Enrique Carrasco, Editor 

On Feb. 19, the La Salle lacrosse team faced off against 2-0 Mt. St. Mary’s in their second game of the season. Although the snow was falling and the wind was blowing, the squad pushed through and came out on top over The Mount. 

The Explorers were off to a hot start with sophomore Maddie Henderson putting the Explorers up to a 2-1 lead. Shortly after, sophomore midfielder Claudia Steinmetz managed to find the back of the net, putting the Explorers up 3-1. Shortly before the quarter ended, The Mount was able to go on a 2-0 run to end the quarter 3-3. The second quarter saw numerous defensive stops on both sides of the game, with both teams only scoring two goals each, ending the half at a 5-5 tie. 

Going into the third quarter, the Explorers were able to continue their defensive streak, only allowing one goal from Mt. St. Mary’s. Henderson was able to complete her hat trick, scoring her third goal of the game, and  a goal was scored by Kiki Venza, her third in the season. The Explorers ended the third quarter with a 7-6 lead over The Mount. In the start of the final quarter, each team went on a 2-0 run, with senior Erin Welsh scoring the equalizer, and eventually scoring the team’s last goal of regulation. With five minutes left in the game, Mt. St. Mary was able to score a tying goal, which eventually led the game into overtime. During overtime, both teams were able to show their defensive skills, with neither team scoring a single goal in the first two quarters of overtime. Heading into triple overtime, senior midfielder Emily Johnston scored the golden goal, giving the squad a 10-9 win. 

The Explorers were able to show what they are capable of during this game. The La Salle defense was able to constantly stop the Mt. St. Mary’s offense time and time again, and managed to keep a hold on their lead for most of the game. After winning several dropped balls, as well as several face-offs, the defense was not only able to keep the Mountaineer offense at bay but also managed to take the ball off of their hands in crucial points during the game.  On the offensive side, the Explorers were able to maintain their momentum during the game. With help from Senior Attacker Kiki Venza, Sophomore Maddie Henderson, and Sophomore Claudia Steinmetz at the forefront of the La Salle offense, the squad seems to be unstoppable against any defense that they ultimately have to face. Ultimately, the squad looks like a highly capable and talented team, and if the first two games of the season have been any indication of what is to come, then many more interesting games are to come to 20th and Olney.

Enrique Carrasco, Editor

Header Image: goexplorers

On Sat. Feb. 12, the Lacrosse team took the field at McCarthy stadium to begin their 2022 season. The Explorers faced off against the Iona Gaels for their season/home opener game. The Explorers, hoping to overcome their record in the previous season, set out onto the field determined to win.

Two minutes and twenty-five seconds into the game though, Iona scored the first of many goals, putting them at an early advantage over the explorers. Despite this, minutes later, senior attacker Kiki Venza, found the back of the net in an offensive drive from the Explorers, equalizing the game at 1-1. Thanks to goals from junior Tori Rolon and sophomore Claudia Steinmetz, the Explorers were able to take the lead over the Gaels. Despite this, Iona was able to go on their own 3-0 run, only stopping with another goal from Rolon, ending the quarter at 4-4. The Explorers started the second quarter full of energy, and with help from sophomore Mackenzie Click and once again Rolon, the explorers were able to start the quarter with a 2-0 run. Despite this, the Explorer defense was unable to stop the Gael offense, and allowed two more goals before the end of the half, tying the game at 6-6.

The Gaels seemed like a completely different team at the start of the second half, and it was obvious they carried all of the momentum with them. With just 29 seconds into the quarter, the Gales were able to score on the Explorers, putting them up 7-6. Yet, after a perfectly placed pass and shot from the Explorers, as well as a defensive stop, the Explorers were able to retake the lead from Iona, 8-7. Towards the end of the quarter, the Gaels were able to go on a 6-3 run against the Explorers that continued in the last quarter of the game. This would inevitably be the last goals to come from Iona, as La Salle’s defense and offense dominated for the rest of the game. In the final 12:55 of play, the Defense was able to keep Iona scoreless. With 6:56 left in the play clock, the Explorers were able to take the lead 14-13, and secured the win at home.

