You read the title correctly – sports coverage on Bwog. Stop pointing at the pigs above us. We know they’re there.

With the start of a new school year, we felt it was time to turn over a new leaf in the Bwog-sports relationship. In the past, we’ve generally only reported on sports either as champions or, more often, as a punchline. There are hundreds of our classmates practicing day after day, though, and there’s a lot of great stuff to cover in their efforts. We’ll be doing our best to give them some coverage, and we ask that you do your best to help us in our occasional ignorance at the intricacies of some of the less well-known sports. On to the what’s up this week in the land of sport.

Football: The Lions open their season tomorrow at home against Fordham. The teams have split the last two games, with coach Norries Wilson winning his debut 37-7 in 2006, but then losing in 2007 27-10. To win, the Lions will have to do better on the ground, both on offense with the running back duo of senior Jordan Davis and junior Ray Rangel, and from the whole defense, which gave up 353 yards last year against Fordham.

Unfortunately, the team may be without junior wide reciever Austin Knowlin (led the team with 988 yards and 11 TDs in 2007) and junior linebacker Drew Quinn (second in tackles in 2007) – both have been left off of the starting lineup in the media guide. For a more in-depth preview of the team and the rest of the Ivy League, the Spec has a football supplement.

Field Hockey: The field hockey team opens their Ivy League play tomorrow at Brown at noon. They enter the match undefeated, after beating Quinnipiac 3-2 last week. Sophomore Caitlin Mullins’s winning goal was her second, and she was named Ivy League Player of the Week.

Men’s Soccer: Hot off their big win over UC Santa Barbara, the men’s soccer team (2-2-1) went to Philadelphia Wednesday night, and beat LaSalle 2-1 in double overtime. First-year midfielder Mike Mazullo scored the winner in the 110th minute, after senior Felipe Castrillon had tied it in the 74th. The team’s next game is next Friday the 26th at home to Quinnipiac.

Women’s Soccer: Coming off an unlucky weekend where they drew and lost in overtime, the women’s soccer team (2-2-1) plays twice on their last weekend before Ivy League play begins. Tonight, they play American at home at 7 p.m., and on Sunday they travel to Stony Brook for a 1 o’clock game.

Men’s Tennis: The men’s tennis team spends this weekend at the ECAC Championships in Flushing Meadows, New York. They hope to build on some momentum generated by transfer student Mihai Nichifor, who won the consolation final at the last weekend’s Virginia Invitational. The ECAC championships will include all eight Ivy League schools along with a number of others from the east coast.

Women’s Tennis: The women’s tennis team begin their season at home this weekend in the Columbia Classic, which runs the entire weekend. 

Volleyball: The volleyball team (3-1) heads to Saint Francis University for the Saint Francis Invitational. After three wins over Coppin State, Lafayette, and Quinnipiac last weekend, the team hit a road bump in losing at Army mid-week. Ivy League play begins October 4.

Cross Country: The cross country teams are off this weekend (though runners are never really off during the season, we suppose), but they placed well last weekend at Penn State’s Spiked Shoe Invitational, where the men finished 2nd out of 14, and the women finished 3rd out of 14. Next weekend, they head to the Quinnipiac Invitational.