A lot of uncertainty has existed in college sports since the start of 2020, and Lacrosse was not immune to the issues faced. Yet here we are; it’s 2022 and we are just coming out of our first full season of college lax since Covid started – and what a season it was. Week-in and week-out we saw jaw-dropping upsets, nail-biting overtime winners, and Maryland continually proving to be one of the best teams in NCAA Lacrosse history. Some teams would love to go back to the start of this season and end on another note, and others exceeded all expectations. Here’s everything you may have missed – the good, the bad and the ugly of the 2022 season.
The Biggest Surprises of 2022
The year started off with the Jacksonville Dolphins, and they could be considered the breakthrough team of the year. John Galloway had his best year as the head coach of the team. Galloway led this team to a 14-3 record, with the help of Tufts transfer Max Waldbaum. Waldbaum exploded onto the scene against Johns Hopkins with a 4 goal, 1 assist performance in a hard fought loss against Johns Hopkins. The following game was against Duke, who many people thought would be championship contenders. Waldbaum led the Dolphins to a huge 14-12 upset victory over the Blue Devils, with a 6 point performance. Jacksonville took this momentum and amassed a 5 game winning streak before dropping one to Utah, and then went on to win 9 in a row, until they met Richmond in the conference finals and lost 10-9. The conference final would be the Dolphins only hope at entering the NCAA playoffs after an incredible season, but would fall short this year.
The Rutgers Scarlet Knights are playing in their first ever Memorial Day weekend. Brian Brecht finally got all of the pieces to the puzzle, and the results are speaking for themselves. Over the last couple of years, seeing Brecht build this team was a roller cost ride; they have been an up and down, fast-paced team that aims to bring the fundamentals of the game to the forefront of their play. Many thought that the best roster was last year, but this team looks to have built the perfect chemistry. The defense has been in sync, and their offense is unstoppable, having ten offensive players with double digit points - half of those ten are above 40 points this season too. The Knights want to run and gun, and want to see if you can keep up with them. Spoiler alert, most can’t.
The Ivy League came out this year with something to prove, and performed across the entire conference after being sidelined for the past two years due to Covid. Despite no in-game play since 2019, each of these teams were still out on the field day-in and day-out getting better, and it showed. We saw 6 of the 7 Ivy League teams make the NCAA playoffs – Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Brown, UPenn and Cornell. Heading into conference play we saw a 4-way tie for first place, and the games following did not disappoint. There’s no doubt that these players have had a fire lit under them ever since the Ivy League board didn’t allow them to play their shortened 2021 season. We saw elite performances from players such as Sam Handley (Penn), Matt Brandau (Yale), CJ Kirst (Cornell), Gavin Adler (Cornell), Connor Theriault (Brown) amongst many others.
The Biggest Disappointments of 2022
UNC didn’t have that great of a season, despite having arguably the best player in college lacrosse in Chris Gray. The Tar Heels had a young core of guys around Gray, and this season served as a learning year where the future of the team could gain some experience. Chris Gray had to shoulder the team to nearly all of their victories, and teams started to key in on him on defensively. This led to some offensive inefficiency and a lot of disappointing losses. The team ended the season with an 8-6 record, and missed the tournament which is pretty uncharacteristic for the Tar Heels, but hopefully their young guns got what they needed out of this season and they will bounce back next year.
Johns Hopkins and Syracuse were two teams who had a lot of hype surrounding them entering this season. Syracuse had a coaching staff that you could only dream of, with Head Coach Gary Gait, and Dave Pietramala being the defensive coordinator. Meanwhile, the Blue Jays were looking to put together a solid season facing arguably the toughest schedule in college lacrosse. Unfortunately, we got quite the opposite; both teams had mediocre seasons and could probably be considered bad seasons from their expectations as well as the expectations from the lacrosse community. The Orange only won 4 games this year, and the Blue Jays ended the season with a 7-9 record.
The Duke Blue Devils were another team that didn’t live up to their season expectations. Everyone had them labeled as championship contenders, but to everyone’s surprise, they didn’t even make the tournament. Duke was very inconsistent this year, and still managed to go 11-6. The Blue Devils suffered some big losses to Jacksonville, Penn, Loyola, and Syracuse – and despite the success of a couple of these teams, these are bad losses when considering the expectations for this Duke team coming into this season. They also lost to Notre Dame twice this year – which realistically ended any post-season hopes they may have been holding onto. The Blue Devils had such a great offensive roster on paper that they couldn’t really find a balance that created enough chemistry between the elite talent while they continue to build defensively.
The Best Performances of 2022
There’s really no other place to start than with a single player – Chris Gray. Gray had a record-breaking season as he surpassed Lyle Thompson for most points in college lacrosse throughout his career, with 401 points on 204 goals and 197 assists. This season he put up 80 points on 48 goals and 32 assists. Gray is the front-runner for the Tewaaraton Award in a tight competition between him and Logan Wisnauskas, but many expect Gray to come away with the Award. Chris was the second overall pick in the PLL draft and we expect him to go on and perform at an elite level against the best players in the game.
The defending back-to-back champion Virginia Cavaliers looked like a team from a different planet to begin the season. In their first couple of games, they already looked to be in md-season form. That was until we got a championship rematch with the Maryland Terrapins towards the end of March. That’s when the world found out that Maryland is head and shoulders above the rest of the field, as they took down the Cavs 23-12. UVA would go on to win 5 of their next 7 games to close out the season strong. The Cav’s then faced off against the Terps in the Quarterfinals of the NCAA playoffs hoping to get some revenge, but we saw the same result. Maryland once again proved why there isn’t a team out there that can compete with the Terps. Many thought that this game would live up to the hype and be the game of the year, but Maryland gave them another beat-down, winning 18-9.
Georgetown had one of their best rosters ever this year, but just couldn’t finish the job. The Hoyas were rolling this year, with their only loss coming in early March to Princeton 10-8. The Hoyas strength of schedule was solid to start the year, but dropped after that Princeton game. Georgetown was still a team that should be considered one of the best in the NCAA though. Kevin Warne’s squad featured 4 first-team IL All-Americans in Graham Bundy, Zach Geddes, Will Bowen, and Owen McElroy. Gibson Smith made the third team, and they had a couple of honorable mention AA’s as well. So, yeah, they were pretty good – and there was a consensus that they had the potential to top the seemingly unstoppable Maryland team. That is until they met up with the Delaware Blue Hens in the first round. This game was a great one to watch as it went back and forth the entire way. Once you thought the Hoyas would pull away, Delaware scored and got right back into the game. Georgetown had the ball with about a minute left before they threw the ball away and lost possession. Delaware got the ball with the score knotted and took advantage of the last possession. Delaware scored with 8 seconds left and ruined Georgetown’s season in a massive way.
Finally, this brings us to the Terps; the hands down best team in college lacrosse this year, sitting at a perfect 14-0. John Tillman has this Maryland squad wired like nothing we’ve ever seen. This team knows exactly where to go, what to look for, and what to do in every instance out on the field. Logan Wisnauskas has been the leader all year, and is statistically leading the team with 84 points. This Terp supporting cast around Wisnauskas is filled with studs too. Keeghan Khan was the guy at Villanova, and is thriving as a second guy behind Wisnasukas. Jonathan Donville is already going to be a professional player, and has been a great asset to this team’s success; whether it be finding space on the crease, or dodging his defender 1v1 he can do it all and be effective at it. It really won’t be surprising if this Maryland squad goes all the way to win a championship and complete the undefeated season. Regardless, they certainly will go down as one of the best college lacrosse teams in NCAA history.
