LINING THEM UP

Coach Bruce Munro last year eased the varsity lacrosse team through what was probably the worst season since he came to the Crimson with the immortal thought always in the back of his head that next year things should be different. The 1955 squad emerged from obscurity in the wake of one of Mnuro's best, and spent the whole year getting the experience it had missed on the bench the year before.

So last year was for experience; and this year is for revenge. Munro will open the spring circuit Monday in New York with almost all of last year's team back and substantially bolstered by a pack of sophomores who played first on some of the best secondary school teams in the country followed by a year of learning the Crimson system from freshman coach Bob Pickett.

The only gray spot on the scene is dirty snow. Munro has put his squad outside only twice, both times on the asphalt parking lot in front of Briggs Cage--"about the worst conditions imaginable," according to Munro. The rest of the time the varsity has done stick work in the Cage and run laps. "Skillwise we're ahead of last year," he says, "but conditionwise, who can tell?"

Thus the spring circuit will be learning and conditioning to the 20 candidates for varsity positions. On the field with Hofstra and Rutgers Tuesday, co-champions in the Crimson's division last year and now boosted into the top division of national lacrosse competition, the Crimson can do little more than watch.

The same must be said for the remaining two teams on trip schedule: the University of Baltimore will have about four games and weeks of outdoor practice under its pads by the time the Crimson gets into town (April 5), and Navy (April 7) was runner up in the national championships last spring.

Chief scholars in the varsity's first attack will be captain Dexter Lewis, Larry Coburn, and Don Davidoff, all back from last year, plus sophomores Mike Shaw and Charlie Malonee.

Munro will take three midfields on the trip, all veterans of last year's dark days: Fuzzy Stewart, Jim Gale, and Tom Draper; Mike Holmes, Barry Saxe, and Mike Durham; Maclay Hyde, Johnny Lane, and Tony Ostheimer.

Defending for the varsity against the crack offensives of the four southern powers will be lettermen Leo Daley, Roger Martin, Frederick Sharf, plus sophomore Jim Herscot.

And in the nets will be last year's reserve goalie, Mark Rhine. Although Rhine will do all the tending on the southern swing, he will have stiff competition for the permanent spot when several promising sophomores join the squad.

As for the regular season, which opens April 14 against Syracuse, the snow has fallen on all alike, or as Munro puts it, "all in the same soup." But with such a wealth of veterans, the varsity may find the soup more congenial than many of its fellow sloshers.