The stakes are higher on Memorial Day Weekend, and even next week when the NCAA tournament begins, but this is my favorite week of the college lacrosse season.
For some teams, their conference tournament doesn’t mean much. They’re already in the NCAA tournament and may even have a home game locked up. But for so many, it all comes down to this week.
Win or your season, and perhaps career, is over.
Win and your dream continues.
Win it all and you’ve got a memory for a lifetime.
For fans, it’s great entertainment … and perhaps a chance to play some hooky from work with afternoon games during the week leading into more great lacrosse at night.
The Big Ten and Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference kicked things off on Saturday and the Atlantic Sun and Patriot League renew the fun on Tuesday. Our conference championship central has the full schedule so you can enjoy it all.
Random Observations
The three-headed monster at the top of the ACC, and the national rankings, continues to baffle everyone. Virginia’s Matt Nunes made a career-high 19 saves as the Cavaliers beat No. 1 Notre Dame, 12-8, for the second time this season. Duke, of course, continued its mastery of Virginia with two wins over the Cavaliers this year, while Notre Dame manhandled Duke, 17-12, back on April 8. How do you sort them out?
Virginia's 6-foot-7 defender Cole Kastner got whistled for a holding call on this play, but the Cavaliers defense created havoc all game.
ESPN made a mistake on a graphic at the start of the Boston College-North Carolina ACC women’s championship game on Sunday, labeling 9/11 hero Welles Crowther as a men’s club lacrosse player at Boston College. Crowther, the “Man in the Red Bandana,” played on the varsity team at BC from 1996 to 1999. The school cut varsity lacrosse following the 2002 season.
Another Boston school, Boston University, is thriving in its place. BU launched its program in 2014 and steadily progressed. Last year, the Terriers reached the NCAA tournament for the first time in program history. On Friday night, BU edged Army 12-11 to win the Patriot League regular season title for the second straight time.
Generational talent Chris Gray lit up the scoreboard in his two years at BU before transferring to North Carolina following the 2019 season and then the program battled through two limited schedules during the COVID pandemic. Now, they’ve come back stronger than ever.
Head coach Ryan Polley, the only coach in program history, has a diverse background that includes being a girls’ high school head coach (Andover), Division II men’s head coach (Merrimack) and Division I defensive coordinator (Yale). Polley is well-respected among his peers, but not a national name. That could be changing.
Delaware can’t be anxious to see Towson in the semifinal round of the CAA tournament. The Tigers played their way into the field by beating the Blue Hens 15-10 on Saturday. The top-seeded Blue Hens host Towson on Thursday evening.
Towson is just 6-8 this season, but that includes overtime setbacks to Drexel and Loyola, a one-goal loss to Stony Brook and a two-goal loss to Denver. Shawn Nadelen’s Tigers are always scrappy and this will be a battle.
Vermont is dangerous once again. Despite losing two of its top three scorers, and offensive coordinator Jake Bernhardt to Maryland, Chris Feifs has the Catamounts in position to make some mayhem in May. Vermont has won seven straight games in America East play and its two conference wins came against teams that won their league regular season titles — Boston University (Patriot League) and Utah (Atlantic Sun).
Yale’s metrics have been good — the NCAA committee had them at No. 9 coming into the weekend — but the Bulldogs are breathing easier after beating rival Harvard 14-11. Yale has its fate in its own hands, no small feat after losing its first three Ivy League games, heading into an Ivy League semifinal against top-seeded Cornell.
You have to feel for UMass-Lowell and St. John’s. Both teams were winless heading into their season finales and suffered excruciating overtime losses. UMass-Lowell led NJIT by as many as five goals and had a two-goal lead in the fourth quarter before losing 11-10. St. John’s scored the first four goals and the game and never trailed by more than one in a 12-11 loss to Providence.