The Cooldown: April Upsets Bring May Intrigue

The first weekend of April might have foreshadowed a wild last weekend of May.

Put simply, there is no clear-cut favorite to win this year’s NCAA Division I men’s lacrosse championship.

Cornell is deservedly No. 1 – and outside of a three-minute letdown at the end of its game with Penn State, it would be undefeated – but the Big Red are not invincible. On Saturday, Cornell beat Ivy League rival Brown, 13-9, but don’t let the score make you think it was comfortable.

Brown, which started its backups after they won a midweek scrimmage over the starters in practice and was playing without leading scorer Marcus Wertheim, was tied after the first quarter, led late in the first half and was tied midway into the fourth quarter before the Big Red scored the last four goals of the game.

C.J. Kirst is playing like the best player in the country and Cornell’s offense is flat out explosive, but Brown (3-7) showed Cornell is vulnerable.

Cornell will test that vulnerability next weekend against a team that is suddenly one of the hottest in the country, Syracuse.

Syracuse beat two-time NCAA reigning champion Notre Dame, 14-9, before the biggest crowd in the dome in a decade – 11,268 spectators. The Orange have now won six straight and this loss fully shifts Notre Dame (5-3) from the hunted to the hunter role.

1️⃣1️⃣,2️⃣6️⃣8️⃣

Biggest attendance at the Dome since 2015.

Big moment for @CuseMLAX. pic.twitter.com/c7n6lTKI2w

— USA Lacrosse Magazine (@USALacrosseMag) April 5, 2025

Joey Spallina was electric with four goals and the Orange defense clamped down after giving up the first three goals of the game. Notre Dame went nearly 40 minutes of gametime without a goal.

The Corrigan Sports College Lacrosse Live series has a doozie on its hands next weekend when the Orange and Big Red meet on Long Island for what will be a Top 5 showdown.

The other big result from the weekend was Rutgers stunning our No. 3 Maryland (the Terps were No. 2 in the USILA rankings) by an 8-6 count. It was the highest-ranked team Rutgers has ever beaten and the first time the Scarlet Knights have beaten the Terps since 1980, ending a string of 19 straight losses.

Maryland’s offense has been far from lethal this year, but Rutgers cranked up the pressure another notch. Rutgers goalie Cardin Stoller made 14 saves while allowing just six goals and set off the fireworks on the victory with a late goal.

Cardin Stoller! The Goalie with his 2nd goal of the season to give a #RUMLax a 3 goal lead pic.twitter.com/zZ1EbbzHXE

— Rutgers Men's LAX (@RUmlax) April 5, 2025

Random Observations

While some of the top teams are looking in the mirror this weekend, No. 2 Ohio State is just plowing ahead. Since its now baffling season-opening loss to Utah, the Buckeyes have won 11 straight after beating Johns Hopkins 14-10 on Saturday.

Our Patrick Stevens was at Homewood and wrote about the Buckeyes resurgence.

The Buckeyes are alone in first place in the Big Ten at 3-0. Right behind them are their rival, Michigan, at 2-1 even after an 11-8 loss to Penn State on Sunday, and Rutgers. Who had that trio at top at the beginning of the season?

Don’t look now, but Towson, which began the season 0-4, is in first place in the CAA. The Tigers beat Monmouth, 12-10, for their fourth straight win (three of them by two goals or less) to move to 4-0 in the league. Meanwhile, Fairfield gave Hofstra its first league loss, 14-10, and both of those teams are a game back. The Tigers still have to face both of them.

First-year High Point head coach John Crawley picked up his biggest win as the Panthers upset No. 17 Massachusetts 14-9. Another new face to the High Point program, freshman Carson Robins, played a big role in the win with three goals and three assists. After a 3-6 start to the season, the Panthers have now won two straight league games in the Atlantic 10.

The Atlantic 10 is only in its third year sponsoring men’s lacrosse, but next Saturday’s opponent – Richmond – is plenty familiar to High Point. The two programs, tied for the A-10 lead, met three times in the championship game of their previous league, the Southern Conference, with Richmond winning in 2015 and 2019 and High Point winning in 2021.

Richmond has ended High Point’s season the last three years – in the 2022 Southern Conference semifinals, the 2023 A-10 championship game and the 2024 A-10 semifinals.

By the Numbers

5 • Number of the most recent NCAA champions that lost on Saturday: Notre Dame (2023 and 2024), Maryland (2022) and Virginia (2019 and 2021).

66.7 • Faceoff winning percentage for North Carolina’s Brady Wambach in an 18-9 win over Virginia. Wambach won 18 of 27 for the game and the Tar Heels won 9 of 11 in the second half to pull away.

17 • Saves for Navy’s Dan Daly in a 14-8 win over Lafayette on Friday night that put the Mids in a three-way tie for third place in the Patriot League with Colgate and Lehigh at 3-2, one-game behind Boston University and Army who are both 4-1.

19 • Goals for Army’s Jackson Eicher in the last four games. Eicher had five goals on Saturday as the Black Knights picked up a key win, beating Colgate 12-7.

7 • Seconds between goals for Villanova’s Colin Michener in an 11-8 win over Providence. Michener scored four times in the game and the Wildcats have won three straight overall and are tied with Georgetown atop the Big East at 2-0.

3 • Consecutive one-goal games for Georgetown after a 10-9 double-overtime win at Marquette. The Hoyas’ Aidan Carroll scored five goals in the win, including the game-winner.

36 • Career wins for Richmond goalie Zach Vigue, setting a new school record as he passed former All-American Benny Pugh’s 35. Vigue made eight saves in a 15-7 win at Hobart.

6 • Consecutive goals to close the game for Detroit Mercy in a 10-9 comeback win at VMI. Freshman Marcus Thundercloud started the rally and closed it with the game-winner by beating two defenders from X.

A look at Thundercloud's game-winning goal at VMI! #DetroitsCollegeTeam @Inside_Lacrosse @NCAALAX @USALacrosseMag @NECsports @necmlax #DetroitsCollegeTeam #NECLAX ⚔️🥍 pic.twitter.com/9lTi8DRFEi

— Detroit Mercy MLAX (@UDMLAX) April 5, 2025

27 • Points in the last five games for Delaware’s Brendan Powers. Powers had five goals and two assists in the Blue Hens 17-9 win over Stony Brook.

17 • Saves for Robert Morris goalie Nate Fechter in a 13-8 win over LIU. The Colonials and Le Moyne are tied atop the Northeast Conference at 4-0.

6 • Goals for Harvard’s Jack Speidell as the red-hot Crimson beat Dartmouth 18-7. Harvard scored the first nine goals of the game and improved to 8-2 for the season. Speidell scored the first three goals of the game.

8 • Groundballs for Duke SSDM Aidan Maguire to go along with two goals and three caused turnovers as he returned to his home state to help lead the Blue Devils to a 12-7 win at Boston University.

17 • Saves for Loyola’s Max Watkinson, including one early in overtime, as the Greyhounds rallied to beat Bucknell, 12-11, for their first victory of the season.