While the team was able to secure the win, it was not without its issues. The squad was off to a slow start, both defensively and offensively. While both sides of the team were able to pick up speed and momentum, the lack of subs, as well as the season-ending injury senior midfielder Madison Hamilton suffered in the offseason were seen throughout the entire game. Despite this, the team was able to impressively rally back, and start the season with a win. If this home opener is any indication of what is to come, this will be an interesting and exciting season of Lacrosse at McCarthy stadium. Next up, the Explorers face off against Mount St. Mary’s for their second home game of the season. 

Enrique Carrasco, Editor 

On Tuesday, Feb. 8, the Explorers faced off against the Saint Louis Billikens in their 11th conference game of the season. The Explorers were coming off of a hot win against George Mason, who were ranked amongst the top five in the Atlantic 10 conference, and were hoping to continue their hot streak heading into the game. Ultimately, though, the Explorers fell to the Billikens 57-75. 

The Explorers were off to a hot start against the Billikens, taking an early 5-3 lead following a three-pointer from junior Josh Nickleberry. Despite this, the Billikens went on a 12 point run to go up 15-7 against the Explorers. The Explorers were able to remain within the game, and with his ninth point of the half, redshirt senior Clifton Moore was able to bring the game to 26-22 with the Explorers down by four. The Billikens seemed to take this as a challenge, and responded with an unanswered 12 point run, something the Explorers were only able to stop with a three-pointer of their own. The Explorers went into halftime 41-27. 

Despite their lack of offense in the first half, the Explorers went into the second half full of energy. The Explorers were able to score five unanswered points within the first couple of minutes in the half, and managed to cut the deficit to only six points. Despite this, the Billikens (who lead the league in points) answered with their own points, and quickly went up on the Explorers. The Explorers failed to do anything defensively and offensively for the rest of the game, and ultimately fell to the Billikens 57-75.

After the Explorers’ win over George Mason, they seemed like a confident team who could overcome any team, regardless of their ranking. The Explorers failed to show even a sliver of that in their game against Saint Louis. The Explorers failed to compete in every aspect of the game, and were outperformed every step of the way. 

The defense was sloppy, oftentimes allowing wide-open three-pointers, and the offense was being shut down in every drive. Even after a break away from the Explorers, they failed to capitalize with a wide-open dunk, completely missing the basket. The Explorers have seven games left in the season, and if the current record is any indication for what is to come, the Explorers will once again see themselves outside of not only the March Madness tournament but the A-10 playoff series. If the current culture surrounding the Explorers doesn’t change soon, we are bound to witness many more losses at Tom Gola Arena. 

Enrique Carrasco, Editor

Header Image: Pavel Danilyuk via Pexels

With the semester just beginning, I began to look at the past, at my previous experiences with La Salle University. While the majority of my memories at La Salle have been nothing but positive, one stands out as negative: when my team, as well as many other sports programs, got cut. Personally, I was always a big volleyball fan, so their sport getting cut hit the closest to home. Luckily for me, I had the privilege of interviewing an old coach from La Salle, John Kunzier. He was the head coach of the La Salle volleyball team for four years, ranging from 1992 to 1996. I asked him a few questions and these were his responses:

Q: What were your first couple of days at La Salle like?

The first thing I noticed when I got here was the sort of realization that I walked into kind of a bad situation at La Salle, due to the prior coach. He had a lot of NCAA violations and various other issues that were left for me to handle. We were kind of rebuilding the team in a sort of way. I started looking and planning based on what I had. We had some players come in from the Midwest and we started looking into recruiting some of my former players as well as other players, including some that were not your typical division one player, but they could perform. This was due mainly because of a limited budget, limited scholarships and the teams we were competing against. We were able to win a handful of games every season, and we got better as the seasons passed. We got to the point where we were respectable as a program. It wasn’t such a slaughter, and we were able to put up a fight against teams that were ranked top 25 in the nation such as Notre Dame. We got better and I tried to lay a foundation with the time I spent there. 

Q: What were the major issues you faced? Any issues with the administration? With the team?

