Drexel Lacrosse Schedule: West Philadelphia Born, Raised

PROGRAM SCHEDULE PROPAGANDA: UNRELEASED
THIS IS WHY WE FIGHT: THE SCHEDULE

Drexel uncorked a massive run midway through the team's 2014 campaign: After a 4-4 start to the Dragons' season (including two one-goal losses (to Virginia and Villanova) and a two-goal defeat at the hands of Hofstra), Drexel strung together nine straight wins -- including a massive triple overtime victory against the Pride in the THUNDERDOME! Tournament final -- before falling to Denver in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament. The Dragons were assaultive and flashed moments of invincibility, an attribute that the program has adopted in recent seasons. Drexel created its own reality last spring, and a replay -- in whatever form -- would continue the good feelings in West Philadelphia.

Here are some schedule highlights and games of note:

The Deep End is 20,000 Leagues Deep
February 14: at Virginia; February 21: Albany; February 24: Villanova; February 28: at Maryland; March 3: St. Joseph's; March 7: Bryant

I'm not sure that there are 10 teams in Division I that will open their 2015 efforts with a more daunting opening stretch than what the Dragons have on their slate. Starting on Valentine's Day, Drexel will reel off six games in 22 days as the sun starts to rise on the college lacrosse season, average just over a game every three-and-a-half days against some of the nation's toughest and most dangerous teams:

• Drexel-Virginia has quietly become one the country's tightest annual meetings with the Cavaliers pulling out three consecutive one-goal wins against the Dragons in each of the last three seasons. This won't be a hammer-meets-nail situation; it'll be a hammer-smashes-hammer deal.
• The team's date with Albany will provide one of these teams with a hyper-valuable win come tournament time.
• Villanova and St. Joseph's will allow Drexel the chance to burn the Sixth Borough to the ground and claim ownership over whatever remains.
• The Dragons' trip to Maryland will mark the first time that the two programs have ever met. Drexel has played Scranton (three times), Widener (four times), and whatever Pennsylvania Military is (three times) more than the Terps.
• And it all ends with a home game against Bryant, a team that took a six-goal loss to the Dragons last season and will be hot to start crossing names off of their "People to Kill" list.

Arnold Workout
March 21: at Michigan

That's it. That's the breather. Drexel is bench-pressing Volkswagen's for days.

THUNDERDOME!? MORE LIKE FUNDERDOME!
March 28: Fairfield; April 4: at Hofstra; April 11: Delaware; April 18: at Massachusetts; April 25: Towson

The THUNDEROME! Tournament is total anarchy, but the Dragons have been remarkably strong in the conference's regular season despite bullets whizzing past their head each and every year: The last sub-.500 effort that Drexel had in THUNDERDOME! came in 2006 (a 2-4 season); in the last eight years, the Dragons are 32-15 with an average league finish of 4.00-1.88. That's the best average conference record among the schools that have thrown hands in THUNDERDOME! each year since 2007 (Towson, 3.13-2.63), Delaware (2.50-3.38), and Hofstra (3.63-2.13) are the other programs). Regardless of what has happened to the Dragons in the THUNDERDOME! Tournament, Drexel has been a pacesetter for the league in the regular season.