A big shakeup in the lacrosse tournament this past weekend as some teams look to make it to Memorial Day Weekend for a chance at this year's title. Some powerhouse schools went down this weekend as two major teams fell to the underdog in the first round. This was not a typical year of playoffs as many teams had trouble in the first round and some surprising comebacks as well. Here we'll go into detail on who is still in the running to make it to May 28th to hopefully capture a championship.
NCAA Lacrosse First Round Overview
The biggest upset of the weekend was
Notre Dame getting beat 9-7 by lower-seeded
Denver as Trevor Baptiste led the way as he leads Divison 1 in total career faceoff wins. This game showed Notre Dame's inability to play consistently as it showed during most of the season by their 9-6 record. Denver was led by Austin French with 3 goals and 3 assists to end the season of the Fighting Irish. Ryder Garnsey led the way for Notre Dame with 4 goals, but it was not enough to edge the Pioneers. Denver is set to play Albany this upcoming Saturday which is going to be an exciting matchup of the two best FOGO's in the nation.
Syracuse's season was upended by unranked
Cornell as we all knew this game was going to be close. The Orange are known this season for making games uncomfortably close as this was their 7th game with only a 1 goal difference. Cornell was fit for an upset of Syracuse as defeated the Orange earlier in the season 13-8. The Big Red was led by Clark Petterson who had 5 goals in the matchup and was an X-factor for Cornell. Syracuse fought hard with major plays from some of their key players such as attackman Brendan Bomberry who had an unbelievable no-look assist, which you can find on ESPN. With this upset, Cornell is set to take on top-seeded Maryland on Sunday to try and continue their first tournament appearance since 2013.
One of the more exciting games of the weekend was John Hopkins taking on Georgetown. Hopkins has a knack for making great comebacks as they were down 8-4 going into the fourth quarter. Georgetown played a phenomenal game as they were very close to closing out a big upset over #5 Hopkins, but Kyle Marr had 4 straight goals in the 4th quarter to bring them back and the game-winner in overtime. The Blue Jays were not unfamiliar with overtime as most of their games are decided by a few goals and even defeated Maryland after 3 overtimes two weeks ago. Georgetown's Craig Berge led the stat sheet with 2 goals and 4 assists, but it was not enough to take down the Blue Jays. Hopkins is set to take on the Duke Blue Devils on Sunday which will be another exciting and high-scoring game in the quarterfinals.
Maryland had a tough time taking down Robert Morris in a matchup that seemed one-sided on paper. Robert Morris came out firing with a 6-3 lead over the top-ranked Maryland which took people by a huge surprise. Many people overlooked RMU as they had to beat Canisius in the play-in round and were expected to be overwhelmed by the Terps. Maryland came out of halftime back in their groove and scored a total of 11 goals in the second half alone. It is hard to stop a high-powered offense led by one of the nation's best players Connor Kelly, who had 4 goals to lead the Terps. Robert Morris came out with 4 goals in the fourth to make it a closer game but were unable to pull off the complete comeback. Maryland is set to take on Cornell on Sunday.
Loyola also had a tough opponent of Virginia in the first round as it was a hard-fought game through all four quarters. Virginia ended up almost setting themselves up for a comeback in the fourth as they scored 6 goals to make it a 2 goal difference. The Greyhounds were in control the whole entire game while scoring 10 total goals in the first half alone. The Loyola offense, led by Pat Spencer who 5 points, clicked early but eventually cooled down in the second half. Virginia came out slower than Loyola which showed in the box score, but Dox Aitkin led the charge for the Cavaliers with 4 goals. Virginia fell short but made it a close game in the end with putting pressure on Loyola, but the Greyhounds were able to close out the game and make it to the next round.
With all of this early excitement in the tournament we are expecting a great playoff run by all of the remaining teams. We are sure to see a ton of new looks from these advancing programs as manufactures such as
STX,
Under Armour,
Cascade,
Maverik &
Warrior are sure to pull out all the stops with new styles and gear for the big spot light on Memorial Day Weekend!