Yeah, you know, when you’re young — I believe I was 26 — you want to believe everything the administration tells you. So we had joined a new conference and were competing with the likes of Notre Dame, UMASS, Washington and Virginia Tech, and we were supposed to have 12 full rides. I was supposed to be full time and we were supposed to work ourselves into it in two years. As the two years came by nothing changed, and I sort of learned from the other coaches that this was the norm for the lie that the administration would tell in order to get coaches to come. That was difficult to overcome, and I actually stepped away from coaching for almost 20 years because of this. It was challenging to do what we were doing against other teams, compete at a higher level, when you’re doing this with a hand tied behind your back. 

Q; During this time, did it seem like the Athletic Department ever had any favorites?

Oh, absolutely. It was men’s and women’s basketball, then it turned into football, which made absolutely no sense. This is because football is the most expensive team to maintain in terms of the sheer amount of players, the equipment, the field, the travel etc., it made no sense. It made more sense to double down on other sports. If they were smarter with their budgets, they would have doubled down on sports such as soccer, volleyball or even basketball, where the numbers are more limited and administration could apply more funding and be more respectable in the process, which is not what they did. It seems like they cared more for these sports rather than us. To me, it seemed like they were always looking for that one home run that would just save everything. At first it was Kobe, trying to get Kobe. When that failed, they tried with football. They brought people so they could try and drive more people to La Salle, but neither of those made any sense. 

Q: What are your thoughts on the team, as well as many other sports, being cut?

I honestly was, as a former coach, cheering for the team. The team had been winning a lot of games, and they were pretty good, they were making a name for themselves. Understanding La Salle’s financial reasons, it is something that should’ve happened a long time ago. But it was unfortunate that it happened all at once. The team was playing so well, but again, that is just an area of mismanagement and it seems like La Salle has not made any proper decisions for the future, and they are reaping the benefits of that now. 

Q: What were the positives during your time here?

We had a lot of fun. We certainly traveled and tried to make the most of time on trips, as a team, and communicate with everything. Everytime you coach, you’re basically getting paid to be a kid, to have some fun. I am actually back coaching again here in Philly, and we’re one of the larger clubs in the city. It’s fun to be in the gym again, and it keeps you young. It’s fun to build, but we had some really good times as a team. It was a great experience. I can tell my children I coached at the Palestra, at Notre Dame as well as other great schools. 

Q: What would you say is your favorite memory while coaching here?

One of my favorite memories is when we beat a Virginia Tech team that was really good. We won a match against one of the best teams in the country in a home conference game. It was great to see a lot of my efforts pay off (it was later on in my tenure). It was cool to see, and that will always stick out to me. If I had one thing to say to the administration, to students and to athletes, I’d say, from an administration perspective, I think there are always hard decisions to make, and continuing to be made, that will change the way things work at La Salle. There is a long history at La Salle, for example, my father in-law went there, my sister in-law went there and now my own daughter goes there. They owe it to the alumni to figure out a better plan going forward that is viable. To the student body, keep pushing for a change that makes sense for La Salle. It may not end up looking the way La Salle looks today, but something has to give. A big part of my time at La Salle was that I got to meet the Bryants. They are a really nice family. That is one of the highlights of my career, being able to meet people who are so successful, as well as the other guys I coached with. The coaches there have always tried to do the right things for the program. It’s unfortunate that my tenure there was not as successful as I wanted it to be, but it was great.

Enrique Carrasco, Editor

The women’s water polo team had their season-opener games this past weekend. The team traveled up to Bucknell for what would be a three-game series against Bucknell, Mercyhurst, and St. Francis Brooklyn. They ultimately faced off against Princeton at home.

The first game of the season was against Bucknell, whom the team had defeated towards the end of their previous season.  The Explorers were off to a hot start at the beginning of the game, going up an early 2-0 at the end of the quarter thanks to graduate student Madison Martinez, who managed to find the back of the net. The Bisons were able to strike back against the Explorers at the beginning of the second quarter, eventually tying the game at 4-4. Bucknell was able to gain the upper hand and headed into the third quarter leading 6-4. The Explorers were able to bring the game to 6-7, and continued trading goals with the Bisons. Ultimately, though, the Explorers faced defeat, 10-9.

