The Fairfield Stags Volleyball team is headed to Siena and Iona this week to see if they can follow suit to their two wins over St. Peter’s and Manhattan last weekend. MAAC play has officially started and we are all so excited to get this part of the season underway. Last year, we came so incredibly close to winning our conference, and this year, that is our fuel to come out on top. Especially because we will be hosting this year’s MAAC Tournament at Fairfield!!

This week we are going to Siena on Wednesday night and Iona on Friday night. The road trips can get a little tiresome. For example, Siena is about two and a half hours away. To add to that, we have 12 people on our team, not including coaches, and we are a volleyball team, so the majority of us are above-average in height. Then you add two vans to the mix and our bodies get a little cramped. However, it is always well worth the trip to be able to play the sport we all love, and hopefully can come home with a win.

Like any team, there is always someone rehabbing from injury, myself included. I was just released to be able to play without a wrap around my leg, which was very exciting news. It’s always extremely difficult for an athlete to have to rehab an injury, especially when we aren’t cleared to play at all. No athlete wants to sit in a rehab room and ice for three hours while your teammates are practicing. But, almost all of us have been there and we do the best we can to come back as quick as possible.

Even when injury strikes, we strive to stay strong as a team and as players. There is nothing more that we want during season then to end up in the top four so that we can battle it out for conference champion.

Good luck to the rest of the fall athletes in their competitions for the next couple of weeks. GO STAGS!!!

Blog Note: Casey Heely is a freshman goalkeeper for the field hockey team.

On Thursday, the Fairfield Field Hockey team and I took our season first cross-country trip to Michigan and opened with a contest against St. Louis. With a goal by Nikki McLucas, we edged St. Louis 1-0 to win our first match of the tournament. After a family tailgate with our most dedicated fans, our team prepared for a day that allowed us to experience the atmosphere of a Big 10 college campus. The day, of course, started with a training session that focused solely on the elements needed to compete against Michigan on Sunday. We then were able to get a glimpse of the competition while watching the match up of St. Louis and Michigan, a game that ended with a 6-2 Michigan victory. With the scouting complete, the team and I moved on to one of our most exciting aspects of the trip – a University of Michigan football game. For us, simply walking through the town of Ann Arbor on game day was an experience similar to culture shock. The entire town was clad in yellow and navy blue-and that is not an exaggeration. It was obvious we were outsiders until we, for the day, took on the persona of a Michigan undergrad and bought shirts, hats and programs to show our faux school spirit. It was shocking to walk into a stadium that held over 100,000 fans to watch a college team play. Coming from a small private school without a football program, we were in a completely different atmosphere – not to say that we in any way lack school pride. It was just the sheer number of people that came out to see this game that awed us all. But I believe we were all humbled by this experience as we stowed our Michigan attire to take on our biggest opponent thus far on Sunday afternoon.  Unfortunately, the match ended with a 5-0 loss to Michigan-although we were never counted out of the game. We are now looking to improve as we move into our last week before conference play that begins with our competition against Holy Cross on Thursday at 4 PM. We still have a lot to prove to show why we are deservedly ranked #23-as the entire audience at U-of-M now know:

Blog Note: Max Buchanan is a sophomore defender with the Stags lacrosse team. He will be writing throughout the year about his life as a Fairfield student-athlete.

Seasonal greetings to all, my name is Max Buchanan and I will be writing to all of you followers through the Fairfield Men’s Lacrosse blog about everyday experiences.

First order of business is to welcome our transfers. We have added two stellar student athletes, Tobias Armour and Griff McGoldrick. Even though I haven’t talked to Griff I would like to welcome him via this blog. Also I would like to take the time to tell Tobias that he has one of the coolest names because it means “Yahweh is good” in Greek.

Now we must talk about move in day. By Monday afternoon I was ecstatic to be back on campus because the grass looked well groomed along with Nick Guida’s stellar haircut. The dorm upgrade was very nice as well, because my fellow mates and I have air conditioning along with our own personal bathroom that smells like roses. Even though move in day was physically exhausting hauling up elements of clothing and televisions, there was a looming thought on my mind, the run test.

The run test was a surprise for all, which ended up being four 300 yard shuttles. This gave me serious anxiety because 300s are not only physically enduring on the legs and lungs, they are also mentally exhausting because they are absolutely crazy. Even though I did not make every time, I would call it a success because I lived to see another day at Fairfield University and to crush the lift test. Which is exactly what I did readers even with a rocky start to the day. I ended up putting up 260 pounds four times on the bench and feelings absolutely swollen and satisfied after my performance in the weight room.

After a long and physically enduring week it feels good to sleep in Saturday and Sunday along with opportunity to mentally prepare for the Mike Roe vs. Coach Copelan scrimmage occurring Monday morning at 7 a.m. I encourage all students and faculty to come out and watch Mike Roe’s team beat Coach Copelan’s in a friendly yet aggressive contest.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to writing for you again soon.

Max

#TobyForPresident

Football isn’t called the beautiful game for nothing and Wednesday night’s fixture against the Japanese U-23s justified its colloquial reference.

Dominated in possession and shots for the most part of the game, the resilience and never-say-die attitude we showed throughout the game in defense came through in attack, equalizing in the 94^th minute thanks to a composed finish from Dakota Lucas.

Inheriting the underdog status going into the game, we had talked about being dogged in defense, knowing that the longer we kept Japan scoreless, the more frustrated they would become.

Throughout the first half we were predictably under the pump, but stubborn defending from our backline along with some fine saves from keeper Jake Gleeson ensured the score line remained 0-0 going into half time.

With a small tactical change in the second, we found ourselves on the ball more frequently as the combinations throughout the team began to find its straps.

Nonetheless, Japan had all of the chances, in the second half and after hitting the bar twice they got what the 35,000 strong crowd felt was just rewards by scoring in the 71^st minute.

However, just as Japan thought the result was theirs, Kosta Barbarouses picked up the ball 35m from goal and ran at the Japanese defense in one final attempt to salvage a result. He slipped Marco Rojas who stepped over the ball, which left a wide-open Lucas to pick his spot and calmly slot the ball into the bottom left hand corner of the goal.

No matter what the possession, shots on goal or time in opposition half stats say, being able to leave the stadium on level terms with a late smash and grab goal vindicates why they call football beautiful.

We know we have a lot to learn and a lot to do in terms of where we want to be by the time we play Belarus on August 26^th but there were many positives also.

With the team only being together 2 days prior to the game, training twice, missing a couple of key players and playing a new formation, to get a result like that is extremely encouraging.

We will take it in our stride, learn from our mistakes and look to move forward in our next game against South Korea U-23s on Saturday (July 14).