By Ari Strait
A 181-119 Northeastern loss to the Boston College Eagles this past Friday means the Huskies will be forced to enter the America East playoffs riding their first losing streak in years.
The win comes as sweet revenge for the Eagles, who lost last year’s matchup after winning the previous two. The loss, the fourth of the year for the Huskies, is equal to the total number of losses the team had suffered in the three prior seasons combined.
“I know [Boston College] made it their priority to peak for our event,” said NU coach Roy Coates.
“At least three times during the season, their coach told me they had pinpointed this meet as their most important in the second half of their season. They swam tremendously better than they did last year. This was by far their best competition of the season,” he said.
In fact, Northeastern had more variables against them than just the hostile atmosphere of swimming in the home pool of a school intently focused on avenging a surprise defeat. Due to the fact that Boston College does not have the same temperature regulations that Northeastern maintains, the water in the Flynn Recreation Complex was much hotter than the team expected.
“One of the things that happened was that their pool was significantly warmer than ours. Their pool was 85 degrees, and we swim 79-81. That’s like being in a hot tub for us,” said Coates.
However, he refused to allow the team to use that as an excuse.
“You’ve gotta be prepared for anything. No matter what anyone throws at us, we gotta be prepared. We can’t let anyone throw us off our gameplan,” he said.
It is this same mentality that prevents any concern about his team’s win-loss record clouding his faith in his team. Coates, who intentionally developed a more challenging schedule this year to provide a more realistic representation of the squad’s talent, isn’t worried about the consequences of losing more meets than usual.
“Be aware of your competition. Princeton will be top 20 in the country, Harvard will be top 30. The girls knew. I think from our point of view its an exciting thing. A nerve wracking thing, but an exciting thing,” he said.
