Cameron McDonough highlighted the family tradition being continued by UMass lacrosse senior attack
Kyle Smith as the Longmeadow, Mass., native competes for the Minutemen on the
Springfield Republican's MassLive.com.
AMHERST -- For generation after generation, lacrosse has been a family affair in the Smith family.
The Smith family's love of lacrosse began with Neville, a member of the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame, and continued on down to his son Norm. Now, that love has spread to Norm's son, Kyle, a senior attackman for the University of Massachusetts Amherst men's lacrosse team.
It was apparent from a young age that the family's lacrosse gene would not skip a generation. Kyle picked up a lacrosse stick and never let it go.
Continue reading the story on Kyle, his family ties to the sport and the Smith's history with UMass lacrosse
here.
Warrior provided Hydrographic TII helmets for men's lacrosse this year, with the new gear featured on Inside Lacrosse's ILGear.com on Thursday. The website previously showed off the new
Minutemen Warrior MD4 gloves that debuted earlier this season. Casey Vock has a full look at the
Hydrographic TII here.
Former UMass men's lacrosse star Tom Celentani (2009-12) was featured on the Boston Cannon's website recently following his addition to the team's roster. Celentani was selected in the supplemental draft by Boston and will join the team beginning with training camp next month. A USILA All-American and three-year starter on defense for the Minutemen,
check out the spotlight on Celentani here.
Former UMass All-American softball standout
Sara Plourde (@s_pizz10) will be playing her professional softball closer to home this season. After a year playing with the Carolina Diamonds in the National Pro Fastpitch league, the franchise is moving to the New York/New Jersey area. Plourde's contract was picked up by the NY/NJ Comets during the transition, so the UMass grad will be playing softball in the northeast once again.
Paul Angilly of the
Bristol Press wrote about the move
here in Tuesday's paper.
The National Pro Fastpitch softball league, the highest level of professional competition in the sport in this country, recently announced that a new team, the NY/NJ Comets, will play its home games in New Jersey and New York this season, plus a two game "outreach" series in Pennsylvania.
UMass hockey seniors Darren Rowe and Rocco Carzo, who each signed ECHL contracts last week, both enjoyed great opening weekends of their pro careers.
On Saturday, Carzo scored two shorthanded goals in a 2:37 span to help lead the Florida Everblades to a 5-1 victory over the Cincinnati Cyclones, a victory that clinched a berth in the ECHL playoffs for the Everblades for the 15th consecutive season. Playing in just his second professional game, Carzo finished the night with three points (2g, 1a), including the game-winning goal, was a +3 and was named the game's No. 1 star.
Then on Sunday, Rowe was a part of a third period comeback that helped the Utah Grizzlies extend their unbeaten streak to nine games, scoring his first professional goal at the 9:33 mark of the stanza.
Justin Lafleur contributed to Inside Lacrosse with a feature story on the
lifelong friendship of UMass' Will Manny and Lehigh's Dante Fantoni, who will face each other for the first time on Wednesday after years of competing together through high school. The duo played at St. Anthony's High School and have developed into two of the strongest players in Division I college lacrosse, combining for 325 career points entering the upcoming contest, which will be featured as the ESPNU Game of the Week at 6 p.m. on March 20. You can also catch Manny and Fantoni in action through
WatchESPN.com.
Below you will find the accompanying "Who Knows Who Better" challenge video related to the feature story.
Behind a strong performance by Chaz Williams offensively and a solid showing containing A-10 Player of the Year Khalif Wyatt, UMass upended Temple 79-74 in the quarterfinals for the second-consecutive year. Now it's on to Semifinal Saturday and a rematch with the VCU Rams at 4 p.m. They have a lot of people in Brooklyn so we need UMass nation to show up in a big way.
The game will be broadcast nationally on the CBS Sports Network: Comcast/Xfinity subscribers in the Springfield and Amherst markets can watch the game on channels 261 and 956 (HD). Additionally, the network can be found on DirecTV Ch. 613 and Dish Ch. 158. For students on campus, the UMass Cable system recently added CBS Sports Network to the channel lineup. It can be found on channel 88 for analog users and 80.1 on the digital signal.
Matt Vautour of the Daily Hampshire Gazette spent some time with Freddie Riley last week and wrote the following story on the senior from Ocala, Fla.
Freddie Riley's friends do a double take when they see his University of Massachusetts student identification card. The picture was taken when he got it almost four years ago during orientation before his freshman year. The young man in the picture has short hair and a clean-shaven face, a kid away from home for the first time, about to start the next chapter of his life.
