By Ja’Pheth Toulsonstaff writer

Plattsburgh State lacrosse Head Coach P.J. Kavanagh made it clear about what the Cards must do this season — win the important con-ference games that count down the stretch.

Last season, PSUC won 10 games for the first time in team history but missed the post-season after going 2-4 in SUNYAC play. Kyle Norchi described the game against Oneonta, as a “huge loss.” The Cards lost 12-to-9.

“It came down to who wanted it more.” Nor-chi said “We let them beat us on our own field which was a huge embarrassment.”

The Oneonta loss included, the Cards lost four of their last six games to end the season and missed the SUNYACs.

“We started so good last year and fell off at the end,” attacker Pete Morgan said.

Kavanagh said the team needs to play more consistently and improve on defense.

The defense is led by senior captain Dan De-Francesco and Will Folgherait.

Kavanagh is also hoping goalies Dan Cau-field and Gordie Gehring can go out and give a solid effort.

Morgan said he and the seniors need to step up and lead the younger guys on the team by experience.

Morgan and Norchi are looking for fresh-man Tim Lawrence to fill in for last year’s se-nior Luke Weidlein who scored many points.

“There is a lot of pressure on the team hav-ing younger players,” Morgan said.

He said it is the older players’ responsibil-ity to tell the less experienced players to “just play their game.”

The team also wants to play with more in-tensity.

Morgan wants to be more of a threat on of-fense by beating his guy one-on-one to score goals.

Morgan said that while the team gave up a lot of points last season it also scored a lot of points.

PSUC led the SUNYAC with nearly 15 goals per game.

Kavanagh said that he needs Mike Santiste-ban, Nick Travers and Peter Knutson to de-velop quickly to fill the void of their graduate faceoff man Ryan Price.

Norchi is looking to see contributions from acquisitions Sean Jacquin, Bret McCale-an, Joe Chramer and Agustin Rodriquez.

Norchi wants to improve his game by distributing the ball more. Norchi said he needs to be a better leader in order to influence his teammates.

This is Norchi’s last year at PSUC.He said the program has made him

more open minded and a positive think-er.

Norchi said after he leaves he will tell the remaining players to “think of ways to bet-ter their individual career and the lacrosse pro-gram.”

“We’re lucky to have a fifth year senior, Nor-

chi, return to school to complete his final year of eligibility,” Kava-nagh said.

The Cards have only made the SUNYACs once and they’re look-ing to add a second appearance.

Norchi’s goal this year is to make it to the SUNYACs his final year and ultimately win the SU-NYACs.

This season the team is looking to play better defense to allow their offense to open up more.

With a young team, the seniors are looking to play even better than they did last year.

CP SportsB2 sports editor brian cremo▪ friday, march 4, 2011▪sports@cardinalpointsonline.com

Men’s Basketball (final)

Overall

OswegoBuffalo StatePlattsburghBrockportOneontaNew PaltzCortlandPotsdamGeneseoFredonia

W17131211877753

L1567

101111111315

W23211715911108116

L 4 6

10 13 17 14 16 18 14 18

SUNYACSchool

Stat Leaders

Men’s Basketball (final)PPG: Chris Ruiz (17.6)RPG: Errol Daniyan (9.1)APG: Ketema Brooks (3.7)

Standings as of 3/3

Men’s HockeyGoals: Dylan Clarke (17)Assists: Eric Satim (22)Saves: Josh Leis (491)

“Part of the glory of coaching is seeing kids

come in as college freshmen and see men

leave as graduates.”

Tom CurleHead Men’s Basketball

Coach(on departing seniors)

Women’s HockeyGoals: Teal Gove (15)Assists: Steph Moon (24)Saves: Mandy Mackrell (381)

Cardinal Quotes of the Week

ScheduleMen’s HockeySaturday vs. Fredonia 7 p.m.

Women’s HockeySaturday vs. Neumann 7 p.m.@ RIT

Indoor Track and FieldECAC Indoor Championships @ Armory Track & Field CenterSaturday and Sunday

BaseballFriday @ Old Westbury 1 p.m.

Men’s Hockey

OswegoGeneseoBuffalo StatePlattsburghMorrisvilleFredoniaCortlandPotsdamBrockport

W15108987542

L155778

101213

T 0 1 3 0 1 1 1 0 1

W221612191113664

L48117

1312171718

T 0 2 3 3 1 1 2 1 3

SUNYAC Overall

Women’s Hockey

RITPlattsburghElmiraNeumannOswegoUticaPotsdamBuffalo StateCortlandChatham

W15151210886530

L11467

1011121218

T 2 2 2 2 3 0 1 1 3 0

W22191616131310940

L1386

101313141818

T 2 3 2 4 3 0 2 1 3 0

ECACW OverallSchool

Craig earned SUNYAC Co-Player of the Week after scoring four goals in the Cards’ first two confer-ence tournament games. The Ni-agara University transfer recorded a hat trick against Morrisville and netted the overtime game-winning goal at Geneseo in the semifinals.

