The Sunday Slide: March 12, 2023

Game days are fun in the USA Lacrosse Magazine group chat.

A litany of highlights, hot takes and playful banter start Friday afternoon and don’t end until midday Sunday. It’s a good time … if you’re not getting lambasted for upset picks that actually turn out to be cakewalks for the favorite.

Beth Ann Mayer and I also have a chat on the side, one in which we talk more about the nitty gritty of the women’s game and the results/players we’ve got our eyes on. That thread was busy on Saturday. Very busy.

In a 15-minute span during the afternoon, it was a rapid fire back and forth of close game updates and shocking outcomes — Clemson over Duke, anyone? Our unspoken consensus was that this season is anything but chalk. It truly is unpredictable.

Do we say that every year? Probably. But that’s because it seems to get more and more chaotic every year. The game is changing, and the talent pool is deeper than ever, meaning fewer and fewer blowouts (hopefully).

Of the 88 games this past week, 21 were one-goal finishes. Five more were two-goal finishes. And that doesn’t account for scores with slightly larger margins that felt like they could go either way, even late.

It’s only March 12. Buckle up.

As always, thanks for reading The Sunday Slide. Hit me up with your comments (kdejohn@usalacrosse.com), and we can continue the conversation in next week’s column.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS

It’s becoming abundantly clear with each passing week that Clemson is more than just a startup program. Emily Lamparter made 11 saves and freshman Sofia Chepenik scored four times in an 11-10 upset win, Clemson’s first in the ultra-competitive ACC. What’s the ceiling for these Tigers? Clemson fell to Notre Dame, which beat Duke earlier this spring, and also lost to Virginia, which just hung with North Carolina. By beating Duke, has Clemson joined that third tier of ACC teams? We’ll know more on Thursday when the Tigers play Boston College.

North Carolina remained perfect, but I walked away impressed with Virginia. This is simply not the same Cavaliers team that completely folded against the Tar Heels in the NCAA tournament a year ago. The Hoos put up a valiant fight, eventually losing 17-12. Virginia assisted just one goal, which isn’t ideal, but it did a very good job against a sturdy defense.

Is there a more dominant force in NCAA women’s lacrosse right now than Izzy Scane? This isn’t a Tewaaraton Award conversation, one that looks very much like a toss-up between Scane and Meaghan Tyrrell. Scane, coming off a hamstring injury that forced her to miss both games last weekend, dropped a casual eight goals on Stony Brook’s vaunted zone in a 13-8 Northwestern win. She’s something else.

James Madison is doing just about everything right at the moment. Down by two with 7:13 left in the third quarter against Johns Hopkins, the Dukes ripped off the final nine goals for a 17-10 win. Isabella Peterson was a force yet again with seven goals and one assist. JMU moved the ball well, with Tai Jankowski and Katelyn Morgan each finishing with four assists.

The Florida-Loyola game was a blast. The end-of-game run wasn’t quite as long as James Madison’s, but Florida managed the game’s final five goals to top Loyola 14-11 in Gainesville. Loyola seemed to dominate the midfield for much of the game, and Jillian Wilson was nearly automatic on the draw, but Florida clutched it out with great defensive play and six different goal scorers in the fourth quarter.

FUN WITH NUMBERS

5 • Goals scored by Kristin O’Neill in Penn State’s 9-7 win over Rutgers, a team that’s recently challenged for Big Ten supremacy but has instead taken a surprising step back in 2023.

14 • Saves by Landyn White in UConn’s stellar 11-10 overtime win over Yale. Yale led 10-7 with 10:53 left before the Huskies turned it on.

22 • UMass put 28 shots on goal against Richmond, scoring 22 times in a 22-12 blowout win. The Minutewomen are consistently competitive, so a win here isn’t surprising. But the Spiders are competitive, too, so a running-time victory was not on my bingo card.

23.9% • That’s the percentage of games in the past week decided by one goal. I know we talked about it at the top, but just wanted to hammer that point home.

41 • Combined goals in Stanford’s 21-20 win over Albany. Goalies saved a combined 28 percent of shots. Yikes.

$2,818 • Money raised by the Lindenwood women’s lacrosse team through its Game Day Hair Havoc Game in support of the HEADstrong Foundation. The money helps fund comfort kits, real hair wigs and financial relief for families affected by cancer. Kudos, Lions.