It doesn't much resemble the man it belongs to anymore. Riley, now a senior guard for the Minutemen, has dreadlocks that fall beyond his shoulders. He has a mustache, a chin beard and sideburns that frame his face.
"When I meet someone new they're like 'Whoa that's you?'" Riley said.
It was him. But the Freddie Riley who will be in the starting lineup at 9 tonight when UMass takes on George Washington in the Atlantic 10 Tournament neither looks like nor feels like the young Floridian in that picture from the summer of 2009.
Read the complete article
here.
Here's a well-written piece by Harry Plumer of the Springfield Republican on the unique road to success and Amherst for UMass assistant coach Shyrone Chatman and his brother - 12 years his junior - junior forward Sampson Carter.
So just after Carter began his junior year of high school, he and his older brother Marcus hopped on a Greyhound together and rode to Memphis.
It happened fast after Chatman extended the offer.
?"It was a better situation, it was a better opportunity, so I just ran with it," Carter recalls. "I dropped school like in a day."
Once their mother tied up her loose ends in Baton Rouge, she sold her house and followed them.
Read the entire article
here.
Leslie Albrecht of DNA Info caught up with Chaz Williams last week and talk about his return to Brooklyn and being able to play in front of family and friends.
When Bishop Ford High School graduate Chaz Williams got his first look at the Barclays Center a few months ago, he snapped some photos on his cell phone and wondered if he might get a chance to play there some day.
That day came sooner than expected, as Williams, a junior point guard at the University of Massachusetts, prepares to come home to his native Brooklyn next week for his first game at the Barclays Center, just 2 miles away from where he was a top scorer for the Bishop Ford Falcons.
Read the entire article
here.
The Massachusetts basketball team ran into a solid performance by Butler, falling to the Bulldogs Thursday night, 73-62. Even with the loss, the season will continue Saturday at 2 p.m. at Rhode Island. UMass dropped to 8-7 in Atlantic 10 play and slipped one spot in the standings to seventh place. UMass could finish anywhere from sixth to tenth based on Saturday's various outcomes.
The UMass basketball team is down to its final two regular-season games, beginning with Thursday's home finale against Butler. While the Minutemen can't secure one of the four first round byes in next week's A-10 Tournament, they can make a statement on the national scene in regards to postseason play with the remainder of their schedule.
The doors will open at 5:30 tonight. The UMass football team and Mullins Militia will lead the "March to Mullins" tonight as the heavy student base will gather near the Southwest dormitories at approximately 5:15 p.m. and walk as one to the Student entrance at the south end of the arena.
The Bud Light UMass Hockey Radio Show will be broadcast on campus tonight, airing live from the Berkshire Dining Commons at 7 p.m.
In addition to head coach John Micheletto joining Brock Hines and Adam Frenier, the show will feature player guests junior Patrick Kiley and sophomore Zack LaRue.
Click here to submit an "Ask The Coach" question for John Micheletto.
Led by Freddie Riley's hot shooting and Terrell Vinson's equally strong inside and outside game, UMass remained in contention for one of the top four spots in the Atlantic 10 with a solid 77-72 win at Xavier in the Cintas Center on Saturday.
Well, we're down to the final three games of the Atlantic 10 basketball season. For UMass, that includes a pair of road games and a home contest against nationally-ranked Butler on Thursday at 7 pm. But first, the squad needs to take care of business in a building that has vexed many A-10 foes in its 11-year history... the Cintas Center. The Minutemen have lost their last five in the building but bring a group hungry to end the season with some momentum before the postseason tourney in Brooklyn.
It's a busy weekend for UMass Athletics and if you can't make it to the games, we've compiled a listing of each game and where on the television you can find it.
Click the link below to find each station from you cable provider.
You can also check the Watch & Listen page of UMassAthletics.com to see radio and live stat options. Follow @UMassAthletics on Twitter for in-game updates as well.
Friday:
Hockey at New Hampshire (7:30 PM) - WBIN/Fox College Sports
Saturday:
Men's Basketball at Xavier (2 PM) - CBS Sports Network
Women's Basketball vs. Xavier (1 PM) - CBS3 Now
Hockey at New Hampshire (7 PM) - WBIN/Fox College Sports
Sunday:
Women's Tennis vs. Binghamton (12:30 PM) - CBS3 Now
ONLINE VIDEO (UMassAthletics.com/All-Access)
Saturday:
#14 Women's Lacrosse vs. Iona (1 PM)
#5 Men's Lacrosse vs. Brown (2 PM)
Sunday:
Women's Tennis vs. Binghamton (12:30 PM)
