Professional PLL
06:00 PM
Jul 19
Phi
Den
Under 14th-year head coach Andy Shay, the Yale men’s lacrosse program has made numerous strides, starting with four Ivy League tournament titles in the past five seasons. It’s no longer unusual for the currently eighth-ranked Bulldogs to be in the top 10.
Yale has even punched back successfully at once-superior Maryland in what has become one of the sport’s most interesting nonconference rivalries. After losing 10 straight times to the Terrapins – often by sizeable margins – Yale took regular-season victories in 2015 and 2016 over Maryland in New Haven by a combined seven goals.
But the Bulldogs are still trying to solve Maryland on the road, and trying to dodge strange and controversial circumstances that have materialized in recent years in College Park. In Saturday’s 12th meeting with second-ranked Maryland dating to 1999, Mother Nature intervened, as two fourth-quarter lightning delays turned the game into nearly a four-hour slog.
The weather was not a factor in Yale coming up short, 12-11. Preceding the delays late in the fourth, the Bulldogs (1-1) had nearly completed a remarkable comeback by scoring six of the game’s final seven goals.
In the end, Maryland posted its third straight one-goal victory at home over Yale.
“The weather delays didn’t affect us. If God wants Maryland to win, we don’t have a choice. We’re fine with that,” quipped Shays, who did think the Bulldogs deserved a few more seconds reset on the clock after a timeout preceded Yale’s final possession, which began with nine seconds left.
“Since I’ve been coaching here, we’ve never left that stadium feeling good about the way things went,” he said. “It’s always something.”
In 8-7 losses at Maryland – first late in the regular season in 2013, then in a first-round NCAA tournament game in 2015 – controversy reared up in the closing seconds. In both cases, Yale appeared to score game-tying goals after crazy bounces, only to be denied.
And we haven’t even mentioned another awful experience Yale went through on Maryland’s home field. In the 2013 NCAA tournament quarterfinals, the Bulldogs controlled most of the contest, but blew a late, two-goal lead and went down to Syracuse, 7-6.
“The way I see it, we need to play better to avoid being in those kinds of positions,” Shay said. “And at some point, human error will come back to help us [against Maryland].”
For now, Shay is hoping that the Maryland-Yale association will continue. Maryland (4-0) holds a 12-3 lead in a series that began in 1925, an advantage that stood at 10-1 after that bitter defeat in 2013. Since then, Yale has split four decisions with the Terps.
“We need that game [for RPI reasons],” Shay said. “I’m pretty sure it means more to our guys than it does to [Maryland’s] guys. I think we have a lot of respect for each other. I also think we’re probably more of a nuisance than a rival to Maryland, when you look at their schedule from year to year. I just hope we continue to play each other.”
Last week, Yale also was without attackman and first-team All-American and Tewaaraton Trophy finalist Ben Reeves, who sat out the Terps game after pulling a hamstring in the Bulldogs’ season-opening win over Villanova.
Shay said Reeves will play against Bryant on Saturday.
Carolina Regroups
Make no mistake about it. On Saturday in Chapel Hill, where third-ranked Johns Hopkins moved to 4-0 with an impressive, 13-5 takedown of defending NCAA champion North Carolina, Blue Jays goalie Gerald Logan was the difference by making 16 saves.
But the Tar Heels shouldered much of the blame as well, after an uncharacteristically terrible 5-for-39 shooting day. Luke Goldstock, Michael Tagliaferri and Timmy Kelly whiffed on a combined 17 shots.
As a result, North Carolina lost to Hopkins for only the second time in the last 11 meetings between the two schools. It was the Tar Heels’ most lopsided loss to the Blue Jays since a 21-12 rout in 1999.
North Carolina (3-1) coach Joe Breschi said Saturday’s offensive futility was enough to compel team captain Goldstock, who shot 0-for-7, to organize a Sunday workout with the offense. Breschi said the practice went on for more than an hour.
“Our stick work has been sloppy. We’re having trouble making simple, adjacent passes,” said Breschi, who alluded to the team’s relative inexperience. “Our spacing, our pace of play, and needless to say our shooting – they all need work. We’re a major work in progress.”
“You have to take quality shots on any goalie, especially one who was as hot as [Logan] was,” he said. “He made some great saves and the Hopkins defense forced us into some perimeter, low-angle shots. We were still down only 6-3 late in the third quarter. It’s still really early.”
And it gets no easier Saturday, when the Tar Heels travel to top-ranked Denver (4-0) – one of just three regular-season road games on North Carolina’s schedule.
The five goals scored matched the Tar Heels’ low point a year ago, when Hofstra dropped them to 2-1 with a 10-5 win in Chapel Hill. As their fantastic finish last year proved in Philadelphia, the Heels got it right by the time the games counted the most.
Big Ten at the Top
Time will tell which conference is the strongest in Division I, but the Big Ten is making an early case for itself.
Before Michigan (4-1) received its comeuppance from Notre Dame on Saturday in the form of a 16-5 spanking, the Big Ten had gone undefeated in February.
On Tuesday, 14th-ranked Rutgers ended the month by moving to 4-0 with an easy win over Wagner – 10 days after the Scarlet Knights had beaten Army, which then beat Syracuse on Saturday at the Carrier Dome.
As the nonconference regular-season schedule swings into March, the Big Ten has a combined record of 24-1. Maryland, Johns Hopkins and Penn State are each 4-0 and part of the top five. No. 18 Ohio State is also off to a 4-0 start.