There were fewer surprises this week in lacrosse than we have become accustomed to this season. At the end of the week, some teams were set to move on, and some teams packed up after their final game. Let’s dive into the details, and see what outcomes affected the post season.
Cornell played Syracuse in the Carrier Dome on Monday, and it was a great game beginning to end. Both teams fought the entire game, and neither let up. John Piatelli led the way for Cornell, scoring 6 goals and 3 assists on the day. Brendan Curry led Syracuse with a solid 4 goal, 1 assist performance. The game headed into overtime, where Cornell gained possession and made a great cross crease pass to a wide open Hugh Kelleher for the game winner as the Big Red took down the Orange 16-15. The pain didn’t stop there for Syracuse though, as they had another huge matchup down at Chapel Hill against UNC. Curry and Dordevic had a great day combining for 9 point. The ‘Cuse defense struggled in the beginning of the first quarter, missing slides and losing the ball while trying to clear it, and UNC capitalized on these mistakes. Syracuse started to get in rhythm in the second quarter and closed the gap to 6-5 with a goal from Brendan Curry right before the half. UNC continued to exploit the Orange defense in the two-man game as their slide packages continued to struggle. Chris Gray got himself 6 points, including the game winning goal with 15 seconds left on a pick and roll to win 14-13.
The best team in the country, Maryland, took a business trip to the Horseshoe to play the Ohio State Buckeyes Saturday. Ohio State had a great start, going up 5-3 at the end of the first half, putting the Terps on upset alert early on. The Terps came back and tie the game up by halftime, and didn’t look back after that. The Terps went on to win 19-12 behind Wisnauskas 5 goal, 2 assist game. Jack Myers was dishing assists out all day, putting up 2 goals and 4 assists in the game. The B1G Ten tournament is going to be exciting to watch with Ohio State, Rutgers, and Hopkins all battling to take down the Terps.
The first upset of the weekend goes to Army, taking down Cornell after the Big Red’s great performance earlier on Monday. Brendan Nichtern was held in check for his averages, but had a solid day at 2 goals and 2 assists. The supporting cast of the Black Knights had a great day, with six players having multi- point performances to help lead the way past Cornell in a huge statement win 17-10.
The second upset goes to Brown taking down Yale 20-13 in an exciting Ivy League battle. Devon McLane (6 points) of Brown and Matt Brandau (7 points) of Yale led the way for their teams. You could tell that Brown was fired up all game and wanted to let everyone know that they are in the fight for a top seed in the Ivy League as well.
Duke played UVA in a mid-week ACC matchup, and the Blue Devils were ready to roll. Mike Adler was on fire in the net for Duke, and that echoed to the whole team, as Duke went on to win 17-8. Adler finished with a 71% save percentage, with 20 saves on 28 shots faced. Brennan O’Neill did his thing and led the offense to an 8 point day on 4 goals and 4 assists.
Make sure to watch every game you can, because this season will be over before you know it. This week, UNC plays Notre Dame on Thursday night, Army vs Navy Saturday afternoon, Syracuse vs Virginia, and the greatest rivalry in the sport takes place Saturday night with Johns Hopkins vs Maryland.
