thanks to everyone for the memory of that last home game when we clinched 1st place.  Standing there among all the screaming fans on packed bleachers is something I’ll remember for a long time.

To those of you who will be around next year, don’t forget this season.  Don’t forget how exciting it was to feel united as one student body against a common, visiting team enemy.  Or how cool it was to see the student section fill up more and more as the season progressed.  I have no idea what our team will be like next year, if we’ll make it to the NCAA tournament or even win our conference.  But I do know that if I make it back to a home game next year, a part of me wants our student section to be even stronger, so strong that I’m not allowed in and have to sit across the way with the other adults and alums.

… To a hell of a season.

For those who aren’t able to make it down to watch the game in person, there’s going to be a party of sorts in the Sports Zone at 2:30 p.m. on Friday, March 21 to watch the game against Georgetown.  I’m not really sure if food will be provided or what, but if you’re around, definitely swing by.  We’ll have to do the best we can to create a Dawg Pound, even if it is a few hundred miles away.

Anyone with more information on this or ideas to make it better, comment away.

Story to follow soon…

We’re playing 6th Ranked Maryland tonight at UMBC stadium.  Lets show up.

We’re in the national top 20 for Lacrosse right now.

I’ve been seeing various comments on what the student section’s gonna be this Saturday on different posts.

The excitement is clearly building as the game approaches.

Also unrelated to this, Hartford is bringing 200 students on 4 busses.

Comment on what our student section should be here.

The championship game is SOLD OUT.  That means no more Student and Regular Tickets.

Its gonna be nuts.

Doors open at 10:00am.

Game is gonna be nuts.