The Post-Week Tailgate: April 14, 2024

If you think you’ve got the 2024 season figured out, this weekend was a stark reminder that you don’t. There were five upsets in the USA Lacrosse Top 20:

• No. 4 Duke over No. 2 Virginia 
• No. 9 Denver over No. 5 Georgetown 
• Unranked Brown over No. 14 Princeton 
• Unranked Lafayette over No. 15 Boston University 
• Unranked Lehigh over No. 16 Colgate

And there were near-misses as well: most notably No. 1 Notre Dame escaping Long Island with an 18-17 win over No. 10 Cornell and No. 3 Johns Hopkins winning in overtime at Ohio State on Sunday night.

Can you imagine the discussions if those two upsets happened – which would have had four of the top five losing in a single weekend?

That didn’t happen, but it very well could of. What does it mean for the postseason?

Yes, we’re screaming towards the end of the season, but there’s still a lot of lacrosse to play. Which makes any bracketology projection at this point a moot effort … but don’t worry, we’ll have another coming out this week because people love to read it.

I’m reminded of something one of my bosses told me a long time ago regarding who beat who arguments. He said, “Comparative scores indicate only that the game was played.”

My feeling approaching the last few weeks of the regular season is to sit back and enjoy the ride. The games are in the players hands still – not in formulas that will ultimately decide the final few teams invited to dance. And that’s way more fun than trying to argue over strength of schedules, RPIs, signature wins and bad losses.

If anyone thinks they can predict the future, they weren’t in Loudonville, N.Y. on Saturday when Siena reminded us of how unique and special this sport can be.

Trailing by three goals with under a minute to play, Siena not only rallied to win the game, they did it regulation. The Saints scored four goals in just 44 seconds to beat Manhattan 11-10.

Amazing.

Random Observations

Johns Hopkins just seems to have something a little bit different right now. The Blue Jays improved to 4-0 in the Big Ten with an 11-10 win over Ohio State on Sunday night in a game it trailed 7-2 early and 9-5 late in the third quarter. The Blue Jays are 9-3 with all three losses coming by a single goal. Homewood Field should be rocking on Saturday afternoon when the Blue Jays host rival Maryland for the No. 1 seed in the Big Ten.

My favorite play of the weekend came in a losing effort. With his team trailing by two goals with a little over a minute to go, Harvard’s Owen Guest made this leaping save on an empty-net goal to keep his team in the game.

Effort. #HLX1881 pic.twitter.com/GAMEN3DYUP

— Harvard Men's Lacrosse (@HarvardMLax) April 14, 2024

The Crimson couldn’t capitalize on the phenomenal play as Penn goalie Emmet Carroll did what he’s done all year – made a clutch save, one of 18 total saves on the day, and the Quakers ended up adding an empty-netter for a 15-12 win.

I wrote yesterday about how chaotic the Patriot League has become and my head is still shaking 24 hours later. There are six teams tied for first place in the league at 4-2 after the top three teams in the standings all lost on Saturday. It’s nuts.

By the Numbers

19 • Consecutive regular season wins for Duke over Virginia after the Blue Devis jumped out quickly in a 18-12 win on Sunday.

3,500 • Attendance at Duke’s Koskinen Stadium in each of the last two weeks for showdowns against Notre Dame and Virginia.

1 – 5 – 8 • Conference wins for steadily improving Sacred Heart in each of the last three seasons. The Pioneers, who have never reached the NCAA tournament, improved to 8-0 in the MAAC with a dominant 16-5 win at Mount St. Mary’s on Saturday.

2 • Number of times that Cornell has scored at least 16 goals in a game and lost this season – Sunday’s 18-17 loss to Notre Dame when the Big Red had the lead with under three minutes to play and a 17-16 loss to Denver in late February which Cornell led 14-12 entering the fourth quarter.

14 • Consecutive goals scored by Yale in a 20-13 victory over Dartmouth. Yale trailed by as many as six goals in the game and 10-7 at the half.