And Lacrosse season is finally here! The season starts for John Desko's squad with a three way(?) scrimmage starting at 10AM with Hofstra and Holy Cross. This will be the first time that the 2013 Orange play competitively against another team not wearing a block "S" on it's chest.
It's going to be good experience for us, it's been awhile since we've been able to play someone else since Duke. We've got a couple more days to work some things out, but other than that, I think we're ready. - JoJo Morasco, Senior Captain, Mid
The hot button topic was about the new rules. There are new rules regarding stick stringing, shot clock and and ground balls this year.
We like the fact that it's a faster pace. The balls are on the sidelines, the endlines, so when a ball goes out of bounders the players are encouraged to pick it up as quickly as they can and the whistle will blow as soon as they're in bounds. - Head Coach John Desko
We use those rules everyday, even when they were being talked about, and personally I really like them. There's going to be a lot of goals in transition this year, we're a very athletic team and attack's been moving the ball well this year. -Derek Maltz, Junior Attack
With the new ground ball rules and no horn, I think that will definitely benefit our style of play. (On stringing) I tried the leathers for a little bit and I liked it a lot but it wasn't working shooting wise. -JoJo.
Also to note, Syracuse was picked second the Big East preseason polls. First time that's happened (The Orange has always been picked first before this year.) Needless to say, we've got some billboard material here.
We definitely use it as motivation. The Big East has been together as a conference for three years and we've come out on top of the conference the last three years. The last year we want to go out a winner as we head to the ACC. - Coach Desko
Because I'm an idiot and delted Brian Megill's sound, you just have to trust me that he smirked and said "We'll see."
Other notes:
Senior Captains are, according to John Desko, JoJo Morasco and Brian Megill. This was obviously painfully obvious to Coach or breaking news because Megill did not know until the media mentioned it as a lead in to one of his questons. (He was "honored" of course.)
I'm still not 100% sure how it will work, but the Orange have it's three way scrimmage this Saturday starting at 10AM. Follow me on twitter for updates from 10AM-12PM and I'll tell ya who to follow along with if action continues into the afternoon.
UPDATE: The schedule is Hofstra-Holy Cross at 10AM, Syracuse-Hofstra 12PM and Syracuse-Holy Cross 2PM. I'll have coverage of the Holy Cross game on Twitter. For those in the Syracuse area, admission is $10 for adults and $5 for those under 12.