Their second game was against Mercyhurst, whom the team had no problem dealing with in previous seasons. Mercyhurst started the game off strong, winning the initial swim-off against sophomore Mia Mattingly. Despite this setback, an early goal from Martinez allowed the Explorers to gain the lead in the beginning of the game. The Explorers finished the first quarter 7-0, and continued their defensive streak in the second quarter, with junior Goalkeeper Emma Gurasich not allowing any goals in the first half. Ultimately, the Explorers defeated Mercyhurst 22-3.

After this win, their last game on the road was against St. Francis Brooklyn. The Explorers were coming off of their hot win against Mercyhurst, and were looking to continue their winning streak. The Explorers started off the game relatively slow, but were able to get the gears going. Graduate student Kalista Hyham led the Explorers in offense, recording a season-high five goals in the game. Hyham went 71.4 percent in shooting in the game, and was a vital part, both offensively and defensively, in the team’s 15-4 win over SFB.

Lastly, the women’s team traveled back to 20th and Olney to face off against the Princeton Tigers, who were coming off of a two-game losing streak. The team, hoping to continue their win streak and get a momentous victory over the Tigers, came into the game full of energy. The Explorers finished the first quarter down 2-1 thanks to a goal from Sarah Defusco and many defensive stops. The Explorers fought minute after minute, but ultimately, it seemed like the fatigue of playing 3 road games in a matter of a day and a half got to them, and they were unable to emerge victorious against the Tigers. The Explorers fell to the Tigers 10-8.

While the team went 2-2 over the weekend, there was nothing but positive notes. The way the team adapted to the much larger pool at Bucknell could be seen in both of their victories over the weekend. The defensive efforts from the team can be seen in the small number of goals that were let in, which can be attributed to junior Goalkeeper Emma Gurasich as well as assistant coach Veljko Kotarica, who I’ve been told has played a significant part in the team’s off-season. If this weekend of play is any indication for what is to come, many exciting water polo games are coming to Kirk Pool this season.  

Enrique Carrasco, Editor

The 11-5 Explorers welcomed the Richmond Spiders (12-6) to the Tom Gola arena. The Explorers had just come out of a win against George Mason on the road, and were looking to continue their two-game win streak. Fueled by the presence of all of the students coming back onto campus, the Explorers were looking to avoid a loss similar to the one the men’s team had faced. 

The game began with a shootout between the two teams, without either team being able to surpass the other by more than two points. After a short media time out, the Explorers were able to score nine points, giving them a 20-13 lead over the Spiders at the end of the first quarter. At the start of the second quarter, the Explorers were able to score seven unanswered points, giving the team an 11-point lead. Although the Spiders were able to cut the deficit down to eight points, the Explorers managed a turnover in the last 16 seconds of the game, giving the Explorers a 10-point lead heading into the half. 

Junior guard Claire Jacobs was the real story of the third quarter, scoring 11 points in the first four minutes of the quarter, and with her seventh bucket of the game, scored her 1000th point of her Collegiate career, becoming the 22nd person to ever hit that mark, and being the third fastest player in the program’s history to do it. With her team-high 17 points, Jacobs was able to lead the Explorers to a 77-57 win over the Spiders, moving the Explorers to 11-6 in the season, and 4-1 in conference play. 

The Explorers hope to continue their win streak heading into Wednesday, as they are on the road against the 9-8 St. Bonaventure Bonnies.

Enrique Carrasco, Editor

With the beginning of the new semester, students flocked back to La Salle after the winter break, anxious to watch the school’s basketball team. As the number of spectators increased\, so did the expectations for the team to win. Despite this, as we have seen time and time again in the season, the team failed to live up to its expectations, and once again, faced defeat at home. On Jan. 22, the men’s team hosted the Richmond Spiders for their sixth conference game of the season. The Spiders were a seven point favorite according to the college basketball odds, and were looking to follow up their win against Fordham.

The Men were off to a hot start in the game, gaining an early lead in the game. Yet, their lack of points from within the paint, an issue we have seen time and time again during the season, managed to allow the Spiders to remain in the game. The Explorers went nine minutes without scoring a single point, allowing the Spiders to not only catch up to them, but also pass the Explorers in total points. The Spiders outscored the Explorers 31-29 in the first half, and went into the locker rooms carrying all of the momentum in the game. 

