Baseball Under the snow on the USM baseball field there is dirt and there is grass. And the Huskies are ready for it.
On March 20, the University of Southern Maine Huskies baseball team will run onto a field without snow, facing William Paterson in sunny and warm Chandler, Arizona.
Coach Ed Flaherty, in his 23rd season at the helm, is optimistic about the start of this 2008 season.
“I feel very good about this team,” Flaherty says. “It is a bit young as there are only two seniors and a handful of juniors.? I feel offensively we will be extremely potent, have decent team speed and good power.”
The two seniors, Eddie Skeffington (Everett, MA) and Adam Ross (Rockland) will be called upon to provide the leadership in the dugout-both have been named captains.
Skeffingtion, a constant threat in the batter’s box, will look to lead the offense this year and improve on his 2007 season, when he was fourth on the team in with 27 RBI and four home runs.
Ross will help lead a staff of young pitchers.
Junior Colin Henry (Penobscot) will need to provide a spark in the line-up as well on the mound, and sophomore Josh Mackey (Danvers, MA), who had 25 runs and 22 RBI, will need to have another good season at the plate.
But more than individual players, Flaherty believes that team unity will help these Huskies in their quest for a conference championship.
“We need contributions from all our players,” he said. “There is no pressure on any one, two, or three players on this team. We have a group of all good players, and feel if they all can contribute to the best of their abilities; we will have a chance to be good by the end of the year.”
Still, Flaherty is nervous about pitching. “Our major question mark will be the progress of our pitching staff, [but] I have been very pleased with the depth we have.”
The Huskies will play their first home game on April 1 against in-state rival Bowdoin College.
– John Forestell
Women’s Lacrosse The women’s lacrosse team opened their season with a 1-19 fall at the hands of the nationally-ranked Bowdoin Polar Bears, but for head coach Sue Frost, it’s all part of the plan.
Notorious for scheduling difficult early-season match-ups, Frost hopes to give the team a taste of the level to which she wants to bring the program.
It just might be working too: the team has shown incredible improvement over the last few seasons, setting nine team records in the ’07 season, including most games won and most points scored per game and per season.
Returning senior goalie Katie Quartuccio (Poughkeepsie, NY) will be huge for the Huskies, last year she set records for saves and save percentage in a season; this year she’ll lead the team as tri-captain alongside senior Amy McNally (East Waterboro) and junior Georgia Hurd (Bath).
The team finished last season hovering just below the .500 mark, with a 7-9-0 record after the post-season.
There are eight returning players and seven freshmen on a team that has had trouble keeping and recruiting players in past years – a testament to the growth of the program and to the efforts of Sue Frost, who, in her third season at USM, followed several years of turnover in coaching staff.
After graduating two year points-leader Virginia Flood and several other strong players and leaders, the team will look to sophomore Jessica Knight (Alfred, ME) and junior Caitlin Albert (Scarborough, ME) for their offensive edge.
See the Huskies at home on April 5 for what will be a good match against conference rival Western Connecticut.
– Matt Dodge
Men’s Lacrosse After opening their season with a 15-4 stomping of St. Josephs College, Southern Maine’s Men’s Lacrosse team is looking ahead towards a much tougher schedule.
“We usually only win five games tops, and while this game was pretty easy we’ll have tougher tasks ahead,” says senior co-captain Chris Shorr (Portland). One of those tough tasks will come when Southern Maine travels to Bates College on Wednesday.
With solid contributors like senior Matt Soule (Denmark) and juniors Lee Gauthier (Berwick) and Preson Gilbert (Saco), the team is hoping to improve on last year’s 2-11.
Head Coach Malcom Chase believes his team is ready to step up to the next level as he continues to build the program.
This year they have 12 returning players and seven freshman on a roster of 22.
“We’re playing better as a team, and that’s the main goal. If we do the little things we’ll be competitive in our conference,” said Chase following last week’s season opener.
Chase’s optimism is shared by his team. Senior co-captain Robb Dorr (Evanston, IL) said that “it kind of sucks being a senior now, we’re really at the turning point of the program.”
— Brandon McKenney
Softball After a 2007 in which they went 19-22 – their first losing season since 1996 – the University of Southern Maine softball team is looking to improve on a season that lacked a winning streak of more than three games.
The Huskies have eight returning players from last year’s squad, and have added seven new faces on the diamond and in the dugout.
Lone senior Kristina Grondin (Sanford) has proven to be an ace on the mound-she led 15 of the team’s wins last season. She will spearhead a pitching core of young players looking to gain some consistency. Juniors Anita Dixon (Limington) and Meghan Ford (Mechanic Falls), who are tri-captains with Grondin, will lead the team to Florida this weekend, and toward their first home game on March 29 versus conference rival Rhode Island College.
— John Forestell
Men’s Tennis After a championship season in ’07, men’s tennis can hardly afford to revel in their success.
Last season, the team earned the title of LEC regular season and tournament champions as well as a first-ever win in the NCAA tournament.
But with only three returning players, the team can’t rest on their laurels. Last season’s standout Craig Spann and dynamic brother-duo Chris and Justin Chaffee graduated, and have left the team with some holes to fill.
Despite the losses, coach Phil Cole has recruited several new players, and can rely on junior Derek Stevenson (Raymond, ME) and sophomore Joshua Warren (Hermon, ME) to be strong players for the Huskies. The two men are coming off last season with an identical .846 winning percent, an impressive feat they must hope to repeat if the team wants the same taste of success.
The team kicks off this season in a non-conference match in Gorham versus Bates on March 20.
— Matt Dodge