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Blue Hen Weekend: Lacrosse, indoor track

Jordan Hall and the Fightin’ Blue Hens will begin action with a game against St. Joseph’s University at 1 p.m., Saturday, at Rullo Stadium.

8:41 a.m., Feb. 9, 2007--The nationally ranked University of Delaware men's lacrosse team, a consensus national top 20 pick and favorite to win the Colonial Athletic Association championship, will open the 2007 season with a non-conference game against St. Joseph's University at 1 p.m., Saturday, at Rullo Stadium.

This will be the first collegiate men's lacrosse game of the season, and one of only two games to be played on Saturday. Tickets can be purchased at the Rullo Stadium gates the day of the game beginning at noon.

UD Head Coach Bob Shillinglaw, who enters his 29th season at the helm of the Fightin' Blue Hens, welcomes back seven starters, the top seven scorers, and 20 letter winners from last year's team that posted a 12-5 record and advanced to the CAA title game for the second straight year.

The Hens won the CAA regular season title in 2005 before falling to Towson University in the championship tournament, but still earned an invitation to the NCAA Division I tournament as an at-large selection. The Hens are 23-11 over the last two seasons, the most wins in consecutive seasons for UD since the 1999-2000 teams combined to win 24 games.

The 2007 UD team has earned respect not only from the CAA coaches as the preseason favorite, but also from media members and coaches from throughout the country. In December, the Hens were ranked No. 13 in the Lacrosse Magazine preseason poll and No. 19 in both the Inside Lacrosse/Faceoff Yearbook and Laxnews.com polls.

The Hens feature one of the nation's top senior classes, led by the top face-off specialist in NCAA Division I, Alex Smith; 2005 All-America midfielder and CAA Player of the Year Jordan Hall; All-CAA midfielder Dan Deckelbaum; and three-time All-CAA attack Cam Howard. Other key players include junior goalkeeper Tommy Scherr and junior defender Patrick Biehl.

Smith, a two-time All-America, led the nation in face-off winning percentage each of the last two seasons, including a mark of 68.5 percent a year ago. Hall has 59 points and 43 assists for his career, and helped lead Canada to the 2006 world lacrosse championship.

Howard is among the nation's top career scorers among active players with 138 points on 62 goals and 76 assists, and Deckelbaum has scored 50 career goals, including a team-high 31 last season.

Scherr, a second-year starter in goal, posted a school record 8.55 goals allowed per game average in 2006, and Biehl recorded 32 groundballs last season as a first-year starter.

UD has defeated St. Joseph's in the season opener each of the past four seasons. The Hawks are coming off a 2006 season in which they won their final five games to finish 6-9, good for fourth place in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

In other weekend action on campus, the UD indoor track teams will compete in the Thomson Invitational beginning at 10 a.m., Saturday, at the Delaware Field House.

Both UD basketball teams will be on the road this weekend. The men's team will take on archrival Drexel University at 4 p.m., Saturday, with the game to be broadcast on WRDX-FM The River 94.7 and WVUD-FM 91.3. UD is 5-20 overall and 3-11 in the Colonial Athletic Association, and is coming off a 78-69 victory over the University of North Carolina Wilmington on Wednesday night at the Bob Carpenter Center. The Hens feature junior forward Herb Courtney, who is among the conference leaders in scoring and rebounding.

The women's team, which scored its 20th win of the season on Thursday, faces a tough game at Old Dominion University at 1 p.m., Sunday, with the game to be broadcast on WWTX-AM The Ticket 1290, WDOV-AM 1410 and WVUD-FM 91.3. UD is 20-3 overall and 11-1 in the conference, and is coming off a 76-58 victory at George Mason University on Thursday.

The Hens are in a tough battle atop the CAA, with James Madison University the leader at 21-2 overall and 12-0 in the conference, UD close behind in second place and Old Dominion 14-8 overall and 10-1 in the conference. The teams are battling for the premium seeds leading up to the CAA championship tournament, which will be played March 8-11 at the Bob Carpenter Center.

Also on the road this weekend, UD divers will compete Saturday in the Rutgers Invitational and the tennis teams will compete Saturday in the College of New Jersey Double Tournament.

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