At the start of the second half, the Explorers were looking to stay in the game and kept trying to match the pace of the Spiders. While the Explorers were able to tie the game at 33, the Spiders scored nine unanswered points, putting themselves in the lead. The Explorers were never able to recover from this deficit, and although they managed to lower the deficit down to seven points towards the end of the game, the Spiders came out on top 64-56. This loss moved the Explorers to the last place in the A-10’s, a position they are no strangers to.

The same issues that the basketball team has seen every week showed during this game. Once again, the Explorers were unsuccessful from within the 2-point range, having a .382 field goal percentage. In addition, the Explorers had one of their lowest 3-point percentages thus far in the season, scoring only .200 percent of all of their 3-point shots. Redshirt senior Clifton Moore had a career high 19 points in the game, but was still unable to lead his team to victory at home. Up next the Explorers will face off against UMass at home, for another A-10 conference game. UMass is currently one place above La Salle in the rankings.

 Enrique Carrasco, Editor

In mid September 2020, La Salle University, with no previous warning or prior announcement to athletes, announced it was cutting seven different D1 sports programs. With no advanced warning from the coaches, hundreds of recruits (many of whom were international students) and players ended up transferring out of La Salle in order to further continue their collegiate sports careers. Amongst these seven teams, several stand out, mainly baseball (a team that ended the season with their best record in many years) who had just received a brand new field that is now used as a field hockey field, as well as men’s water polo, who ended their 2020 season ranked #12 in the country. The school used the pretense of wanting to fulfill their Title IX requirements and cut baseball, men’s water polo, men’s and women’s tennis, volleyball, softball and men’s swimming and diving (which got reinstated).

While these sports programs getting cut allowed the school to meet Title IX requirements, it also gave the athletic department much more freedom in their budget, allowing them to spread this money to the sports that currently remain. A large part of this money goes into the men’s basketball team (a bit of it also goes into the women’s team). Yet, despite being the “biggest” sport at this school, the men’s basketball program has failed to perform in any way, shape or form. The men’s basketball program still holds onto the glory of making the Sweet Sixteen in 2013, something that they have failed to do ever since. La Salle is paying a record-breaking $750,000 to head coach Ashley Howard (who won a national championship as assistant coach of Villanova), just for him to have a losing record of 40-61 since 2018. 

Members of the La Salle men’s basketball team get preferred housing (freshmen get to live in the St. Miguel Townhouses, something no other freshman has the right to), preferred dinner meals and preferred class selections. They get all of these benefits, simply to be (at the time of writing this) 6-10 in the season, and last place in the A-10 conference (historically one of the easiest conferences to win). Attendance at the men’s basketball games is so low that the Athletics Department had to start offering prizes in order for students to simply show up at the games. These are all signs of a failing program, and, in my opinion, one of the programs that should have been cut.

I believe the Athletic Department made a mistake by not cutting the men’s basketball program in favor of other programs, and the school is seeing the negative side effects now. Athletic Director Brian Baptiste is seeing his puny plan of saving money and increasing funding for big sports such as basketball burn right in front of his own eyes. This can be seen with how few people actually show up for women’s basketball games, despite it being a better team than the men and having a better record in the season. 

At the time of writing this article, women’s basketball is 11-6 in the season and third in the Atlantic 10. The athletic department does very little to promote the women’s games compared to the men’s, which shows how the Athletic Department only cares about men’s basketball, despite their failure year after year, rather than their more successful teams. Despite still having the old head coach John Giannini on payroll, the school decided to increase its funding to the basketball team, and a $750,000 salary to Ashley Howard and his disastrous sports program. Another sign of the terrible plan from the Athletic Department can be seen in the numerous players on the men’s soccer team who have chosen to transfer out of La Salle rather than continue to play with this horrific athletic department. 

The school vowed to improve the experiences for the sports that were not cut, but, as it can be seen, they only improved the experience for the men’s basketball team and Howard.

Regardless of how much talent Howard recruits, how much money he gives his athletes, or how many extra benefits they get, the basketball program remains a mess that struggles to win against teams with fewer wins than them and gets swept by nationally-ranked teams, such as the embarrassing loss they faced against Villanova. If you look at the embarrassingly low percentage of field goals made by the players on the team (most of whom are on a full ride), you can see for yourself how these athletes are simply not performing.

