Inside Scoop: The week before the Princeton game

So it’s Princeton week, and like most students and faculty at Hopkins, we want nothing more than a good week and to beat a tough Princeton team. But before we could play the game, we had to have a full week of practice. Coming off a big win against Michigan, it was even more important to have this consistent week of practice.

So my Monday started up, and I was running on about an hour of sleep and four coffees in my system, no thanks to the two midterm exams I had to write. Somehow made it through the two tests, with the help of another coffee, and it was off to a Monday practice. This game had a lot more hype to it than the previous three games we had played, it was our first ranked opponent. While we were ranked top 5 and they were ranked #12, we knew we had a serious battle on our hands the Friday night under the lights. The Monday practice was more intense and tough than it has been all year, and everyone was extremely excited to be playing on Friday. We had our team lift after the Monday practice and I immediately went straight to bed the moment I got home.

I woke up Tuesday morning feeling revitalized and ready to go for the day. Had a couple of classes, then I was off to practice which took after what we did in the Monday practice in that it was energetic and everyone seemed focused on the same goal, a WIN Friday night. We started watching some film on Princeton, examining their team philosophies both offensively and defensively, and putting in game plans. Princeton had one of the top offensive midfielders in the country, Tom Schreiber, so it was important to contain him if we wanted a chance to be victorious. Wednesday came, and it was a lot of game-planning in practice, but we were also informed that this Friday night game would be the night that the donors of the new Cordish Lacrosse Center would be thanked and honored at halftime. Hopkins was putting together a video for this, so certain guys were called up to be part of this. I had class so I wasn’t a part of it, but rumor has it there were a few cheesy lines throughout the video by a couple of male and female lacrosse players.

It was a fairly uneventful Wednesday night in our household; a little bit of film watching, and a little bit of Xbox360 playing.

Thursday consisted of a couple classes once again and then up to Homewood Field for a pre-game practice before the big game. The practice was up-tempo and crisp, and then we were off to eat our usual Sammi’s on coach’s tab. For some reason I haven’t been able to remember to wear a collared shirt and khaki’s on the days before games, so once again I was forced to apologize for making my ride pit stop at my house for a quick minute so that I could change. The dinner was great as usual, and my family was actually in town for their first game of the year. I stole my younger brother from my parents so he could sleep on the couch to see what college life was really about. However, he was really good at Call of Duty, which was not good for our egos in the house. We also ended up watching the movie Argo, which is a must see in my opinion.

Friday rolled around, got my usual Quizno’s pre-game meal and it was off to the field. We didn’t get the outcome that we were working towards, but the half time show honoring the donors was great. Now 3-1 on the season, we are set to take on Mount Saint Mary’s Tuesday night and UMBC Friday. Beat the Mountaineers, Beat the Retrievers. Always a #greatdaytobeajay