My First UMASS Lowell Hockey Game

Hockey has always been my all-time favorite sport. I played until I was 8 years old. I didn't wan to stop, because I loved to play, but my schedule along with my siblings was way too busy for our parents to keep up with. Anyways, I've always had a love for hockey. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend any of the previous games before this last home game of the semester. I work on the weekends, so I have to go home to work. Since this game was on a Tuesday, I was able to go.
I went with a couple of girls from my floor, and we left as soon as I got back from my FYSH class. We wanted to get there early, because they were giving out UMASS Lowell Riverhawks Hockey mugs to the first 150 people at the game. One of my friends, Randah, was the first to get her ticket and got the last mug. We were all so jealous. We sat in the student section in the 3rd row form the glass diagonal to the goalie. This game didn't have as a big a showing as others, as it was on a Tuesday night.
UMASS Lowell faced off against American International College.  These two teams had not played each other in 20 years. However, 20 years ago American International College lost 22-0 to UMASS Lowell. I have to say that American International College has improved greatly, because they only lost 6-1. In the first minute of the game UMASS Lowell already had one goal, and within the first two minutes they had two goals. Needless to say, the crowd thought that we were going to destroy them like we had the last time we played them. However they stepped up and put up a stronger defense. The crowd still heckled American International College though. In the third period, American International College finally scored a goal making the score 5-1. UMASS Lowell did not leave it unanswered though. They scored another to make the final score of the game 6-1.

Although the hockey was so were the activities that happened in between periods. In between the first and second period, they had two children around the ages of seven and nine go on the ice. They had them compete to see who could put a UMASS Lowell Hockey uniform on the quickest and score a goal. The youngest seemed a little confused, but he was adorable. He was trying so hard to put the hockey jersey on, while the other child slung the jersey around his neck. The older boy slipped in to the pants that fell to the ice and made walking/ running a difficulty for him. The eldest ended up winning because he scored. The youngest didn't even get to touch the hockey stick, because he was having such a hard time with the clothing. Altogether it was adorable, but the poor boy who lost was so disheartening that everyone in the crowd felt bad for him. Both of the boys got rewards for their participation though. The second activity was the sandwich eating contest. Both of the guys who participated were almost equal in eating their sandwich, but one had to win so the host/announcer chose the one who she thought looked up first.
We decided to stay to the end of the hockey game. The players came around, after they shook hands with American International College, and tapped the glass with their hockey sticks as a salute to the fans. All-in-all I had a great first experience at the hockey game. I wish I could go on Fridays nights to see how wild the game are, and Im sure I will make an attempt to go to more. UMASS Lowell's hockey team is one of the best teams at the school, if not the best team. This game was a great experience and I would love to attend another in the near future.

The Inadvertent Basketball Game

On Tuesday November 19, 2013, I made the cold, long trek across the new bridge to north for swim practice. My friend, Michaela, and I left from Fox Hall at 8PM as we typically do to go to UMASS Lowell's  club swim team practice. It was freezing outside so we had to bundle up. I had a long sleeve shirt, sweatshirt, jacket, scarf, hat, and mittens on so that we wouldn't freeze on the walk over, or back with our hair soaking wet from the pool.
Once we finally got to the pool, there was huge crowd of UMASS Lowell students and the typical New Wave Swim Club was not finishing up nor were the kids waiting to be picked up. The lights in the pool were shut off, and only me and Michaela were there, when finally our teammate Bobby showed up. He had no clue whether or not practice had been canceled. Then a man in a suit came over to us, because we all looked so lost. He saw our gym bags and asked what we were doing, so we told him that we had practice, but he said that due to the basketball game that was going on all activities in Costello were cancelled during the game. We had no idea why because the pool was separated from the gym, but the pool was locked so we could not get in. We had no idea what to do and figured that we'd wait for our coach to come, because she wasn't going to let us miss a practice, especially because we had a meet coming up.
After a few minutes of waiting, I called the club president. He, also, had no idea that practice was supposedly cancelled. He called the vice president who worked for the lifeguards and could get us into the pool. We had to wait for her to show up, so while a group of us gathered we decided to watch the basketball game. Surprisingly, they were doing pretty well against Brown University. There was a massive crowd inside the gym. It started to go wild right before half time, because UMASS Lowell was making a comeback. A flag about the size of a four door sedan that said UMASS Lowell Riverhawks was being waved back and forth rapidly and violently. UMASS Lowell's team was gaining momentum, but then the buzzer sounded that signaled the end of the first half of the game. We continued to watch even after half time, when the cheerleaders did their routine. Our coach or vice-president had yet to arrive. The team came out pumped up and ready to go, but so did Brown. It was a close game after that, but unfortunately our vice-president showed up.
She unlocked the pool, turned the lights on, and we got in so that our coach wouldn't be mad. She arrived shortly after that. While swimming we could hear the chants and cheers of the crowd. It was actually quite inspiring. However, after 15 minutes in the pool the man in the suit came into the pool. He told us that we could not be practicing in case people from the game came into the pool. But the game was in its final seconds as he said that so we were allowed to continue our practice. We discovered that the final score of the game was 76-87. Brown had won. But UMASS Lowell had put up a good fight, and we got to have our swim practice. So, Tuesday November 19 was a pretty eventful and cold night.