I believe, and will always firmly believe, that Brian Baptiste (as well as the Athletic Department as a whole) made a terrible mistake by cutting the teams that they did, and now they have to see the flames of the garbage fire that is their financial plan burn right in front of their eyes.

Enrique Carrasco, Editor

The 2-4 Explorers faced off against the 2-6 Holy Cross Crusaders at Tom Gola Arena on Saturday, Dec. 4. Although the Explorers came into the game thinking it would be an easy win, it turned out to be a much larger struggle for them. 

The Explorers went into halftime tied 37 all with the Crusaders. In the first half, the Explorers went 16-29 in Field Goals, 3-11 in three-pointers, and 2-3 in free throws. In comparison, the Crusaders went 12-30 in field goals, 5-10 in three-pointers, and 8-12 in free throws. Once again, the Explorers are haunted by their poor performance from within the paint, although their 55.17 percent completion rate in the first half is one of the highest percentages of the season for the Explorers. In their previous game against the Temple Owls, the Explorers had a higher three-point completion percentage than field goal percentage. 

At the start of the second half, the Explorers came out with the necessary energy to win the game and for the first time in the season looked like a fully functional D1 basketball team. The Explorers went 18-34 in field goals, 4-12 in three-pointers, and 7-10 in free throws. The Explorers scored 47 points in the second half, and their defense was able to hold the Crusaders to only 28 points in the half, ultimately sealing the win for La Salle. 

The two major problems that the Explorers have had this season bared their ugly teeth in La Salle’s victory over Holy Cross. The lack of points from within the paint (although some of the highest they have had all season) and the excessive fouls committed on both sides of the ball heavily tormented the Explorers throughout the entire game. This is a recurring issue for the Explorers and head coach Ashley Howard. The lack of discipline inside of the game has caused the Explorers to give their opponents various game-changing free throws in the past, and this game was no different. Coach Howard still has a lot of work to do with his team in order to get them into true Division I competing level, and he must do so fast if he hopes to be able to have any sort of playoff run.

Update: The Explorers beat the Farleigh Dickinson Knights 81-55

Enrique Carrasco, Editor

The La Salle Explorers faced what might have been their toughest opponent of the season: the seventh-ranked Villanova Wildcats. The Explorers came into the game 2-2 in the season, after two heartbreaking overtime losses to Sacred Heart and Delaware. The team came into the Palestra with the intention of winning and proving to their loyal fans that they were real championship contenders. Sadly, the Explorers, led by third year coach Ashley Howard, failed to live up to the hype for the game. The Explorers left the Palestra after an embarrassing 46 to 72 loss.

The Explorers were outscored in both halves of the game, only scoring 17 points in the first half and 29 points in the second half. In comparison, the Wildcats scored 42 points in the first half and 30 points in the second half. This poor scoring performance can be attributed to several factors, particularly the outstanding Villanova defense, which has managed to maintain most of its opponents to under 60 total points. In addition, the poor performance in field goals for the Explorers (the same problem that caused their loss to Sacred Heart during their home opener) led to the Explorers falling behind in points. The Explorers went 14-55 in field goals (25.5 percent completion rate) and 6-21 in three pointers (28.6 percent completion rate).

As a result of this loss, the Explorers are once again on a negative streak, being 2-3 in the season. This loss caused the Explorers to fall to 13th place in the A-10’s, only above George Washington University, who hold a record of 2-6 in the season. This is the opposite result that the Explorers had hoped for after first hiring coach Ashley Howard, who was an assistant coach at Villanova University when the team won the National Championship. As head coach of the Explorers, Howard holds a record of 34-52 (.395-win percentage). Moving forward, Howard has to make drastic adjustments to his game plan if he plans on bettering the position of his team within the conference, and if he hopes of having any shot at a playoff run.

While this loss embarrassed the Explorers, it was not all negative. Three-star first year Khalil Brantley led the team in scoring, going 5-10 in field goals, 3-4 in three pointers, and 4-5 in free throws, coming to a total of 17 points in the game, outscoring every other player on the court. The first-year shows why he is a three-star talent, and if developed properly under Coach Howard, he could become a true threat to other teams once he is an upperclassman.