Army West Point Athletics
Monday, March 1 - Marching In Like A Lion
March 01, 2010 | General
Hello Black Knight Blog Fans. Tim Volkmann coming to you on a bright and sunny first day of March here at West Point. Hopefully the sun can melt away some of the crazy amounts of snow we got last week because my back has had just about all the shoveling it can handle.
An unprecedented two days of code red on Thursday and Friday had me working from home. As Tracy mentioned last week, I too was working in the comfort of my favorite pair of sweat pants and a sweat shirt preparing for the weekend and the Army lacrosse team's first road game of the season at top-ranked Syracuse on Sunday.
The bus pulled out on Saturday a little after 2:00 p.m. and headed north. Looking out the window as we drove, it was crazy to see the amount of snow that fell in the surrounding areas. While my lower back was still throbbing from having to dig my car out multiple times during the two-day winter extravaganza, large amounts of snow have a way of making the landscape look beautiful, especially in central New York. While I'm not the biggest fan of driving on the winding and hill-packed Route 17, being a passenger in a bus going that way is a different story. You get watch all the snow-covered hills and landscape that unfolds along the way that you normally would miss if you were driving and it made for a pretty pleasant drive.
Following a stop in Whitney Point, N.Y. for some chicken parmigiana at a small Italian restaurant the team has been going to for years during their travels, we finished off the final hour of the trek to Syracuse in the dark. I polished off a couple more chapters of John Grisham's The Client, and we were at the hotel before we knew it.
Most of the team (and the city for that matter) tuned into the big Syracuse/Villanova men's basketball showdown that was being played at the Carrier Dome Saturday night. A lot of orange-clad Syracuse fans from out of town were staying at the same hotel we were and were leaving for the game right around the same time we pulled in. Growing up an hour west of Syracuse in Rochester, I rooted for Syracuse so I was eager to watch the game myself. If you were rooting for Syracuse, it was a great game as the Orange pulled away for a big win over the Wildcats in the second half.
While Saturday's basketball victory could move the Orange to the top off the national polls, Sunday brought our game against a squad already perched atop the rankings and looking to win its third-straight national championship.
Needless to say I wasn't rooting for the Orange anymore as the game started. Syracuse jumped out to a 5-2 halftime advantage, but a 3-0 Army run tied the game midway through the third quarter. Black Knight junior goalkeeper Tom Palesky did everything but stand on his head to keep Army in the game, falling one save short of his career best with 21 saves during the contest, but the Orange pulled away in the fourth quarter for the 12-7 victory. Read my full game recap here.
As I was wrapping up the game, the USA/Canada men's ice hockey game was on in the press box and it was hard not to watch as the Americans tied it up late to send it in to overtime. Tough loss in the end though as I headed out to the bus for the trek home.
It was a long bus trip home. The Rt. 17 that I had such an enjoyable ride on the day before turned into a parking lot about 50 miles north of West Point for some unknown reason. We didn't move for about 45 minutes and were delayed at least an hour longer than the trip should have been, but oh well. 'Dems da breaks when you are traveling I guess.
While the lacrosse season is just getting underway, the winter teams are heading into the championship portion of the year. The hockey team learned their postseason fate Sunday night after earning the sixth-seed for the upcoming Atlantic Hockey Association Tournament. The Black Knights will be making the cross-country flight to Air Force for a best-of-three series starting on March 12 in Colorado Springs. I'm sure Shak will be including a full recap tomorrow during his rotation in the blog, so I won't steal too much more of his thunder.
Both basketball teams also are gearing up for their respective Patriot League Tournaments scheduled to start this week. The women clinched the fourth seed for the tournament with a 49-37 win at Bucknell on Sunday in the regular-season finale and will take on fifth-seed and host Holy Cross on Saturday at noon. The men earned the eighth-seed and have a date scheduled with top-seeded Lehigh on Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. in Bethlehem, Pa.
Hopefully we'll see everyone at the Thayer Hotel tonight at 7:00 p.m. for the Army Winter Coach's Show, which will feature interviews with hockey head coach Brian Riley, men's hoop coach Zach Spiker and women's coach Dave Magarity.
That's all for now folks. Hope you have a great week - Go Army!