McCasland was named to the In-door Track & Field All-Conference team after winning the 400-meter dash at the SUNYAC Championship Meet Feb. 26. After recording a time of 59.50, McCasland qualifies for the ECAC Indoor Champion-ships this Saturday and Sunday.

Ryan CraigAmy McCasland

Goals:Kyle Norchi (53)

Assists:Luke Weidlein (44)

Saves:Logan Carpenter (164)

2010 Stat Leaders

MARCH6 Sun. at Farmingdale State9 Wed. at St. Michael’s12 Sat. at Maritime 14 Mon. vs. Birmingham-Southern (N)16 Wed. vs. Guilford (N)19 Sat. at Montclair State30 Wed. vs. Clarkson

APRIL2 Sat. at Oswego*6 Wed. at St. Lawrence8 Fri. vs. Morrisville*13 Wed. vs. Potsdam*16 Sat. at Brockport*20 Wed. at Williams23 Sat. vs. Geneseo*27 Wed. at Oneonta*30 Sat. vs. Cortland*

MAY4 Wed. at SUNYAC Semifinals7 Sat. at SUNYAC Championship

1 p.m.3:30 p.m.

1 p.m.7 p.m.4 p.m.4 p.m.4 p.m.

1 p.m.7 p.m.7 p.m.4 p.m.

12 p.m.6 p.m.1 p.m.4 p.m. 1 p.m.

TBA1 p.m.

2011 LACROSSESCHEDULE

SENIORS LOST FROM 2010 TEAM

RyanPrice

Midfield

Luke Weidlein

Attack

Mike Glynn

Defense

LukeFlegar

Midfield

KevinMcMahon

Midfield

Freshman AdditionsTim Lawrence - Attacker

Peter Knutson - Midfielder

Courtney Cox - Long stick midfield

Conor DeNike - Attack/Midfielder

Alex Carnaxide - Attack/Midfield

Kevin Alonge - Midfield

Nick LoGuirato - Defense

Charlie Dullea - Long stick midfield

Cards ready to bounce back from poor 2010 finish with new additions

Fans ready to show true colors with RedoutBy Eric Gissendannerassociate sports editor

As the Plattsburgh State men’s hockey team pre-pares for Saturday’s SU-NYAC championship game, fans are joining together to participate in a Redout, asking supporters to wear red for the home team.

Organized by PSUC fresh-man, Christian O’Brien, Sat-urday’s Redout is a way to show fan unity and support as the Cards take the ice for the biggest game of the sea-son.

O’Brien said that he got

the idea from other sport-ing events where fans wear clothing that matches the home team’s uniform colors.

“I’ve seen it on TV and I know it’s a popular thing to do for big games,” O’Brien said. “It hadn’t happened yet, so I figured this would be the perfect time.”

After PSUC beat Geneseo last Saturday night, O’Brien said that he and his friends spent the next day talking about the upcoming cham-pionship game.

Monday morning, he logged onto Facebook and created a group titled, “SU-

NYAC Hockey Champion-ship REDOUT.”

“I sent a quick invite to like 20 people,” O’Brien said, “it just took off from there.”

As of Thursday morn-ing, the group has over 300 people in it. O’Brien and his friends have also posted fly-ers advertising the Redout posted in both dining halls, residence halls and in the ACC.

In the four days since its creation, the event has hit one bump in the road.

The original idea was to have a Whiteout, but news

reached Fredonia and the Blue Devils had all ready planned to wear white.

PSUC Sports Information Director Stephanie Dutton then contacted O’Brien and told of him about the Fredo-nia fans.

“I was surprised to hear that their fans had planned something,” O’Brien said, “but red’s our other school color so we switched it to a Redout.”

PSUC has struggled throughout this season to establish a truly unified stu-dent section that is about cheering and not about

constantly bashing the op-posing team.

The pep band that played throughout the first semes-ter has since fizzled out, and during the regular-season home finale, some PSUC students shouted vulgari-ties at Potsdam’s goalie.

In addition to praises from fellow students, O’Brien that he heard that Head Coach Bob Emery likes the idea.

“It’s good to hear that we’re going to have a lot of support from our student section for this big game,” Emery said.

“They came in and beat us and danced on our home ice with the trophy. That hurt me a

great deal.”

Bob EmeryHead Men’s Hockey Coach(on losing to Fredonia in

2007 championship game)

School

Kavanagh